176-401: Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media . It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet , a joint venture between CTV , Liberty Media , and Rogers Media . CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was required to divest its stake in the network following its 2001 acquisition of competing network TSN . Rogers then became
352-525: A Big 12 or SEC team against a lesser-known opponent. The pay-per-view coverage of SEC games ended upon the launch of the SEC Network in 2014, and most Big 12 schools phased out pay-per-view telecasts around this time as well. Oklahoma was the last school to feature select games on pay-per-view, doing so through 2021. In February 2008, FSN launched a public service initiative called "Americans in Focus", with
528-622: A boxing match in which former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield defeated Fres Oquendo in a unanimous decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio , Texas. The fight was also streamed free of charge on the FoxSports.com website outside the United States. FSN also provided pay-per-view coverage of select college football games. These were usually early-season games, and would feature either
704-677: A 12-year deal renewed in the 2014–15 season. Its coverage included a package of national broadcasts from the CHL's member leagues, coverage of the CHL Canada/Russia Series and the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game , along with coverage of the season-ending Memorial Cup tournament. In the 2021–22 season, Sportsnet lost the rights to CBC Sports and TSN , with the latter covering the Memorial Cup . From its launch through 2002, Sportsnet
880-1085: A 50% interest in Fox Sports New England (with Comcast retaining its existing 50% stake); Fox and Cablevision, however, retained joint ownership of Fox Sports Bay Area. Fox Sports Chicago ceased operations in June 2006, after losing the regional cable television rights to local professional teams (including the Chicago Bulls , Blackhawks , Cubs and White Sox ) two years earlier to the newly launched Comcast SportsNet Chicago . On December 22, 2006, News Corporation sold its interest in four Fox Sports regional networks— FSN Utah , FSN Pittsburgh , FSN Northwest and FSN Rocky Mountain —as well as its 38.5% ownership stake in satellite provider DirecTV to Liberty Media for $ 550 million in cash and stock, in exchange for Liberty's 16.3% stake in News Corporation. On May 4, 2009, DirecTV Group Inc. announced it would become
1056-518: A change towards industrialization, and during that time both the materials and products manufactured as well as the investors and consumers were American. The Canadian dependency on American capital and markets persisted through the Great Depression and its aftermath. This situation remained during the emergence of television and affected its development in Canada. Even with the emergence of radio, Canada
1232-529: A clause imposed on the original sale, Yankee Global Enterprises had a right of first refusal to purchase Fox's share in YES Network . Allen & Company and JPMorgan Chase , who were handling the FSN sale for Disney, asked that all bids include YES in their offers. Fox did not bid for the channels in the first round. On November 20, 2018, Amazon, Sinclair and CVC jointly, Apollo, KKR and Tegna officially bid for
1408-558: A complaint with the Department of Justice and FCC, accusing Charter Communications of attempting to "undermine" its bid by threatening to not carry the channels if it won the auction. Liberty Media owner John Malone has an ownership stake in Charter; the company denied Big3's allegations. The final round of bids were due on April 15, 2019, with bids having been in excess of $ 10 billion or higher. Liberty and MLB were reported to have partnered on
1584-460: A deal which began in the 2014–15 season. Valued at $ 5.2 billion and covering both television and digital media rights to the league, the value of the contract surpassed the league's most recent U.S. rights deal with NBC . Alongside its existing regional rights, Sportsnet now airs Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey , along with games during Hockey Night in Canada . In early 2005, Rogers Media and CTVglobemedia jointly acquired broadcast rights to
1760-586: A distinct popular culture. With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of Canada as well as the country becoming increasingly divided by language, the government showed huge concern with how television affected Canadians. Graham Spry, founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Radio League, stated about the radio system: "The question is the State or the United States." According to the Canadian government,
1936-426: A few Pac-12 matches from other conference-sanctioned sports (such as baseball and volleyball). Besides play-by-play game rights, FSN provided a common set of programming that was available to all its regional sports networks, most notably The Dan Patrick Show , The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Final Score ( TBDSSP and Final Score eventually ceased production, while The Dan Patrick Show later moved to
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#17328377433882112-462: A joint bid, Big3's bid contained $ 6.5 billion in debt and only $ 3 billion in outside funding, while Sinclair had re-entered contention in a joint bid with Apollo. On April 26 and May 2, respectively, Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal reported that Sinclair was nearing an agreement to purchase the networks for $ 10 billion. On May 3, Sinclair officially announced that via its subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, it had agreed to purchase
2288-660: A joint venture with TCI 's Liberty Media , acquiring a 50% ownership interest in the company's Prime Sports affiliates Liberty in turn gained a stake in Fox's year-old cable channel FX . On July 3, 1996, News Corporation and Liberty Media/TCI announced that the Prime Sports networks would be rebranded under the new "Fox Sports Net" brand; the Prime Sports-branded affiliates were officially relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1 of that year. The first new network to come out of
2464-539: A large proportion of the Canadian content on most stations, with each of the commercial networks rarely having more than one or two Canadian-produced drama or comedy series on their schedules at any given time. Among the English language broadcasters, only the public CBC Television airs a schedule that consists almost entirely of Canadian-produced programming, although even it will sometimes air selected programming from Britain, Australia or PBS ( American Public Television ) in
2640-477: A later revision. The government-created corporation held the responsibility of establishing a national service and to monitor the entire broadcast system. Because of Canada's large land area, it would be difficult for one corporation to control the broadcasting system throughout the country, all while establishing a network to compete in that system as well as in the American system. Before 1958, Canadian law prohibited
2816-543: A majority of Canadian content, both throughout its schedule and in its primetime schedule. Industry Canada regulates the technical aspects of broadcast stations and certain aspects of other licensed undertakings. Unlike specialty services, conventional (or over-the-air ) broadcast stations are permitted to air a wide variety of news, information, entertainment, sports and other programming without any restriction as to theme or content, and none restrict themselves in that regard. Religious television stations are an exception to
2992-452: A mixture of stations, albeit one dominated by CTV. Also, it is not uncommon to find multiple affiliates of one network, and no affiliates of another network, available in the same market on basic cable , particularly in smaller markets. For instance, in Kingston, Ontario , two CBC affiliates are available, a local privately owned station and a CBC-owned station from Ottawa , while CTV Two
3168-519: A national audience throughout the regular season, and covered first-round playoff series not involving Canadian teams. Its first live sports event was an NHL opening night telecast between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers . The national cable rights to the NHL returned to TSN in 2002, though Sportsnet retained regional broadcast rights for most Canadian NHL teams. When CTV purchased NetStar,
3344-588: A national identity. The Broadcasting Act of 1932 created a national network for each electronic medium in Canada's two official languages, French and English. When it was created, the Act referred mostly to radio broadcasting but it also included television once TV came to the country in 1952. The Act resulted in the creation of the CRBC, which would be replaced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in
3520-819: A part of Liberty's entertainment unit, with plans to spin off certain properties into a separate company under the DirecTV name, which would operate the four acquired FSN-affiliated networks through DirecTV Sports Networks , a new division formed on November 19, 2009, upon the spin-off's completion. On April 30, 2007, Cablevision sold its 50% interests in the New England and Bay Area networks to Comcast for $ 570 million; both networks became part of Comcast SportsNet , with FSN New England relaunching as Comcast SportsNet New England in July 2007 and FSN Bay Area relaunching as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area March 2008. Despite Cablevision's sale of
3696-574: A result of a number of Fox Sports Net affiliates being rebranded or realigned with other RSN chains (including FSN New England and FSN Bay Area , which both became part of Comcast SportsNet; FSN New York's relaunch as MSG Plus , the sister to MSG Network ; and the eventual relaunch of several FSN affiliates acquired by DirecTV Sports Networks under the Root Sports brand); however, these networks later reverted to utilizing Fox branding on their FSN-syndicated broadcasts. In addition to regional programming,
SECTION 20
#17328377433883872-602: A review by the Diefenbaker government in the late 1950s, a number of new, "second" stations were licensed in many major markets, many of which began operating before the end of 1960. CTV , the first private network, which grew out of the inevitable association of these new stations, began operating in October 1961. About the same time, CHCH-TV in Hamilton disaffiliated from the CBC and became
