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NFL in Canada 2017 Discussion Thread

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34K views 177 replies 38 participants last post by  hercules130 
#1 ·
The big news of course is that Bell is now the exclusive home of the NFL and has taken over the Thursday Night Football rights from Rogers. Press release is HERE. TNF games will be simulcast on CTV2 (for simsub purposes), TSN and RDS. Sunday Night Football will now also be on CTV2 (for simsub purposes) as well as TSN and RDS. They are only advertising Sunday 1pm/4pm on CTV, whereas last year some games were picked up on CTV2 as well.

No mention of any pre-season games getting picked-up or the 9:30 a.m. Sunday games from London, England and if they will be picked up.
 
#2 ·
More NFL games: Bell has signed a contract extension with the National Football League, presumably one that takes into account their recent regulatory issues with the Super Bowl. Bell is now the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of the NFL, taking Thursday night games away from Sportsnet and TVA Sports. CTV will continue to broadcast 1pm and 4pm games on Sundays, but Thursday and Sunday night games will be simulcast on CTV Two and TSN. TSN also has Monday Night Football.
Canada?s TV upfronts: What you need to know about the 2017-18 season | Fagstein
 
#4 ·
I wonder how much they paid for the rights? I'm curious in how many years the rights fees are going to drop for these leagues.

Oakland just gave Carr a huge contract, and the salaries keep going up - I wonder what the NFL will do when revenue will eventually shrink...

The EPL had a little blip a few years ago when Setanta overpaid for coverage and had to sell-off the rights - I'm just curious how long until it happens on a larger scale in North America. It might be a good thing for fans of the sport in general as it may contract the leagues and provide better teams, but a lot of teams are dependent on TV revenue these days.

I barely know anyone under 30 who watches sports (and on top of that, pays for networks like TSN) - and recently studies have shown sports fans are aging with every passing year except for the MLS in North America:

Going gray: Sports TV viewers skew older - SportsBusiness Daily | SportsBusiness Journal | SportsBusiness Daily Global

It will be interesting to see what the next round of U.S. contracts for the NFL bring in - and where it will be in 10-20 years.
 
#5 ·
UFC is actually facing that problem right now. They expected a big fee increase, but the audience is suddenly aging and Fox Sports isn't swimming in cash. Nor is ESPN, with the huge contracts they're locked into and major cost cutting going on.

As cord cutting accelerates, there is fewer people who aren't watching sports paying to subsidize those that do. That means either the cost to actually get sports will skyrocket (further promoting cord cutting) or the escalation in rights fees will have to grind to a halt. I expect it'll start pretty soon.
 
#8 ·
The matter is discussed as well in another thread - http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/160-whats-sports/275753-dazn-canada.html - but the NFL has sold all Canadian rights (presumably residential only) for NFL Sunday Ticket package, NFL Red Zone channel and NFL Game Pass online viewing to DAZN, who has said they will not sub-licence games to the BDUs (i.e. Rogers, Bell, Shaw). Rogers has already removed web-advertising for NFL Sunday Ticket.

So if you want to watch Sunday NFL on actual TV (a novel concept I must say), you will now be limited to watching what is available on CTV, CTV2, TSN, RDS, RDS2 as determined by BELL and your local CBS and FOX.

I can only hope that BELL decides to pick-up as many games as possible now on all of its channels to counteract this, but I guestimate the contract with the NFL caps the amount of games it can show at any given time.
 
#14 ·
Rogers Super Sports Pak includes:
Canadian and US Timeshifting
Access football coverage from select Canadian stations as well as FOX and CBS Seattle. Watch up to 50% of the best weekly match-ups!

You would get the local channels included with your Rogers basic channels. If you didn't want SSP you could add on Time Shifting for a few bucks. Add TSN and you have every NFL game Rogers has to offer.
 
