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CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
Will anyone in the U.S. watch a football game with 3 downs, a faster clock and some other different rules? The answer will come this season, after CBS Sports Network, an American cable station, signed a multi-year deal to carry 34 league games, starting with the coming season.
The full sked hasn't been released yet, but one traditional match that will be available is the annual Labour Day classic between the Argos and the TiCats. I believe this isn't the first time the modern CFL has been seen south of the border. I think ESPN has or had a pay-per-view version for those who want to watch the Canadian contests.
With all the competition from the NFL, will Americans watch? The first CBS game will be shown on June 8th, the season opener, with the Lions playing in Calgary.
There is one other intriguing sentence in the announcement made on Thursday:
"The CFL will also announce how U.S. fans can watch games not being broadcast on CBS Sports Network at a later date."
What, I wonder, does that mean?
The CFL On CBS Sports Network
- Broodcaster
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
I think NBC ran Canadian football games in the 50s.
- RadioActive
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
It was August 28, 1954.
Also not well remembered that the CFL played a role in the formation of CTV. March 1961:
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
Between ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ every CFL game has been broadcast in the US since 1980. In fact the very first football game that ESPN aired in 1980 was a CFL game between Toronto and Montreal.
So is CBS Cable Sports and ESPN splitting the broadcasts? ESPN has been the leagues partner in the US for 42 years.
Last edited by paterson1 (April 27, 2023 4:13 pm)
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
According to Awful Announcing, this may be an exclusive deal with the CFL, which would likely mean ESPN no longer has rights to any of the games.
As for the rest of the matches they're not showing, AA speculates:
"The other big part of this picture is what’s going to happen to the 52 games not carried on CBSSN. The above release says “The CFL will also announce how U.S. fans can watch games not being broadcast on CBS Sports Network at a later date.”
The release doesn’t fully spell out exclusivity for CBSSN in the linear TV realm, but that seems likely, with the “U.S. broadcast partner” language in the tweet supporting that. So it seems probable the other games here are heading to a streaming service of some sort."
The author believes CBS-owned Paramount+ is the most likely destination, although those could be blacked out in Canada due to rights issues here.
The other possible option would be ESPN+, the streaming service, keeping some of the contests, but nothing has been confirmed for now.
CFL announces 34 of their 86 2023 games are headed to CBSSN, with the rest TBA
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Thread Starter- cash
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
I guess this verifies that the CFL is still in business. I sure don't watch it.
- mace
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
I noticed a significant change in the CFL schedule this year. The playoffs leading up to the Grey Cup will be held on a Saturday [Nov 4 & 11] Perhaps the league no longer wants to compete against the NFL.
- Mr magoogain
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cash wrote:
I guess this verifies that the CFL is still in business. I sure don't watch it.
You’re missing great football
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Re: CBS Cable Sports Kicks Off New U.S. Football Deal With The CFL
IndieWire recently listed the top 126 most viewed cable [non OTA] channels in the U.S. ESPN was #2, ESPN2-#26, FS1-#35, Motor Trend-#50, NFLNet-#57, MLBNet-#67, NBATV/Golf Channel-#71, Tennis Channel-#94, FS2-111. CBSSN did not make the list. This ranking was for 2022.