4048-520: A rut of American popular culture during a time when Canadian national identity was very vague. Canada was not only made up of Francophones and Anglophones, there were also immigrants from around the world, at that time mostly from Europe . That fear of American influence convinced the Canadian government that its involvement was necessary in order for Canadian broadcasting to express and encourage Canadian identity and national unity. Though French-speaking Canadians feared expansion of American influence and
4224-538: A scenario would be virtually unheard of in a major American market. Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to twinstick operations in several markets. In some cases, this allows multiple stations to serve a small market that could otherwise support only one station. In larger markets, however, Canwest and CHUM had justified several instances of twinsticks, generally two stations based in separate but neighbouring regions. This
4400-501: A settlement between the two companies, Comcast traded its equity interest in Midwest Sports Channel (which became Fox Sports Net North ) to News Corporation in exchange for exclusive ownership of Home Team Sports (which subsequently joined competing regional sports network Comcast SportsNet as Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, now NBC Sports Washington ). In September 2004, Fox Sports Net became known simply as "FSN"; however,
4576-455: A simulcast of Sportsnet Ontario, carrying nationally televised events, or separate content from other regional feeds. That feed was launched on September 1, 2003. In 2007, Sportsnet began using a second high-definition feed in order to broadcast selected regional NHL games in HD, beginning in the 2007–08 NHL season , activated only in the regions where a game is set to be televised. On January 26, 2009,
4752-475: A single locally owned company operated both CTV and CBC affiliates in a community, is also now rare – within English Canada, only the cities of Thunder Bay and Lloydminster still receive television service from a twinstick operation, and of those two, only Thunder Bay's Thunder Bay Television is still locally owned. In 2012, Bell Media attempted to acquire Astral Media in a takeover . This initial attempt
4928-513: A single, if influential, newspaper, The Globe and Mail . Canwest continues to pursue its strategy; in late 2005, BCE announced it would sell most of its interests in Globemedia to a consortium of investors including the Thomson family and Torstar , although it still retains a minority stake in the company. In many respects, particularly since the consolidation phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s
5104-508: A subsidiary of AT&T when AT&T acquired TCI earlier that year) sold its interest in Fox Sports Net and FX to News Corp. The sale was part of a complex transaction involving a stock swap that gave Liberty an 8% interest in News Corp, making it the second largest shareholder. News Corp became the sole owner of Fox Sports Net. On July 11, 2000, Comcast purchased a majority interest in
5280-441: A transaction valued at $ 167 million. The acquisition itself closed on October 19, 2012, at which point Score Media's digital assets (including its website and mobile apps ) were spun off into another company, theScore Inc. , in which Rogers Media would retain a 10% interest. Score Media's TV properties were immediately placed into a blind trust , under trustee Peter Viner, pending final CRTC approval. Rogers plans to continue running
5456-466: A two-hour program known as Fox Sports News , the running time of National Sports Report was steadily cut back (eventually dwindling to 30 minutes) as its ratings declined and the cost of producing the program increased. FSN hired popular former SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann and used him to promote the show heavily; ratings continued to slide (especially as Best Damn Sports Show Period 's popularity increased), however, leading Fox Sports to cancel
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5632-617: A variety of languages, while Telelatino airs programming in Italian and Spanish on basic cable. Numerous third-language channels have been licensed as Category 2 services on digital cable . The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) airs programming targeted to the Indigenous peoples of Canada ; 28 per cent of the network's content is broadcast in aboriginal languages. The Canadian broadcasting industry, including all programming services (over-the-air or otherwise) and all distributors,
5808-406: A very large percentage of the airtime in peak viewing hours (in most areas, 7:00 to 11:00 p.m.) can be devoted to programs of foreign origin, in large part due to the significant amount of programming available from the U.S., not to mention the availability of the major U.S. broadcast networks themselves via cable or satellite, or even as terrestrial signals in border markets. A Canadian network
5984-513: A whole, and on-air promotions for programs being carried nationally by these four regional feeds often list all four channels separately, or refer to the Sportsnet "regional" (or "main") channels, to avoid any ambiguity. However, standalone mentions of "Sportsnet" in reference to a specific channel can still generally be assumed to be referring to the four regional channels (or the specific regional channel available locally on analogue cable). Sportsnet
6160-597: Is allowed to override the cable or satellite feed of an American broadcast signal when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the advertising revenue associated with broadcasting to the Canadian audience. Arguably this right has led to an even greater glut of American programming on Canadian stations, including programs of little relevance to Canadian audiences, or poorly received series that may never be seen outside North America. In addition, higher rated American shows cannot be seen if
6336-473: Is far more popular than imports. As of 2003 the top ten shows on television in Quebec were written and created by Quebecers. The Standing Committee report found that Canadian French networks made a profit of $ 40,000 per hour of French-language drama, compared to $ 10,000 per hour of American drama. The Quebec television industry produced two and one half times more TV series per capita than American networks. While
6512-478: Is not available in that market. In many markets, including some major cities, there is only a handful of local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away. For instance, in Ottawa, only three English networks/systems – CBC, CTV and CTV Two – have stations based in the market; the "local" Global and Citytv stations are in fact rebroadcasters of Toronto-area stations. Such
6688-771: Is regulated in regards to ownership and content by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which in most cases issues licences for each such operation. The CRTC issues licences pursuant to Canadian laws and the Commission's own regulations and conditions of licence, which regulate such matters as Canadian content, domestic ownership and accessibility issues such as closed captioning . Among other regulations, all Canadian broadcasters and distributors must be at least 80% owned and controlled by Canadian citizens; also, all conventional stations, and most established specialty services, are required to air
6864-601: Is the exclusive television outlet for the Toronto Blue Jays (which are also owned by Rogers), airing all of its games and other Blue Jays-related programming throughout the season. It also holds Canadian rights to Fox Saturday Baseball , the All-Star Game and the postseason (through Fox, TBS and MLB International ). Sportsnet also carries other MLB games simulcast from U.S. regional sports networks. Sportsnet began airing National Football League games Starting with
7040-506: Is the national cable rightsholder of the National Hockey League , and also holds full regional rights to three (and partial regional rights to one) of the league's Canadian franchises. It is also the national rightsholder of Major League Baseball in Canada (although most of ESPN 's MLB broadcasts are sub-licensed to rival network TSN ), and the exclusive broadcaster of the co-owned Toronto Blue Jays . It splits regional coverage of
7216-517: Is the only Citytv O&O, as well as one of only three stations affiliated with the network, to carry nightly locally produced evening newscasts). To maximize simultaneous substitution opportunities, in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones , prime time programming airs from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m., while in the Central Time Zone it generally airs from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., in both cases mirroring
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7392-537: The Sun-Sentinel reported that Fox Sports Florida was to be rebranded "within the next few months". Due to carriage disputes , Dish Network and Sling TV dropped Fox Sports Networks in July 2019. FuboTV dropped the channels in January 2020, and YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV followed in October 2020. On November 4, 2020, Sinclair took a $ 4.23 billion write-down on the FSN purchase. On November 17, 2020, it
7568-613: The 2014 FIFA World Cup . On February 8, 2011, Sportsnet announced that it had signed a multi-year deal with Tennis Canada to acquire early round rights to the Rogers Cup . Sportsnet also acquired rights to the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and ATP World Tour 500 series events. As per an extension of Rogers' sponsorship rights to the tournament, Sportsnet holds sole rights to the Rogers Cup beginning in 2016. In 2016, Sportsnet lost
7744-444: The 2014 Winter Olympics . CBC will continue this sub-licensing agreement through the 2020 Summer Olympics . Sportsnet televised coverage of the 2015 Pan-American Games , also as part of a sub-license with CBC; it aired coverage of the soccer tournaments, as well as a Men's basketball semi-final game involving Canada. This list includes the all time Sportsnet 360 staff dated to its days as The Score. In 2014, Sportsnet announced
7920-615: The Amway Canadian Championship , an annual competition featuring Canada's five professional soccer teams – Toronto FC , CF Montréal , Vancouver Whitecaps FC , FC Edmonton , and Ottawa Fury FC , until TSN acquired full rights in 2017. In 2006, Sportsnet aired coverage of the FIFA World Cup as part of a consortium with TSN and CTV. From 2011 through 2014, beginning with the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup , CBC sub-licensed cable rights to FIFA tournaments to Sportsnet, including