#13 ·
If I understand this correctly, Bell is putting the screws to DAZN. It looks like CTV and TSN will carry every Sunday NFL game based on the current schedule. If you subscribe to Bell Satellite or Fibe TV, you can get all the CTV time shifting channels for $5/month. Bell has conveniently remapped all the CTV, CTV TWO and possibly TSNs into one block of channels so you can surf the NFL games just like the old Sunday Ticket. The only thing missing is NFL Red Zone.

Fibe TV just added a bunch of HD CTV time shifting channels so they will be able to carry every game in HD. (Link)

The following quote is the same for Satellite and Fibe TV.
Sunday NFL games on CTV and TSN.
Catch every game*, every Sunday. With CTV and the Time Shifting package, you can get access to all the local CTV stations across the country that will carry different games at different times. Plus, some of the games will be broadcast on TSN 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, which means you won't miss a minute of the action. You can even watch and record games at home with your smartphone, tablet or laptop, using the Fibe TV app.

Don’t have the Time Shifting package? Get it now for only $5.00/mo.

*Based on current TV schedule. Subject to change.
Bell Fibe TV & Fibe Alt TV
Channels 1451-1465 (HD)

Bell Satellite TV
Channels 1501-1515 (HD)

Source: Sports Packages - click on "Sunday NFL® games" tab.

More info - Sunday afternoon teams are still TBD
2017-18 NFL on TSN Broadcast Schedule
 
#15 ·
Yes I did notice the new timeshifting channels because the ones that used to be used for the U.S. College Sports Package are now gone for them. So I wonder where that will end up.
 
#16 ·
I wonder which local CTV/CTV2 markets are going to get the "junk" match-ups on OTA just so Bell can carry every game. Hopefully the least appealing games end up on TSN.

Luckily I live in range of U.S. OTA signals, but feel bad for those who don't and get stuck with a line-up of lower end teams just to fit Bell's agenda.
 
#22 ·
Dirty pool by Bell and Rogers to circumvent the rights that DAZN legally purchased.

If the show was on the other foot they'd sue DAZN.

Of course they could have offered more games before but didn't want to do that when they had a monopoly on the NFL.

Would love to see them get sued for a change. Crooks that they are.
 
#23 ·
Although Bell and Rogers deserve our scorn at times, this is simply business. Isn't competition great. They lost the rights to Sunday Ticket and they have responded and actually done something that happens to be good for the consumer. They have the broadcast rights and they are exercising their right to broadcast as many games as they can. Will this impact DAZN, probably yes. Will they (DAZN) have to up their game, possibly yes.

I wonder if other providers like Shaw and Shaw Direct will create a "Sunday Ticket" channel grouping.
 
#25 ·
They lost the rights to Sunday Ticket and they have responded and actually done something that happens to be good for the consumer. They have the broadcast rights and they are exercising their right to broadcast as many games as they can.
I was always impressed with the number of NFL matches available with Canadian and US timeshifting channels on Shaw Direct. So much so I would never have signed up for Sunday Ticket.

That said, I have signed up for DAZN mainly for the real Association Football. NFL "Sunday Ticket" is just gravy. :smile
 
#30 ·
According to post 13, you will be able to stream the games at home:
You can even watch and record games at home with your smartphone, tablet or laptop, using the Fibe TV app.
The Fibe TV app has a long list of channels and whether you can stream them at home or on-the-go. It sounds like they are getting down to the program level. I saw something about NFL streaming rights when I was looking at CBS a few days ago, but I didn't look any further. I guess the NFL contracts are very precise.
 
#29 ·
Here is the response from Bell I got when I questioned what "all available games" means:

Channel CTV - Monday nights, partial Sunday afternoon games, partial Thursday night games - 60% football. Subscribers will be able to catch all the biggest NFL games on CTV and TSN. TSN 2 - Sunday afternoon games (4 PM), 100% coverage. Football fans can now catch all Sunday NFL games with CTV, TSN, and the Time Shifting package.

So to me this means they will show every single game. Better or I'm switching.
 
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