The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Grey Cup has a new home on TSN. In a joint announcement this week, TSN and RDS, together with the Canadian Football Leagu, revealed details of a new 5-year broadcast partnership (plus a one-year option), making TSN and RDS the home of the Grey Cup, divisional playoffs and all regular-season games. The landmark agreement begins in 2008 and delivers an exclusive all-encompassing suite of broadcast and digital rights in Canada, in both English and French. All told, it's the most comprehensive rights package ever secured by either TSN or RDS for a single sports property. Under the agreement, TSN and RDS acquire: Broadcast rights for the CFL's entire 77-game package annually, comprised of 72 regular-season games, 4 divisional playoff matches and the Grey Cup Digital rights for these games, including broadband, mobile, video-on-demand and interactive TV Exclusive rights to host content and sell advertising on the CFL's websites www.CFL.ca and www.LCF.ca For the first time ever, the playoffs and Grey Cup will be a TSN/RDS production with TSN/RDS crew and commentators working all the games. In the current expiring contract, TSN was obligated to sub-license a number of regular-season games, playoffs and the Grey Cup to conventional television. TSN and RDS also confirmed they will provide live and on-demand coverage of CFL games across numerous digital platforms. Complete details will be announced at a later date. The deal also provides ESPN Classic with greater access to the CFL archives, allowing for expanded coverage of classic CFL match-ups, including legendary playoff games and Grey Cups. "This is a groundbreaking deal of enormous magnitude for TSN. The CFL has recognized TSN as a fitting home for all its games, and for the first time in history, the coveted Grey Cup will be produced and televised on TSN," said Phil King, President, TSN. "It is our intention to air every single CFL game on TSN, TSN HD and TSN Broadband. The CFL is a valued partner of ours and we look forward to growing the sport and brand to an even higher level and reaching new audiences with expanded coverage on multiple platforms." Commenting on the scope of the new deal, Rick Brace, President, CTV Inc. said: "For Canada, this deal represents a mammoth sea change in how major rights-holders regard specialty television in English Canada. This is akin to the Super Bowl moving to ESPN and is a tremendous credit to the teams at TSN, RDS and our CFL partners."