8096-598: The Chicago Cubs . Over 40 parties were reported to have expressed interest, including Silver Lake Partners and William Morris Endeavor in a joint deal, Charter Communications , Discovery (who operates the Eurosport networks in Europe), Amazon , Apollo Global Management , The Blackstone Group , CVC Capital Partners , Ice Cube and LL Cool J , KKR , Nexstar Media Group , Providence Equity Partners and YouTube . Due to
8272-621: The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg , Indianapolis 500 and Honda Indy Toronto , with Bill Adam , Todd Lewis and Rob Faulds . Canadian driver Paul Tracy joined Sportsnet as an analyst. As of the 2019 season, all but the Honda Indy Toronto and Indianapolis 500 moved exclusively to Sportsnet World and Sportsnet Now+. In May 2013, Sportsnet reached a six-year deal for rights to the national championships of U Sports (then known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport), including coverage of
8448-489: The Minneapolis -based Midwest Sports Channel and Baltimore -based Home Team Sports from Viacom . News Corporation, a minority owner in both networks, wanted to acquire them outright and integrate the two networks into Fox Sports Net. Home Team Sports had been affiliated with FSN since 1996. The company filed a lawsuit against Comcast ten days later on July 21, in an attempt to block the sale. On September 7, 2000, as part of
8624-488: The NBC Sports Network ). Until August 2012, in some of regions served by that RSN, member channels of the competing Comcast SportsNet (as mentioned above) carried FSN programming through broadcast agreements with Fox Sports. Fox Sports Networks' national sports telecasts were formerly marketed under the "FSN" brand; these national programs began to use more generic branding with fewer references to FSN or Fox in 2008, as
8800-714: The National Sports Report , which aired its last edition in February 2002. In some markets, FSN aired the Regional Sports Report (whose headline title was usually customized with the name of the region in which the particular program was broadcast, such as the Midwest Sports Report or Detroit Sports Report ), a companion news program focusing primarily on regional sports as well as highlights and news on other sports teams that debuted in 2000 to complement
8976-571: The National Sports Report ; many of the regional reports were cancelled in 2002 due to increasing costs of producing the individual programs. Most of the national studio programming seen on FSN originated from the Fox Television Center in Hollywood, California ; in 1998, operations moved to the new Fox Network Center, located on the 20th Century Fox backlot in Century City . Some programming
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#17328377433889152-683: The New York Knicks and New York Rangers professional sports franchises, a deal worth $ 850 million; the deal formed the venture National Sports Partners to run Fox Sports Net's national programming operations. In early 1998, SportsChannel America was integrated into the Fox Sports Net family of networks; SportsChannel Florida, however, remained as the lone SportsChannel America-branded network before it joined FSN as well in 2000 after News Corporation and Cablevision purchased Florida Panthers owner Wayne Huizenga 's controlling interest in that network. In 1999, Liberty Media (which had become
9328-619: The New York metropolitan area co-owned by Yankee Global Enterprises . It was also in that year that FSN/Fox Sports Local relocated its headquarters from the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles to Houston, and then re-branded to its current branding. The FSN owned-and-operated networks were spun off along with most of News Corporation's U.S. entertainment properties into 21st Century Fox on July 1, 2013. On January 25, 2014, 21st Century Fox then became
9504-661: The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics , as well as the London 2012 Summer Olympics . This was considered a serious coup, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had consistently won Olympic broadcast rights from the 1996 Summer Olympics through to the 2008 Summer Olympics . CTV and V were the primary broadcasters; Sportsnet, TSN and RDS provided supplementary coverage. Rogers announced in 2011 that it would not bid with CTVglobemedia's predecessor Bell Media for
9680-498: The Vanier Cup . Sportsnet is a major broadcaster of National Hockey League games; the network is the current national cable rightsholder to the league, and regularly airs nationally televised games on Wednesday, Saturday nights as part of Hockey Night in Canada , and Monday nights as part of Rogers Hometown Hockey . Sportsnet is also a major regional broadcaster of the NHL; its four regional feeds carry regional telecasts of five of
9856-508: The Windsor region near Detroit . Television viewership outside Ontario was limited to British Columbia's Lower Mainland with access to American programming from Seattle and some sets in Montreal . Television sales were promoted not only by the arrival of CBC Television , but by revised credit practices at that time, which allowed purchases without requiring an initial cash deposit. Following
10032-501: The spin-off of certain businesses into a new entity ( Fox Corporation ). While the acquisition was originally slated to include Fox Sports' regional operations (which, presumably, would have been re-aligned with Disney's ESPN division), the Justice Department ordered that they be divested within 90 days of the completion of the acquisition due to the concentration of the market that ESPN would hold. Sinclair Broadcast Group
10208-711: The 10:00 p.m. hour, Atlantic and Mountain Time Zone stations will typically delay their 11:00 p.m. news programming to 12:00 a.m. and air the entire program in unison with the time zone directly west (thus, a program scheduled to air from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. in Eastern and Pacific Time Zones is typically aired from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. in the Atlantic and Mountain Time Zones (10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time), with syndicated programming airing in
10384-507: The 1970s and 1980s, nearly every major Canadian market saw the launch of independent third stations, most of which were either launched by or eventually acquired by Izzy Asper 's Canwest , and which served as a de facto third network although they were not yet branded or formally structured as such; these stations, by and large, were eventually unified as the Global Television Network. The 1980s and 1990s saw exponential growth in
10560-570: The 2005 season, splitting late games across the Pacific and West feeds, and the East and Ontario feeds. The games not shown in the opposite regions were carried out regionally by City . It also had rights to Thursday Night Football and the American Thanksgiving games . Sportsnet lost all NFL broadcasting rights for the 2017 season. Sportsnet carried a large amount of soccer programming; it has been
10736-417: The 8:00 p.m. hour). CBC Television airs all programming corresponding to the local time zone, except for a 30-minute delay in the Newfoundland Time Zone. Overnight programming varies from broadcaster to broadcaster, and may consist of purchased programming or infomercials , or repeat airings of daytime programming. As of 2003 three quarters of English-Canadian television shows on prime time were from
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#173283774338810912-481: The ATP tours to TSN, but it still maintains exclusive rights to the Rogers Cup, as well as the Davis Cup and Fed Cup . In February 2013, Sportsnet announced that it would become the official Canadian broadcaster of the IndyCar Series beginning in the 2013 season in a five-year deal with the series. The new contract includes broadcasts on Sportsnet's networks and City, and French rights sub-licensed to TVA Sports . That season, Sportsnet also originated coverage from
11088-499: The CRTC rejected the use of a proposed winter sports competition, the Sportsnet Winter Games , for its tangible benefits requirements. On June 4, 2013, Rogers announced that The Score would be rebranded as a Sportsnet channel; the channel changed its name to Sportsnet 360 on July 1, 2013. As of 2014, Sportsnet is available in 8.2 million Canadian homes. On October 2, 2018, Scott Moore, Rogers' head of Sportsnet and NHL properties, stepped down. Similarly to regional sports networks in
11264-407: The CTV affiliate-owner in British Columbia to include many of the stations of Allarcom and Maclean Hunter , in order to satisfy its long-held desire to enter Alberta , but also giving it a second network. CHUM secured two regional services in Ontario before expanding to British Columbia and merging with Craig, its equivalent in the Canadian Prairies . The early 2000s, aside from the completion of
11440-419: The Canada–US border were available for several years prior, and gained a sizeable audience in cities like Toronto, within range of U.S. signals, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was the first entity to broadcast television programming within Canada, launching in September 1952 in both Montreal and Toronto. Private CBC affiliates began operating late in 1953 to supplement the Corporation's own stations;
11616-421: The Canadian Radio-Television Commission (now the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ). The government still referred to the Canadian broadcasting system as the "single system". Among other concerns, this implied that both private and public networks were working toward the same goals, notably the national objective of unity and Canadian content and ownership. Government intervention helped
11792-426: The Canadian broadcaster of the Premier League since 1998 until 2018/19 season (from 2013/14 to 2018/19 season, Sportsnet jointly held Canadian rights to the Premier League with TSN), and also held rights to the FA Cup , UEFA Champions League and Europa League . Sportsnet lost UEFA coverage to TSN for 2015, but gained rights to Bundesliga matches beginning in the 2015–16 season until 2022–23 season. Sportsnet aired
