TSN2 is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

specialty channel that acts as the secondary feed of sports-centred channel The Sports Network (TSN) and owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. It was launched in its current form on August 29, 2008. Following TSN's August 2014 expansion of its service into a regional sports network, TSN2 has served primarily as a secondary outlet for national programming. In 2017, TSN2 added regional

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

telecasts.

History

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had approved a separate TSN2 channel in 2000, but was never launched due to a prohibition on live programming. The authority for this channel expired in 2004 and was never re-applied for, so the present TSN2 is not directly connected to the 2000 licence. TSN2 operates under the same CRTC licence for TSN as a whole, but initially operated under the

legal fiction A legal fiction is a construct used in the law where a thing is taken to be true, which is not in fact true, in order to achieve an outcome. Legal fictions can be employed by the courts or found in legislation. Legal fictions are different from ...

that it was a timeshift channel of TSN for

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. This meant that the majority of programming must have been tape delayed from TSN's main feed, but it could still air a limited amount of alternative programming. With the early 2010 implementation of new conditions of licence from the CRTC which permit multiple feeds with no limits on additional programming, the tape delay is no longer observed, and the channel operates with an autonomous schedule.

TSN alternate feed

TSN first launched what it then called its "alternate feed" in 1997 as a result of occasional regional blackouts for TSN programming in some areas. In its original iteration, the alternate feed could only air on analogue cable in specific areas, replacing the national service, though it was offered in parallel with the main feed on national satellite providers. Alternate programming could make up a maximum of 10% of the TSN schedule—an average of 2.4 hours a day. In fall 2006, the CRTC allowed TSN to air multiple feeds nationally, with the alternate feed only available on digital platforms, as had previously been permitted for

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

's regional feeds. In essence, this meant that for digital cable and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

subscribers, TSN now had two channels on which to air programming. The broadcaster's use of the alternate feed changed significantly following this decision, as the alternate feed began to carry a much larger number of live events that could be aired nationally when the main feed was carrying another ongoing event.

Launch of TSN2

On August 6, 2008, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' announced that the TSN alternate feed would be replaced by a new network known as TSN2. The new channel promised "major league programming" throughout the day, and would have extensive coverage of

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. Unlike the existing TSN alternate feed, which was available free of charge, service providers (and potentially, in turn, consumers) would be required to pay extra in order to carry TSN2, and the alternate feed was discontinued in August 2008. Unlike the alternate feed, TSN2 would also be available in high definition. Initially, TSN2 was restricted to acting as a timeshift channel for TSN, with most non-live programming being aired on a three-hour tape delay from TSN proper, allowing TSN2 viewers in the

Pacific Time Zone The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...

to watch many programs at the same local time as TSN viewers in the

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...

(ET). However, as had been the case with the alternate feed, up to 10% of the TSN2 schedule could consist of alternative live sporting events that cannot air on TSN due to other programming commitments. On August 8, 2008, CTVglobemedia and ESPN Inc. (via their joint venture CTV Specialty Television) were granted the CRTC approval for a TSN spin-off called ''TSN Extra'', a channel focuses on college sports plus simulcasts of TSN's sports properties. The new channel was launched on August 29, 2008, at 7 p.m. ET in standard and high definition, with live coverage of the US Open tennis tournament continued from TSN, followed by an encore presentation of a Friday night CFL game aired earlier on TSN. Since February 1, 2010, TSN has been subject to revised conditions of licence (since formalized as Category C licensing) that allow TSN2 to operate autonomously from TSN's main channel as a pure multiplex.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-49
February 1, 2010 TSN launched three more multiplex channels—TSN3, TSN4, and TSN5, on August 25, 2014, serving primarily as regional feeds of TSN.

Programming

Upon its launch, TSN2 promised that it would air over 800 hours per year of live events, and that it would also feature repeat broadcasts of live events that were shown by TSN earlier in the night. Repeat broadcasts of TSN's original programming (such as '' SportsCentre'') would fill out the schedule. TSN2's alternative programming typically consists of

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

games featuring the Toronto Raptors, and

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Xfinity Series races. However, it has also included

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, and Major League Lacrosse coverage. On October 22, 2008, TSN2 announced it would air 25 Toronto Raptors basketball games during the 2008–09 NBA season. However, due to the lack of carriage agreements at the time, these games were not available to cable subscribers in the team's home market of Toronto and other regions served by Rogers Cable. On August 20, 2010, TSN2 announced it had signed a multi-year agreement with Canada Basketball to become the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of various international basketball tournaments. Under the terms of the two-year deal, TSN2 was the exclusive broadcaster of the 2010 FIBA World Championship, 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women, FIBA Americas Championship 2011, and FIBA Americas Championship for Women 2011. For its 2010 edition, TSN and TSN2 became the new Canadian broadcasters of the Spengler Cup hockey tournament. TSN2 would broadcast most of the tournament's games. On February 18, 2013, TSN2 introduced simulcasts of two shows from TSN Radio, '' Mike Richards in the Morning'', and the new ''TSN Drive with Dave Naylor''. As of the 2017–18 season, TSN2 broadcasts regional

games, which are subject to blackout outside of the team's designated media market.

Carriage

Providers that carry TSN2 include Access Communications, Bell Aliant, Bell MTS, Bell Satellite TV, Cogeco, EastLink, Execulink Telecom, NorthernTel, Novus, Rogers, SaskTel,

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct G.P. is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two ...

, Telus Optik TV, Valley Fiber, Vidéotron, and a number of independent cable systems. Rogers Cable, which serves much of the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

, notably did not carry TSN2 from its launch, leaving cable viewers without the ability to view the select Toronto Raptors NBA games that TSN2 aired in the team's own home market in the season following the launch. After months of negotiations, TSN2 was finally added to the lineup in May 2009, before that year's first division rivalry series between the

American League East The American League East is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. MLB consists of an East, Central, and West division for each of its two 15-team leagues, the American League (AL) and National League (baseball), National League (NL). T ...

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

(also owned by Rogers) and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

Regulatory status

'' reported on September 15, 2008, that the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(who have a licence for ''CBC SportsPlus'', a sports channel focusing on Canadian athletes with a particular interest on amateur sports) and Score Media (owners of

The Score The Score may refer to: Films and television * The Score (1978 film), ''The Score'' (1978 film), a 1978 Swedish film, released in Sweden as ''Lyftet'' * The Score (2001 film), ''The Score'' (2001 film), a 2001 crime drama film starring Robert De Ni ...

, whose ability to air live programming is restricted due to being licensed as a sports news service akin to

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...

) made a complaint to the CRTC accusing TSN2 of exploiting the rules which allow timeshift feeds for the west coast, subject to regulatory requirements restricting the amount of alternate programming that can be shown on alternate feeds. John Levy of Score Media claimed that TSN2 should not be allowed to sell new advertising on the network based on their interpretation of the rules. However, these complaints were dismissed by the CRTC.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-352
December 12, 2008 Soon after TSN2 was launched, the CRTC announced a proposal to remove genre exclusivity protections for "mainstream sports" and "national news" channels in the near future. As a byproduct of the decision, TSN would be allowed to use streamlined conditions of licence which states that the service may offer "multiple feeds", without any restrictions on alternate programming. TSN was officially permitted to use these streamlined conditions of licence on February 1, 2010.

References

External links

* {{Montreal Canadiens Bell Media networks TSN alternate feed Television channels and stations established in 2008 English-language television stations in Canada CTV Sports Specialty television channels in Canada