ESPN Purge

Twitter is suggesting that a major purge of personnel is coming to ESPN to-day , it makes one wonder, with the lack of quality canadian programming at TSN , other then the CFL, can a purge of personnel at Bell /TSN be far behind ?

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With more and more people cutting the chord and more people streaming their sports and other programming it's no surprise. No doubt it will happen at TSN too, we've seen quite a few layoffs at local TV stations across Canada over the past two years.

It's been coming for years.

Pierre LeBrun was among those cut but he will stay on with TSN/RDS though likely will stay in a hockey capacity.

It was confirmed today that the ESPN layoffs were due to "shrinking cable subscriptions" and changes in viewing habits.
In Canada they estimate over 200k will cut the cord this year which translates to 500,000 viewers and the rate of cutting to increase in the future.
Makes you wonder how many subscribers TSN will have left when the CFL contract comes up for review in 5 years.

Hockey didn't maintain support from ESPN. says they have given up, way too costly for the return. Exceptional value in North of the border football because they paid nothing for it and could have just as good a rating on Lower level ESPN broadcasts

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If the CFL was smart, they would be putting a plan together to create their own production company and channel. Then reach out to the CIS and possibly that new soccer league they want to put together for extra content.

They really need a contingency plan…

I agree with you. CFL needs to produce preseason CFL games and broadcast them, along with the draft, combine, weekly shows and get use to broadcasting. I would do this only as preparation if problems occur. I would also do this if you don’t like Bell’s plan on streaming and the reach continues to shrink. Always have a backup plan. It is so different from when the CFL had the CFN and so easy now.

TSN and the CFL are joined at the hip, and we never hope this relationship is severed. Both need to strengthen each other and to start with they can link their web sites so you could toggle back and forth. Why can’t we get to the CFL page from the Forum site?

But TSN broadcasts pre-season games and it’s been going on for a few years now. Not every game but at least half of them.
Some teams do stream their own pre-season games but that’s not “broadcasting”, I believe that TSN does permit streaming if it’s for pre-season.
TSN holds broadcast rights for CFL games until 2022, that’s why TSN pays the CFL $42 Million, it’s their property.

Only hardcore fans want to watch pre-season games. For the casual viewer, all showing them does is expose the fans to unpolished practice games.

ESPN's website now lists these games as upcoming. Since all TSN games are streamed, a safe assumption would be that these are ESPN2/ESPNews televised games.

June 22 Riders vs Als
June 24 Eskimos vs Lions
June 25 Ti-Cats vs Argos
June 30 Lions vs Argos & Als vs Eskimos

comment wasn't made just to televise pre season games, it was to gain experience televising/streaming games and keep the same quality of broadcast we have been use to. If something were to happen, which it probably won't, you can't gain experience a few months before season starts. Need a backup plan ready if necessary.