11968-774: The Canadian broadcasting industry economically but failed to create a distinct culture that was in sharp contrast to American popular culture. However, it did allow Quebec to run its own broadcasting service and economically, it helped out the Canadian broadcasters, particularly the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). Due to their protests, Bill C-58 was passed. Among many changes, Bill C-58 removed tax deductibility benefits for Canadian Corporations advertising on American stations. The 1968 Act had also given priority carriage for Canadian broadcast services. Policies such as these produced important economic benefits for Canadian broadcasters. Economic prosperity for Canadian broadcasters took priority over Canadian identity in that prosperity
12144-707: The Canadian network overriding the signal interrupts the program for a news bulletin, unless the cable company switches the signal back to the American station's feed. Many Canadian broadcasters broadcast on a 24-hour schedule. Daily programming begins at about 6:00 a.m., usually with a local or national morning show . Daytime programming, including talk shows and soap operas , follows, although some Canadian stations may air "brokered-time" religious or charitable programming as well, which unlike traditional infomercials can count towards Canadian content requirements. Most Canadian television stations are required to carry some news programming as per their licence. As opposed to
12320-409: The Eastern and Pacific Time Zones is typically seen from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. in the Atlantic and Mountain Time Zones (9:30 to 11:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time)), and 10:00 p.m. programming aired earlier in the evening at 8:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time). Also, in the rare event a program scheduled to start before 10:00 p.m. in the Eastern and/or Pacific Time Zones runs into
12496-457: The FCS networks also carry each affiliate's regional sports news programs and non-news-and-event programming (such as coaches shows, team magazines and documentaries). The three networks were, more or less, condensed versions of the 22 FSN-affiliated networks (including Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic), though the channels also showed international events that did not fit within the programming inventories of FSN or Fox Soccer Plus (and prior to 2013,
12672-811: The Fox Sports Networks branding after 25 years. Each of the channels in the group carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate and high school sports teams (with broadcasts typically exclusive to each individual channel, although some were shown on multiple FSN channels or syndicated to a local broadcast station within a particular team's designated market area ), along with regional and national sports discussion, documentary and analysis programs. Depending on their individual team rights, some Fox Sports Networks maintained overflow feeds available via subscription television providers in their home markets, which provided alternate programming when not used to carry game broadcasts that
12848-513: The Fox Sports Networks carried some prime time programming distributed to all of the regional networks (including past and present series such as The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Chris Myers Interviews ). FSN tried to compete with ESPN in regards to original programming, most notably with the National Sports Report , a daily sports news program designed to compete with ESPN's SportsCenter , which debuted on FSN in 1996. Originally
13024-682: The Fox Sports regional networks to broadcast television stations in some of the markets where the aforementioned Comcast SportsNet had dropped coverage. These stations included WLVI (Boston), KICU-TV (San Francisco), WMCN-TV (Philadelphia) and WDCA (Washington, D.C.). Fox Sports Networks also operated Fox College Sports (FCS) , a slate of three digital cable channels (Fox College Sports Atlantic, Fox College Sports Central and Fox College Sports Pacific) featuring programming divided by region (primarily collegiate and high school sports, as well as minor league sports events) from each individual FSN network;
13200-750: The NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs and national coverage of the NBA 's Toronto Raptors with TSN; Rogers Communications and TSN's parent company Bell Canada own a joint majority stake in the teams' parent company . The Sportsnet brand has since been extended beyond the original regional channels, now encompassing the national channels Sportsnet 360 , Sportsnet One (and its regional part-time companion channels), and Sportsnet World ; Sportsnet Radio stations in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary; and Sportsnet Magazine . With these brand extensions, Rogers now generally uses "Sportsnet" (by itself) to denote its sports media properties as
13376-475: The Ontario/Manitoba border have adopted this scheduling format for their local news programming. In contrast, some stations carry a locally produced morning news programs even if they do not carry evening newscasts at all (such as City's owned-and-operated stations, all of which produce a weekday morning news/talk program using the title Breakfast Television ; the television system's Toronto flagship CITY-DT
13552-517: The Sportsnet Radio branding was intended to increase synergy with its television counterparts, upon rumors that TSN would be launching a sports radio network of its own . In July 2011, Rogers announced that it would be rebranding its premium international sports channel Setanta Sports Canada as " Sportsnet World " on October 3, 2011 – a move that would allow the channel better opportunities for cross-promotion with other Sportsnet services. As part of
13728-593: The Sportsnet brand beyond the original regional networks with the August 14 launch of Rogers Sportsnet One – a national companion channel promising 800 hours of live events per year. The channel was also accompanied by additional part-time feeds to serve as overflow channels for its regional NHL coverage. In January 2011, Rogers' sports radio stations, CJCL Toronto ("The Fan 590") and CFAC Calgary ("The Fan 960"), were rebranded as "Sportsnet Radio Fan 590" and "Sportsnet Radio Fan 960" respectively. Critics speculated that
13904-415: The U.S. model, most stations, even in major markets like Toronto , carry a single newscast during the late-afternoon/early-evening period, specifically from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. However, as in the U.S., "strip" programming fills the following hour, at least in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, and is followed by prime time programming. One or more newscasts follow, usually beginning at 11:00 p.m.;
14080-874: The U.S. networks. However, viewers in the Mountain Time Zone – i.e. Alberta – have historically received U.S. network feeds from the Pacific Time Zone, not from the Mountain Time Zone. Similarly, those in Atlantic Canada receive U.S. feeds from the Eastern Time Zone. Local stations in those regions also use 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. (8:30 to 11:30 p.m. in Newfoundland and Southeast Labrador ) as prime time, but with most programming advanced by an hour (thus programming seen from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. in
14256-549: The United States, Sportsnet is operated in four regional feeds. While the feeds carry national programming as well, they primarily broadcast sporting events tailored to the region they serve. The four regional feeds are listed in the table below. All four feeds are available in both standard and high-definition formats. Although cable providers in Canada are permitted to carry only the local Sportsnet feed on analogue cable packages, all four feeds can be carried on digital television services. However, in some instances, programming on
14432-460: The United States. American television programs are much more profitable for English Canadian networks than domestic ones. A Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage report found that networks lost $ 125,000 per hour of English-language Canadian drama, but made a profit of $ 275,000 per hour of American drama. Scripted television programming in Canada tends toward the shorter runs more typical of British television rather than
14608-414: The United States. While under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulations at least 60% of program has to be Canadian-produced, and 50% during prime time, English-language private broadcasters such as CTV and Global have always had difficulty airing more than a bare minimum of Canadian-produced programming in primetime; in actual practice, network and local news accounts for
14784-409: The United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation , the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019, following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox . A condition of that acquisition imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice required Disney to sell the regional networks by June 18, 2019, ninety days after the completion of its acquisition. Disney subsequently agreed to sell
14960-755: The West Coast as "Prime Sports"; and SportSouth, an RSN operated by the Turner Broadcasting System . On October 31, 1995, News Corporation , which ten years earlier launched the Fox Broadcasting Company , a general entertainment broadcast network that formed its own sports division in 1994 with the acquisition of the television rights to the National Football Conference of the National Football League , entered into
15136-461: The YES Networks' majority owner by purchasing an additional 31% share of it, increasing the company's ownership interest from 49% to 80%. In September 2013, the network gained the affiliation for FSN's national programming (sharing it with MSG Plus , the former FSN New York) On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox for $ 52.4 billion after
15312-565: The acquisition. This led to some peculiarities related to the fact that the two rival sports channels were only separated by a " parking lot ", leading to jokes and references from both networks. On April 30, 2008, Rogers Sportsnet moved its broadcast operations from 9 Channel Nine Court to the Rogers Building , a cluster of buildings in the Mount Pleasant-Jarvis Street area of Downtown Toronto . In 2010, Rogers began to extend
15488-729: The case of the Maritimes ) through a network of rebroadcasters rather than through multiple licensed stations. Some privately owned network affiliates do still exist, although these are now relatively rare and exist only in smaller television markets. Bell Globemedia (soon after renamed CTVglobemedia and then Bell Media ) announced plans to acquire CHUM Limited, in a deal that would place Canada's four largest private English-language broadcast services under just two owners (in CTVgm's case, CTV and Citytv ). The enlarged CTVgm would also own interests in nearly 40 specialty channels and pay services. As part of
