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TSN

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| network_type = cable television network| available = National| owner = Bell Globemedia/ESPN| key_people = | launch_date = September 1, 1984| founder = | past_names = Action Canada Sports Network (original application name, never used on air)| website = [www.tsn.ca] }}
TSN may also refer to The Sporting News, The Sierra Network, and taxonomic serial number.
TSN, formerly an initialism for The Sports Network, is a Canadian cable television specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports television channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the second group of Canadian specialty cable channels. Essentially designed as a Canadian version of ESPN, the extremely successful American all-sports cable channel, TSN remains the top-rated service on Canadian cable and satellite television.

Contents

History

TSN logo 1984-2001
TSN logo
1984-2001

TSN (Which originally stood for "Total Sports Network" but later was revised to simply "The Sports Network") was originally the property of Labatt Brewing Company, partly to help market the company's flagship products but also to act as a vehicle for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, also a Labatt property at that time. Labatt was forced to spin off TSN once it was acquired by Interbrew to satisfy foreign ownership rules. Ironically, as of 2005 most Blue Jays games are again on a service affiliated with the owner of the team, but that service is now TSN's chief rival, Rogers Sportsnet.

Labatt's broadcasting assets were sold to a privately-held consortium named NetStar Communications, the investors of which included a number of Canadian firms as well as ESPN, which held about 30%. After ESPN blocked two attempts by the Canadian partners to sell NetStar to CanWest Global, CTV acquired the Canadian partners' shares instead in 2000, with ESPN's approval.

Today the majority owner of TSN is Bell Globemedia, which became CTV's parent in early 2001. ESPN retains a minority share, and at one point got CTV to agree to change the name to ESPN Canada. That change never went through, although since fall 2001 TSN's logo and much of its on-air look has been patterned after the ESPN identity.

ESPN also firmly denied occasional rumors that it would consider outsourcing production of "SportsCenter" or other studio shows to TSN, the way FOX Soccer Channel's FOX Sports World Report is produced by Global TV in Winnipeg.

Programming

TSN is partially owned by ESPN. The appearance of the "BottomLine" ticker and logo are identical on both networks, although a larger ticker used during SportsCentre is unique to TSN.
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TSN is partially owned by ESPN. The appearance of the "BottomLine" ticker and logo are identical on both networks, although a larger ticker used during SportsCentre is unique to TSN.

TSN's flagship program is SportsCentre (prior to 2001, SportsDesk), a highlights and sports news show that airs several times a day. Like the American version of the program, which is known as SportsCenter, it will broadcast in high definition, beginning in September 2006. TSN also airs ESPN original programming, including Sunday NFL Countdown and Pardon the Interruption, as well as a number of events for which ESPN owns the worldwide or North American rights. Most major U.S.-based leagues sell Canadian broadcasting rights separately, hence ESPN-branded coverage is sometimes seen on Sportsnet or The Score.

The network covers most major national and international sports, such as National Hockey League, National Football League, UEFA Champions League and Canadian Football League games, and Formula One auto racing. Formula One racing broadcasts are usually produced by TSN using the ITV1 commentary team. TSN once experimented with using SPEED's Charlotte-based American broadcast, but switched after a couple of races due to viewer complaints. It also shares the Canadian broadcast rights to the PGA Tour - for which it airs virtually all early-round coverage - as well as NASCAR, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the National Basketball Association (most games featuring the Toronto Raptors). TSN is the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of the NBA Finals.

Coverage of many of these events, especially for the NFL, UEFA Champions League, Indy Racing League, and NASCAR (starting in 2007) are simulcast with ESPN. Any ESPN programming available in high definition is usually also available on TSN's HD feed.

American feeds

TSN often picks up American feeds of NHL games involving American teams if NBC is televising the game in the U.S. so they can simsub on Bell ExpressVu. TSN also features extensive Tennis coverage including Live coverage of all 4 Grand Slams as well as the Tennis Masters Series and the Men's and Women's Canadian Open. TSN almost always picks up the American feed of tennis and golf.

