First episode date 1987 | ||
Similar CFL on CBC, CFL on TSN, NHL on SportsChannel America, The Baseball Network, NHL Live | ||
The Canadian Football Network (CFN) was the official television syndication service of the Canadian Football League from 1987 to 1990.
Contents
Background
CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via the Atlantic Satellite Network and future Global Television Network affiliates, in addition to at least one station in the United States (WVNY-TV in Burlington, Vermont, which serves the larger, nearby Montreal English-language television market, which did not have a Global station at that time). As CFN was formed by the CFL itself, the league provided much of the network's funding. It was created directly in response to CTV completely dropping their CFL coverage following the 1986 season. CFN was conceptualized by then CFL Commissioner Douglas Mitchell.
Hamilton and Toronto
In its first year on the air, the CFL experimented with the TV blackout policy as four games (two in Hamilton and two in Toronto) were televised in the Hamilton-Toronto market.
CFN in the United States
In addition to being shown on the above-mentioned Burlington, Vermont station, from 1987-1989, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the Grey Cup championship, aired in the United States on a tape-delay basis on ESPN.
Grey Cup coverage
CFN's Grey Cup coverage was completely separate from CBC's coverage (whereas from 1971-1986, CBC and CTV fully pooled their commentary teams for the game; CBC's commentators called the first half of the game while CTV's crew called the rest of the game or vice versa).
During its broadcast of the 1988 Grey Cup game, CFN reported that its telecasts that season were seen in 14 countries, including the U.S., Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, West Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The 1988 Grey Cup was the last game for veteran Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman Nick Bastaja. The next season, he joined the CFN crew as a colour commentator. Former Edmonton Eskimos fullback Neil Lumsden was CFN's primary colour man, while Dave Hodge and Bob Irving, a long-time voice of the Blue Bombers, provided play-by-play.
The end of CFN
CFN was critically acclaimed, credited for raising the production quality of CFL telecasts (which was sorely lacking in the mid- to late-1980s) to near-NFL levels. However, it did not do well financially, and the league discontinued the network after the 1990 season. CFN was also supposed to work like a normal television network in that it was meant to get its money solely from sponsors.
Commentators
The theme music package for CFN was provided by Donald Quan.