15664-459: The channel was known as "Sportsnet", CTV was allowed to control programming on both networks, and some cross-affiliation and programs that were going to be tape-delayed on TSN, most notably figure skating , were given to Sportsnet. In 2004, Rogers then bought the remaining 20 percent stake from Fox. While Sportsnet had been based there from the beginning, TSN's operations would move to CTV's suburban Toronto complex, 9 Channel Nine Court , following
15840-588: The channels and other Sinclair properties (including its television stations, Stadium, and Tennis Channel), and a warrant giving Sinclair the option to acquire a 14.9% stake in Bally's Corporation, and up to 24.9% if performance criteria are met. Sinclair announced in December 2020 that it planned to launch its own direct-to-consumer Bally's-branded streaming service, including live streaming of its linear sports networks, in 2021. On January 27, 2021, Sinclair announced that
16016-668: The circumstances surrounding the 1997 launch of the original Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia, where Rainbow's regional sports network SportsChannel Philadelphia , and sister premium service PRISM (which offered a mix of sports and movies) were seemingly gutted by Comcast's acquisition of Spectacor —owner of the Philadelphia Flyers —and a stake in the Philadelphia 76ers , with plans to launch their own network, only for Rainbow to join Fox and Liberty, possibly meaning SportsChannel and PRISM would become FSN affiliates instead. Ultimately,
16192-616: The colloquial sense, below, although in the regulatory sense they may or may not be licensed networks. However, they are often treated very differently from U.S. networks. For instance, most networks provide a full slate of programming, often, but not always, buying the national rights to "syndicated" programs that air across affiliates of multiple American networks. In Canada, hence Dr. Phil and The Ellen DeGeneres Show only air on CTV stations, and Entertainment Tonight only on Global stations. However, for historical reasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show (until it ended its run in 2011) aired on
16368-490: The conference rights to various collegiate sports events. One notable agreement was that with the Pac-12 Conference , in which packages of football and men's basketball regular season games were broadcast across all FSN networks within the regions served by each Pac-12 member university. Fox Sports Networks broadcast the majority of the Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament , except the tournament final, as well as
16544-503: The consolidation described above, brought an apparent convergence craze among the major media conglomerates. CanWest bought the Southam newspaper chain, including the leading broadsheet papers in several major cities, raising new concerns on media concentration . Telecom giant BCE , believing it needed control over content to fuel its new media strategy, formed Bell Globemedia , essentially CTV and its specialty services put together with
16720-487: The country as thousands of television sets that were capable of receiving U.S.-based signals were installed in homes near the Canada–US border between 1946 and 1953. Homes in southern and southwestern Ontario and portions of British Columbia , including the Toronto, Hamilton , London , Windsor , Victoria and Vancouver areas, were able to receive television stations from Buffalo , Cleveland , Detroit or Seattle with
16896-538: The country. The network launched on October 9, 1998, as CTV Sportsnet , under the ownership of CTV, Rogers, and Liberty; the latter which owned some of the Fox Sports Net operations that Fox ran in the United States after which the channel was named. The new network gained credibility before it went on the air, having acquired national cable rights to the National Hockey League from long-time holder TSN . From 1998–99 until 2001–02 , Sportsnet aired NHL games to
17072-561: The creation of private television networks. Private stations did emerge but could not exist independently, and were obliged to become affiliated with the French national network or the English national network. The Act of 1958 as well as its revised version in 1968 allowed for the existence of privatized networks. The private stations were then recognized as direct competitors to the CBC, which maintained its role as national broadcaster but lost its regulatory power. The 1968 Broadcasting Act created
17248-478: The deal for the networks with the sole bidder being the Sinclair/CVC joint venture. It was also reported that the possibility of spinning out the channels as an independent company was also being considered. In February 2019, it was reported that Apollo and Sinclair had dropped out (but with the former seeking a new partner), but that Liberty Media and Major League Baseball had made offers. Later that month, it
17424-434: The development of the respective E! and A (now CTV Two) systems. Nonetheless, the local news coverage these stations provide do not prevent them from airing programs with mass appeal during the rest of their schedules, frequently promoted on their sister stations. Fox Sports Networks Fox Sports Networks ( FSN ), formerly known as Fox Sports Net , was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in
17600-450: The difficulties that might arise in protecting the French language , inexpensive imported U.S. programs, which filled the schedules of many English language Canadian TV channels, were not attractive to French-speaking audiences. In this situation, society affected the division in the Canadian broadcasting industry as much as the division affected society. The intensity of fears of "continentalism"
17776-544: The first ever NBA game produced in 4K, and the first live sporting event in 4K in Canadian history—a Toronto Raptors / Orlando Magic game at O2 Arena in London . Sportsnet's first domestic 4K telecast, a Toronto Maple Leafs/Montreal Canadiens game, aired January 23, 2016. Television in Canada Television in Canada officially began with the sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada ,
17952-464: The first private CBC affiliate in Canada was CKSO-TV in Sudbury , Ontario in October of that year, with CFPL-TV in London , Ontario following a few weeks later. All television stations that signed on in Canada were required to be CBC affiliates, as the CBC was the only television network operating in Canada at the time. In 1948, there were 325 television sets in Canada, but thousands more were sold in
18128-637: The first station not affiliated with either network, not counting the initial launch period of most of the soon-to-be CTV stations. Over the next 25 years or so, many more new stations were launched, primarily CBC stations in major markets replacing private affiliates (which subsequently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, such as CITY-TV in Toronto, CITV-TV in Edmonton , and CKND-TV in Winnipeg . During this time cable television also began to take hold, securing
18304-510: The following listed networks: Fox College Sports also broadcast high school and Independent Women's Football League games, and college magazine and coach's shows. Fox College Sports formerly partnered with Big Ten Network to provide programming. All of the Fox Sports Networks regional affiliates maintained high-definition simulcast feeds presented in 720p (the default resolution format for 21st Century Fox's broadcast and pay television properties). All sports programming broadcast on each of
18480-662: The former name remained in common use until 2010, when "Fox Sports Local" was adopted for use in referencing its regional networks. On February 22, 2005, Fox's then-parent company, News Corporation, acquired full ownership of FSN/Fox Sports Local, following an asset trade with Cablevision Systems Corporation , in which Fox sold its interest in Madison Square Garden and the arena's NBA and NHL team tenants in exchange for acquiring sole ownership of Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Florida. Cablevision simultaneously gained sole ownership of Fox Sports Chicago and Fox Sports New York, and
18656-512: The former parent company of TSN, in 2000, the CRTC ordered CTV to sell either TSN or its stake in Sportsnet. CTV ultimately chose to retain TSN, and sell its stake in Sportsnet. The other shareholders had first right of refusal; as Rogers was the only interested party, it acquired CTV's stake in the summer of 2001, and soon after renamed it Rogers Sportsnet . During part of the transition period, during which time
18832-526: The fortunes of individuals such as Ted Rogers , who secured the licences for much of Toronto. In 1966, CHCH in Hamilton formed the nucleus of the first serious attempt to form Canada's third terrestrial television network. The original plan was withdrawn for regulatory and financial reasons by 1969, but a scaled-down version resulted in the 1974 launch of CKGN-TV in Toronto, whose branding as Global Television Network would eventually extend nationwide. Through
19008-426: The help of elevated outdoor antennas and amplifiers. U.S. television programs and the networks that originated them thus became popular in those Canadian cities within range of their signals, and those cities represented a sizeable proportion of the total Canadian population. This helped spur development of a specifically Canadian television programming and transmission system during the late 1940s and early 1950s, but at
19184-416: The historic development of mass communication and television in the country. Three factors have made the historical development of television in Canada a unique one: The threat of American influence, the language divide, and the government's response to both of these. American influence and the fear of that influence greatly affected television's development in Canada. The first decades of the 20th century saw
19360-433: The income of its small-market teams. It was also reported that month that Ice Cube and LL Cool J (via Ice Cube's 3-on-3 basketball league Big3 —which had Fox as its initial broadcast partner) were also preparing a bid of around $ 15 billion. Big3 stated that it wanted to expand the channels to include programming covering "broader cultural and political topics" of local interest alongside sports. In April 2019, Big3 filed
