The Canadian Football Network (CFN) was the official

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

service of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

from 1987 to 1990.

History

Background

CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via the Atlantic Satellite Network and future

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after CT ...

affiliates, in addition to at least one station in the United States (

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate WVNY-TV in Burlington, Vermont, which serves the larger, nearby

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

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 CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

completely dropping their CFL coverage following the 1986 season. CFN was conceptualized by then CFL Commissioner

Douglas Mitchell Douglas Harding Mitchell, (February 19, 1939 – July 20, 2022) was a Canadian Football player, executive, and commissioner. A graduate of Colorado College and the University of British Columbia (UBC), Mitchell played three games for the ...

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 Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

) were televised in the Hamilton-

market.

CFN in the United States

In addition to being shown on the above-mentioned Burlington, Vermont station, from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship, aired in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

nationally on a tape-delay basis on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Grey Cup coverage

CFN's Grey Cup coverage was completely separate from CBC's coverage (whereas from

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

, 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. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, Sweden and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. The 1988 Grey Cup was the last game for veteran

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play their h ...

offensive lineman

Nick Bastaja Nick Bastaja (born February 4, 1953 in Grantham, England) is a former professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played fourteen seasons in the Canadian Football League. He was part of the Grey Cup championship-winning Winnipeg Blue Bo ...

. The next season, he joined the CFN crew as a colour commentator. Former

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

fullback

Neil Lumsden Neil James Lumsden (born December 19, 1952) is a Canadian politician and retired professional football player. Lumsden was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2022 provincial election, and was subsequently appointed as the Min ...

was CFN's primary colour man, while

Dave Hodge Dave Hodge (born January 8, 1945) is a Canadian sports announcer. Hodge worked for TSN, the CBC and CFRB 1010 radio in Toronto. Early Years Born in Montreal, Hodge began his career as a sportswriter with the ''Chatham Daily News'' in 1965, th ...

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 The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

calibre levels. However, it did not do well financially (most of the rights fees the CFL made from CBC and TSN were diverted to cover the CFN's expenses), 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. After the CFN shut down, all playoff and Grey Cup games would be exclusively broadcast on CBC Television from 1991 to 2007 and TSN from 2008 to the present and into the foreseeable future.

Commentators

Play-by-play/pregame hosts *

* Bob Irving Colour commentators/Pregame analysts *

Ian Beckstead Ian Beckstead (born September 7, 1957 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a former Canadian Football League offensive lineman who played eleven seasons in the CFL. He was part of the Grey Cup championship-winning Toronto Argonauts in 1983 and 1991. He won th ...

Jan Carinci Jan Carinci (born February 2, 1959 in London, England) is a former slotback who played ten seasons in the Canadian Football League, mainly for the Toronto Argonauts. He was a part of the Argonauts 1983 Grey Cup victory. He resides with his family ...

* Joe Faragalli * Dan Kepley * Lary Kuharich *

Tom Larscheid Tom Larscheid (born April 6, 1940) is a former Vancouver-based radio sports broadcaster and football player. After a career playing college and CFL football, he was the colour commentator for the CFL's BC Lions and the NHL's Vancouver Canucks for ...

* Mike Riley * Mike Clemons The theme music package for CFN was provided by

Donald Quan Donald Quan (born 1962) is a Canadian composer of film and world music, best known for writing the film score, scores to television shows ''Relic Hunter'' and ''Mutant X (TV series), Mutant X''. Career Born in Toronto, Ontario, and schooled at th ...

References

External links

CFL.ca Network

The Sports Arena

rec.sport.football.canadian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Football Network Canadian Football League on television 1980s Canadian sports television series 1990s Canadian sports television series 1987 Canadian television series debuts 1990 Canadian television series endings Television syndication packages Defunct broadcasting companies of Canada Simulcasts ESPN original programming Television channels and stations established in 1987 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1990