In almost a reverse fashion, the TSN's coverage of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft was simulcasted on the United States' OLN network.

Hockey

TSN bills itself as the 'home for Hockey' in Canada. TSN holds the rights to broadcast the NHL in Canada except for Saturday nights. They also air regional games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hockey Canada and TSN recently signed a 7 year contract extension that gives TSN the rights to broadcast the IIHF World Junior Championships, Men's and Women's World Hockey Championship, Men's Under-18 World Championships, World Cup of Hockey, Allan Cup, Royal Bank Cup, Spengler Cup, Telus Cup and ESSO Women's Nationals.

Canadian content

TSN has frequently produced its own coverage of events based in Canada, including NHL, CFL and curling games. The TSN Skins game was an invitational curling tournament sponsored and operated by the network. It has historically had a curling broadcast deal where the round-robin and page-playoff quarter-finals have aired on the network, while the semi-final and final rounds air on CBC. However, as of June 15, 2006, the Canadian Curling Association announced that TSN/CTV will obtain exclusive rights to curling broadcasts in Canada as of the 2008-09 season[link], shutting the CBC out of the championship weekend for the first time in 40-plus years. Canadian University sports events are also sometimes featured, as well as coverage of both womens international hockey and NWHL games.

Wrestling

TSN features professional wrestling in the form of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s flagship show, RAW. However, the program has occasionally been censored live for extremely violent scenes, or when female wrestlers or characters are assaulted by male wrestlers. These actions are supposed to be in order to meet Canadian broadcast standards, with repeat broadcasts often more heavily edited. This has disappointed many fans over the years, and is unusual since the violence of wrestling scenes are not significantly different from other television programs aired on regular Canadian networks. It was expected that in fall 2006, when TSN starts airing the ESPN iteration of Monday Night Football (as well as the NBC Sunday night Football games), that WWE Raw was expected to air on tape delay during the NFL season. However, WWE Raw will leave TSN and jump ship to one of TSN's rivals, The Score[link]. In 2004, both TSN and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) Wrestling, (known then as NWA-TNA), erroneously announced that iMPACT! would air on the network, however the deal was never completed and the article on the TSN Wrestling page was taken down shortly after. However, TSN's french-language sister network RDS airs the program. In past years, TSN also aired shows from the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Stampede Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), as well as producing a one-hour show called Pro Wrestling Plus, which featured highlights from various promotions and was hosted by Stampede announcer Ed Whalen; that program was the Canadian equivalent of the syndicated American program Pro Wrestling This Week.

Criticism

Outside Ontario, critics jokingly call TSN the Toronto Sports Network, and charge it with a bias towards Toronto teams. This perception has been taken advantage of by the network's main rival Rogers Sportsnet, which operates four different regional feeds, all of which to air regional coverage of local teams. The lack of coverage of many events covered by American services, and in some cases redundant coverage of events already covered by the American services that are allowed in Canada, is also a frequent bone of contention.

Other affiliations

RDS is TSN's sister station.
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RDS is TSN's sister station.

TSN's sister French language sports service is Le Réseau des sports (RDS). Other services managed by TSN include ESPN Classic Canada and NHL Network.

TSN also hosts much of Canada's supplementary Olympic coverage, being the first pay-TV station in the world to ever broadcast the Olympics with the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, and having been part of the CBC's coverage from 1996 to 2008. The station will be part of CTV's coverage from 2010 to 2012. TSN has a similar agreement with Rogers Sportsnet to share coverage of soccer's World Cup.

Sports news segments on CTV owned-and-operated stations and on CTV Newsnet are co-branded with TSN.

Personalities

Original Programs

TSN HD

rightTSN HD is a high definition simulcast of TSN. TSN HD offers more hours of HD coverage than any other sports service in Canada, including over 900 hours from more than 300 national and international events. Some of the events covered include: MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA games, CFL, Nascar, World Junior Hockey Championships and more.

References

[NetStar plot thickens], Allison Vale, Playback, February 22, 1999. URL accessed November 27, 2005 (Note: limited number of non-subscription article views).

External links

Competition

 

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