19536-562: The largest national sports network, ESPN . The most notable were the SportsChannel network, which first began operating in 1976 with the launch of the original SportsChannel (now MSG Sportsnet ) in the New York City area and later branched out into channels serving Chicago and Florida; Prime Network , which launched in 1983 with Home Sports Entertainment (now Bally Sports Southwest ) as its charter member network and later branched out onto
19712-568: The latter's now-defunct parent Fox Soccer ), such as the Commonwealth Games , World University Games and the FINA World Swimming Championships . The three FCS channels offered FSN feeds from the following channels, including live Big 12 Conference football, Pac-12 Conference football and basketball and Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games. The channels also rebroadcast shows originally produced by and shown on
19888-463: The launch of a new TV Everywhere service known as Sportsnet Now , allowing online streaming of the Sportsnet regional channels, Sportsnet One, and Sportsnet 360 for cable subscribers. On March 31, 2016, Rogers announced that Sportsnet Now would be made available as an over-the-top streaming service for cord cutters, initially priced at $ 24.99 per-month, in addition to remaining available at no additional charge to cable subscribers. In October 2018,
20064-407: The longer seasons that predominate in the United States. A typical Canadian drama or comedy series will produce between six and thirteen episodes in its first season, although an exceptionally popular series such as Corner Gas may produce up to 20 episodes in later seasons. A slight deviation from this model is with the long-running teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation (the fourth iteration of
20240-414: The magazine's back page columnist. On October 3, 2011, Rogers Sportsnet underwent a major rebranding, introducing a revamped logo and visual appearance designed in conjunction with Troika Design Group , and a new image campaign ("Fuelled By Fans"). Additionally, the network's official name was shortened to just Sportsnet . The new logo does not incorporate the previous "player" emblem that had been used in
20416-550: The main exception is The National , which airs at 10:00 p.m. on CBC. However, there is a growing trend of some television stations adopting a newscast schedule similar to the American television model, with locally produced newscasts in the mornings (usually lasting about 3 to 3½ hours and airing only on weekdays, though a few stations do carry weekend morning newscasts) and during the lunch hour, in addition to early and late-evening newscasts; most owned-and-operated stations of Global nationwide and most CTV O&Os located west of
20592-508: The main feed could not carry due to scheduling conflicts. Fox Sports Networks was headquartered in Houston , Texas, with master control facilities based in both Houston and Los Angeles; FSN also maintained production facilities at Stage 19 at Universal Studios Florida (which formerly served as home of Nickelodeon Studios until its closure in 2005). At the dawn of the cable television era, many regional sports networks (RSNs) vied to compete with
20768-686: The majority of services operate in English, there are a growing number of similar services in the French language, serving primarily Quebec . Ici Radio-Canada Télé , the French-language equivalent of CBC Television, broadcasts terrestrially across Canada, while TVA , one of Quebec's two commercial French-language networks, is available across Canada on satellite and cable. RDI , the French equivalent of CBC News Network , also has cross-Canada cable carriage rights, as does TV5 Québec Canada . Most other French-language networks are available only in Quebec, although some have optional cable carriage status in
20944-464: The merger (most of the properties were sold to Corus Entertainment – which already owned Teletoon and its related children's specialty channels – although Remstar acquired MusiMax and MusiquePlus and DHX Media acquired Family Channel and its sister channels ). As outlined below, Canadian regulations ensure that the majority of programming aired by Canadian stations are of domestic origin. However, thanks to domestic newscasts and daytime programming,
21120-472: The money – the poorer the country, the more American productions." English Canadian broadcasting illustrated how this was problematic for some Anglophone Canadians as well as the Canadian government . A major question was how any sense of "Canadianism" could come out of such an attractive (and rich) American world. There was a fear of communicating ideas and opinions that were not Canadian, to Canadians - especially
21296-457: The multichannel universe, beginning with pay television services and later continuing with various waves of specialty services, usually launched in one fell swoop. The launch of direct-to-home satellite television services in the mid-1990s accelerated this growth. The early- to mid-1990s in particular also saw further growth and consolidation of broadcast television. Baton Broadcasting , owner of Toronto CTV affiliate CFTO-TV and already seen as
21472-685: The nation's largest media market (Cablevision's SportsChannel would not merge into Fox Sports until the following year). To overcome this obstacle, Fox Sports Net paid WBIS-TV $ 30 million to broadcast games and nightly news shows for the next five years. WBIS-TV itself was a new station that launched on July 1, 1996, when Dow Jones & Company and ITT Corporation purchased it from the City of New York . The Fox Sports programming complimented its "S+" format which combined sports programming and business news. From September 2012 to September 2013, Fox syndicated select college football and basketball games produced by
21648-481: The national HD feed was replaced by individual HD feeds for each region. On October 5, 2015, Rogers announced that it planned to produce 101 sports telecasts in 4K ultra-high-definition format in 2016, including all Toronto Blue Jays home games, and "marquee" NHL games beginning in January 2016. These broadcasts are offered via a part-time Sportsnet 4K channel on participating television providers. On January 14, 2016, in cooperation with BT Sport , Sportsnet broadcast
21824-649: The near future. Other major specialty operators include Corus Entertainment (owned by the Shaw family) and Channel Zero . Consolidation has also continued between cable companies, and between specialty channel operators. There are now few of the small family-owned television groups that dominated the formative era of Canadian television, the most notable perhaps being the Stirling family, which owns NTV in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador . The twinstick model of broadcasting, in which
22000-404: The network as a sports news service. The acquisition and Rogers' proposed amendments (which included a reduction in the frequency of sports updates during live events) were approved by the CRTC on April 30, 2013; the same day, The Score also began to air more Sportsnet-produced programming, including a simulcast of CJCL's afternoon show Tim & Sid and Hockey Central Playoff Extra . However,
22176-554: The network's branding since its original launch, as research performed by Rogers indicated that its association with Sportsnet did not resonate well with viewers. The redesign of Sportsnet was overseen by Dean Bender, who served as the network's creative director upon its original launch as CTV Sportsnet. On August 25, 2012, Rogers announced that it would acquire the television assets of Score Media , owners of The Score Television Network (a competing sports network which primarily airs sports news and highlights, alongside event coverage), in
22352-451: The network's dominant player, bought or replaced most of the network's other affiliates and ultimately acquired the network itself. In 1997, Asper's regional networks became united under the Global Television Network brand previously used only by his Ontario station. Additional groups also sprouted up in the form of Western International Communications , CHUM Limited and Craig Media . In 2000, CanWest bought WIC, which had itself grown from
22528-511: The network. It was also reported that a Sinclair/CVC joint venture was the leading bidder. In December 2018, it was reported that due to the low bids, there was the possibility that the networks could be sold individually instead of as a single group, and that the banks were in talks with those who made partial bids, such as Amazon (who only bid for the YES Network) and Charter (who only bid for Fox Sports South). Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad
22704-439: The networks (excluding the YES Network , being reacquired by Yankee Global Enterprises ) to Sinclair; the transaction was completed on August 22, 2019. The networks continued to use the Fox Sports name only under a transitional license agreement while rebranding options were explored. A rebranding cross-partnership with Bally's Corporation took effect on March 31, 2021, and the networks were rebranded as Bally Sports , ending
22880-410: The networks (including most team-related analysis and discussion programs, and non-event amateur sports programs) was broadcast in a format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics framed within a widescreen safe area rather than the 4:3 safe area, intended to be shown in a letterboxed format for standard definition viewers. The programming strategy adopted by most of the Fox Sports Networks
23056-557: The networks as leverage for carriage agreements for its broadcast television stations. The sale was completed on August 22, 2019. The networks would continue to temporarily use the "Fox Sports" branding under a transitional license agreement with Fox Corporation; Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley stated that there were plans to eventually rebrand them under either a new name, or to "partner with a brand who wants more exposure". There were also plans to increase non-event programming, and emphasis on sports betting in its programming. In November 2019,
23232-411: The networks for $ 10.6 billion, pending regulatory approval. At the same time, it was also revealed that Allen Media Group would hold an equity stake in the company and serve as a "content partner". Three senators ( Cory Booker , Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren ) called for the sale to be reviewed by the Department of Justice, citing concerns over Sinclair's political views , and that it could use
23408-461: The networks would be rebranded as Bally Sports with Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee discontinued and their sports programming dispersed to the Bally Sports South and Southeast channels. To better reflect their target markets, Prime Ticket and SportsTime Ohio were rebranded as Bally Sports SoCal and Bally Sports Great Lakes, respectively. In March 2021, Sinclair revealed that
23584-459: The networks, the channels continued to use "Fox Sports Net/National Sports Partners" in its copyright tag until 2008 (the copyright used has since changed to "National Sports Programming"). On April 1, 2011, DirecTV Sports Networks rebranded its FSN regional affiliates under the Root Sports brand. In 2012, News Corporation acquired a 49% stake in the YES Network , the regional sports network in
23760-419: The novelty. Television performer and producer Lorne Michaels said, about the advent of television, "it was all we talked about at school. We literally raced home to watch TV". It became important to Canada that Canadian values would be projected onto this large audience and then onto the entire nation. Although many watched the available American television programs, some feared that Canada would end up stuck in
23936-611: The out-of-market Sportsnet feeds, particularly regional NHL games, are blacked out due to league restrictions on teams' regional broadcast rights. Since the revival of the Winnipeg Jets in 2011, regional Flames and Oilers games on Sportsnet West have also been blacked out in Manitoba, despite it being the "local" Sportsnet feed for that province. [REDACTED] Sportsnet is the main television outlet for Major League Baseball in Canada: it
24112-631: The partnership was Fox Sports Arizona which launched on September 7, 1996, nearly two months before the existing networks would be rebranded. That same year, Fox purchased SportSouth from Turner, and rebranded that network as Fox Sports South in January 1997. On June 30, 1997, the Fox/Liberty joint venture purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision / NBC 's sports properties including the SportsChannel America networks, Madison Square Garden , and
24288-523: The plan structures were changed; a $ 24.99 tier was reintroduced which adds WWE Network , while Now+ was replaced with Sportsnet Now Premium, which is priced at $ 34.99 per-month and includes WWE Network and out-of-market NHL games beginning the 2022–23 season (replacing NHL Live). The service was quietly renamed Sportsnet+ ahead of the 2023–24 NHL season . Sportsnet operates four high-definition feeds, one for each regional channel. Originally, Sportsnet operated one national feed that consisted primarily of
24464-449: The popular Degrassi franchise), which due to a switch to a more serialized format in 2011, began producing up to 40 episodes per season. Less expensive forms of programming, such as news and sketch comedy programs, will usually produce many more episodes each year, coming closer to the American model. The French-language commercial networks air significantly more Canadian content than their English counterparts, and domestic programming
24640-970: The potential issues were settled in a deal that saw PRISM and SportsChannel's local coverage move to Comcast SportsNet, which would then become an FSN affiliate, while PRISM was replaced by Liberty's premium movie network Starz! . Most of Fox Sports Networks' other programming was later carried in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. markets on MASN2. Select games were also shown on Cox Communications local origination channels (later branded YurView ), mostly in Rhode Island and Virginia. The Cox networks were exclusive to their cable systems. At least two times in its history Fox Sports Net, partnered with broadcast TV stations to fill coverage gaps in markets where it did not have an affiliated regional sports network. Upon its launch, Fox Sports Net did not have an outlet in New York,
24816-492: The predominantly French-language province of Quebec . The first experimental television broadcast began in 1932 in Montreal, Quebec, under the call sign of VE9EC. The broadcasts of VE9EC were broadcast in 60 to 150 lines of resolution on 41 MHz. This service closed around 1935, and the outbreak of World War II put a halt to television experiments. Television in Canada on major networks pre-date any telecasts that originated in
24992-545: The previous statement but must provide a variety of programs reflecting different points of view. CRTC regulations have so far prevented a large number of the infomercial - or religious-based stations now frequently found in major centres in the U.S. from operating in Canada; infomercials, even those made in Canada, are not considered Canadian content. Nearly all broadcast stations have now been aligned, in one form or another, into national groups based on ownership and/or content. Many of these groups are designated as "networks", in
25168-426: The price was dropped to $ 19.99, annual subscription options were added, and an additional tier known as Sportsnet Now+ was introduced, adding additional international soccer and rugby events, and out-of-market streaming of regional NHL games for Canadian teams whose rights are owned by Sportsnet. NHL Live, the NHL's digital out-of-market sports package , was later added to Sportsnet Now+ in January 2021. In April 2022,
25344-639: The proposal, CTVgm would sell several of CHUM's less valuable properties, such as the smaller A-Channel system, to Rogers Communications , Canada's largest cable provider and already a major media company in its own right. On June 8, 2007, however, the CRTC approved the CHUM merger, conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv rather than A-Channel. This sparked another round of media consolidation. In early 2007, Canwest, in partnership with Goldman Sachs , announced an agreement to buy Alliance Atlantis , another major specialty channel operator, and more deals are expected in
25520-605: The relaunch would occur on March 31, the eve of Major League Baseball's Opening Day . Prime Sports KBL (1995–1996) Fox Sports Pittsburgh (1996–2011) Root Sports Pittsburgh (2011–2017) From its inception in 1997 until July 31, 2012, Comcast maintained an agreement to carry select programming sourced from Fox Sports Net on its six Comcast SportsNet regional networks: Comcast SportsNet Bay Area , Comcast SportsNet California , Comcast SportsNet Chicago , Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic , Comcast SportsNet New England and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia . This deal stemmed from
25696-756: The rest of Canada. V , for instance, is carried on cable in New Brunswick and parts of Ontario and is available nationally by satellite. The Ontario government's French public television network TFO is the only French-language broadcaster in Canada whose operations are located entirely outside of Quebec. Other ethnic and multicultural services, serving one or more cultural groups outside of these two official languages, are also growing in strength. Six terrestrial TV stations, CFMT and CJMT in Toronto, CFHG in Montreal , CJEO in Edmonton , CJCO in Calgary and CHNM in Vancouver , air multicultural programming in
25872-415: The rights to the 2014 and 2016 games, citing scheduling and financial issues. While Bell Media did attempt to partner with the CBC in 2011 to bid for coverage, CBC reached a deal of its own in August 2012, winning the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games. On February 7, 2013, CBC announced that it had reached deals with Sportsnet and TSN for both networks to become their official cable partners, beginning at
26048-660: The same time caused it to develop within American technical standards that had been previously mandated by the Federal Communications Commission between 1941 and 1946. Since the first Canadian stations ( CBFT in Montreal and CBLT in Toronto) signed on in September 1952, television developed differently in Canada than in the United States because it was introduced and developed in a different context. The distinct social, political, and economic situation of Canada shaped
26224-693: The seven Canadian franchises, including the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sportsnet Ontario (split with TSN4 beginning in 2014–15; Rogers and Bell Canada own a joint, majority stake in the team's parent company Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment ), the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers on Sportsnet West, and the Vancouver Canucks on Sportsnet Pacific. In January 2014, Sportsnet lost the Ottawa Senators to TSN, who acquired regional rights to
26400-440: The sole owner of Sportsnet in 2004 after it bought the remaining minority stake that was held by Fox . The Sportsnet license comprises four 24-hour programming services; Sportsnet was originally licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as a category A service , operating as a group of regional sports networks offering programming tailored to each feed's region (in contrast to TSN, which
26576-469: The sponsorship support of Farmers Insurance . This initiative consists of one-minute vignettes profiling non- white persons, with segments airing on the FSN networks in February 2008 and 2009 during Black History Month , from September 15 to October 15, 2008, for Hispanic Heritage Month and in March 2009 for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month . The Americans in Focus vignettes and the companion sub-site on
26752-460: The survival of Canadian television depended on public funding for Canadian programs, which would be produced, broadcast and controlled by a public corporation. The Broadcasting Act of 1932 began of government involvement. Its main aim was the "Canadianization of mass media". In other words, it wanted to create a Canadian broadcasting system to replace the American system that had infiltrated itself into Canada, as well as to unite Canadians in creating
26928-577: The team in English and French under a 12-year deal, beginning in the 2014–15 season. In September 2014, Sportsnet announced its acquisition of regional English-language television rights to the Montreal Canadiens under a 3-year deal, replacing the Senators on Sportsnet East and succeeding TSN as regional rightsholder, until 2016–17. Sportsnet held the rights to the Canadian Hockey League under
27104-595: The teams that maintained rights with the individual network. In some markets, FSN competed directly with other regional sports networks for the broadcast rights to team-specific programming. FSN networks also purchased shows or broker time slots for sports and outdoors programming from outside producers in their region to fill out their schedule further, with Fox Sports purchasing additional programming for national airing. Finally, low-trafficked late night and early morning timeslots were programmed locally with paid programming . Also, FSN competed directly with ESPN in acquiring
27280-489: The television industry in Canada now more closely resembles the British or Australian models, in which the vast majority of stations are directly owned by their networks and offer only slight variance in local scheduling apart from local or regional newscasts, rather than the American network affiliate model that formerly predominated. In some cases, in fact, a single station serves an entire province (or even multiple provinces, in
27456-470: The television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by media in the United States , perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation. As a result, the government institutes quotas for " Canadian content ". Nonetheless, new content is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in
27632-463: The ten most popular programs on French-language television were made in Quebec, including La Famille Plouffe . Gradually, French Canadians showed a strong preference for Quebec-produced television programs, which was significant considering the fierce American competition that English Canada dealt with (and still deals with to this day). French-language television was distinct from English-language television in that "one of its most distinctive aspects
27808-409: The transition, Setanta Sports sold its minority ownership interest in the channel to MLM Management. On September 29, 2011, Rogers published the first issue of Sportsnet Magazine , a bi-weekly sports magazine positioned "for Canadian sports fans", covering professional sports from a Canadian perspective. Sports writer Stephen Brunt left his position at The Globe and Mail newspaper to become
27984-498: The two countries being tied very closely on an economic standpoint, almost anything produced in the U.S. could be considered to be of general interest to Canadians. Changes to this were attempted in the late 1980s. Government intervention throughout the development of television in Canada affected the way it was developed domestically as it developed through laws and policies rather than a free market. While American television stations, including affiliates of ABC , NBC and CBS , near
28160-750: The years from 1948 to 1952, most of them tuned to stations from either the Buffalo, Seattle, Cleveland or Detroit television markets . When Canadian television began, the Radio-Television Manufacturers Association of Canada estimated that 85,000 sets were expected to be sold in 1952. 95% of these were concentrated in Ontario, with 57.4% in the Golden Horseshoe region (40.2% in Toronto and Hamilton, 17.2% in Niagara Peninsula ) and 34.6% in
28336-406: The youth. With the exception of radio, television presented an opportunity, for the first time, to reach a very wide audience at the same time. By 1954, a million television sets had been sold in Canada. Even though those sets were very expensive at the time, the large majority (9 of 10) of Canadian households owned a television set by the end of the 1950s. People became excited and obsessed with
28512-495: Was allowed on the basis that, in another owner's hands, stations like CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario and CHEK in Victoria, British Columbia (both Canwest stations that were sold off in 2009, CHCH to Channel Zero and CHEK to a consortium of the station's employees) would inevitably turn their focus to the larger Toronto and Vancouver markets respectively, leaving their cities of licence with little or no local news coverage. This led to
28688-474: Was already trying to keep foreign ownership and programming at a minimum to avoid the American imperialism that would be caused by such dependency on the United States, which in fact was already incipient. The issue of economy of scale played a large role. "Americans [were] pushing smaller cultural communication aside with their dominating programming, not because they [were] based on a policy but because they ha[d]
28864-447: Was approved by the CRTC in September 1996 under the tentative name S3 , with Baton Broadcasting Inc. (later renamed to CTV Inc.) holding a 40% controlling interest in the network, and 20% minority stakes held by Rogers Media and Liberty Media (in turn a spin-off of TCI , an American cable-television group). The network proposed a structure with an emphasis on regional programming, operating four feeds to serve different areas of
29040-408: Was as strong as its opposing force of attractiveness of American television programs to Canadian viewers. Most Anglophone viewers could relate easily to the American programs as much as they did to their Canadian programs, since people spoke the same language as they did. For example, in 1957, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation presented American programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show . However,
29216-475: Was instead produced from the FSN headquarters in the Westwood district. In addition, FSN aired an extensive lineup of poker shows, including Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and MansionPoker.net PokerDome Challenge . The World Poker Tour began broadcasting on FSN with its seventh season. It recently concluded airing its 15th season. FSN distributed its first pay-per-view event on November 10, 2006,
29392-685: Was licensed at the time to operate as a national sports service, and could only offer limited regional opt-outs). Since 2011, the service has operated under deregulated category C licensing, which allows Sportsnet to operate multiple feeds with no restrictions on alternate programming. In each region, only the local Sportsnet channel is available on analogue cable, but all four channels are available nationally via digital cable (subject to blackouts for some out-of-market teams). The four Sportsnet feeds air some common programming and simulcast major, national events, but are capable of airing programming autonomously—most prominently regional programming. Sportsnet
29568-401: Was mentioned as the most likely buyer for the other FSN networks, but would need the assistance of a private equity firm to help raise the cash needed for the purchase. The group's other sports properties include Stadium —a national sports network distributed via over-the-air digital television and internet streaming, Tennis Channel , as well as Marquee Sports Network , a joint venture with
29744-418: Was not compromised for identity. This can be inferred through the vagueness and ineffective policies passed in the aim of protecting Canadian culture. For example, Canadian content regulations were introduced in 1959 and revised again in 1978. "Canadian content" is broadly defined as programs of "general interest to Canadians". Since Canadians easily identify with Americans and their popular culture as well as
29920-854: Was rejected by the CRTC as this would have resulted in Bell increasing its share of the Canadian broadcasting market to 42%. Bell filed a new application for the proposed takeover with the CRTC on March 6, 2013, two days after the Competition Bureau approved the acquisition; the Commission approved the merger on June 27, 2013, with Bell volunteering to sell certain cable television properties including Family Channel , Disney XD , MusiMax , MusiquePlus and Historia as well as Astral's interest in Teletoon , in an attempt to relieve concerns surrounding Bell's total market share in English-language television following
30096-418: Was reported by Sportico that Sinclair was considering rebranding the networks via a naming rights agreement, and was reportedly in talks with multiple companies involved in sports betting. The next day, Sinclair announced that it had entered into an agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation to acquire the naming rights under a 10-year deal. The agreement included integration of Bally's content on
30272-584: Was reported that Pohlad and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores (via his private equity firm Platinum Equity ) had joined the Liberty Media bid. On March 8, 2019, it was reported that the Yankees had reached a deal to re-purchase Fox's share in the YES Network for $ 3.5 billion, with Sinclair, Amazon and The Blackstone Group holding minority shares. MLB also confirmed a $ 10 billion bid, seeking to use them to bolster
30448-440: Was reportedly interested in his team's broadcaster Fox Sports North. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stated that the company had considered a bid, but that regional sports networks were a "very treacherous market". In a January 2019 SEC filing, Fox Corporation stated that it no longer had any plans to bid for the channels. On January 11, 2019 CNBC reported that Apollo, Blackstone, CVC and other bidders except Sinclair backed out of
30624-490: Was the bringing together of international and local influences, American and European television styles and programming ideas and merging them with the cultural idioms of rapidly modernizing and assertive Quebec." The merging of local and foreign ideas and techniques was a novelty in North American television. Since English and French language television in Canada had developed separately, French-language broadcasting developed
30800-557: Was the national cable broadcaster of the NHL in Canada, displacing the rival TSN; it aired a package of Tuesday night games, along with coverage of non-Canadian matchups from the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. On November 26, 2013, Rogers Communications announced that it had reached a 12-year deal to become the exclusive national rightsholder for the National Hockey League, again displacing TSN, along with CBC ,
30976-515: Was to acquire the play-by-play broadcast rights to major sports teams in their regional market. This did not include NFL games, since the league's contracts require all games to be aired on broadcast television in each participating team's local markets. Therefore, FSN focused on other major professional leagues, like the MLB, NHL, NBA and WNBA. In addition to local play-by-play coverage, the FSN networks also broadcast and produced pre-game shows , post-game shows and weekly "magazine" shows centered on
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