Grey Cup to be shown in US on Versus

CFL Talk
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2008-11-06 06:00:00 THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE'S 96th ANNUAL GREY CUP TO AIR LIVE ON VERSUS IN THE U.S. NOVEMBER 23 BEGINNING AT 5:30 P.M. ET

Toronto, ON and New York, NY - (November 6, 2008) - The Canadian Football League (CFL) today announced that VERSUS will, for the first time, air the Grey Cup in the United States. The 96th installment of the game will be played at Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Sunday, November 23, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET with a pre-game show and a kick-off time of 6:00 p.m. ET.

Celebrated by Canadians from coast-to-coast since 1909, the Grey Cup is Canada’s largest annual professional sporting event. In addition to the thousands filling Olympic Stadium on Grey Cup Sunday, the game will be watched by millions of fans in North America and around the world on various television networks and on the internet.

“There’s no bigger single game on the Canadian sports calendar,” said CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon. “And this year’s Grey Cup will punctuate a year in the CFL that has had no shortage of excitement and dramatic finishes, which is what Canadian football is all about. We’re proud to partner with VERSUS to offer our fans south of the border, and sports fans alike, the opportunity to enjoy this year’s Grey Cup.”

“We are excited to work with the CFL to broadcast the 96th edition of the Grey Cup to more than 73 million American viewers,” said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. “With nearly a hundred years of hard-hitting action and memorable finishes, the Grey Cup is a great addition to the ever-growing programming line-up on VERSUS.”

VERSUS will air TSN’s, the CFL’s exclusive broadcaster, live coverage of the Grey Cup in standard definition, including the Diet Pepsi Grey Cup Halftime Show with performances by Universal artists Theory of a Deadman and Suzie McNeal and French Canadian recording artist Andree Watters.

The Grey Cup Playoffs get underway on Saturday, November 8, with the East and West Semi-Finals at 1:00pm ET, and 4:30pm ET, respectively. The East and West Finals will be played one week later on Saturday, November 15, at 1:00pm ET and 4:30pm ET, respectively. The winners of the East and West Finals will meet in the Grey Cup on Sunday, November 23, 2008.

For all information regarding the Grey Cup visit CFLGreyCup.ca and CFL.ca.


I hope this will lead to a real national contract int the U.S. :rockin:

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This is good news. Now fans across the U.S. can watch the game live. Hopefully the ratings will be good and Versus will carry regular season games next season.

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Thats good news I guess.
It sounds like no $ are coming our way, just the exposure.

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VS is actually a really good network. I have seen it a few times when travelling in the states and also on TSN when they show VS hockey games.

I think people in the USA won't watch the GC because the game is different or interesting. They will watch to see former stars who used to play in the USA and listen for other names that they recognize.

I did the same thing with Arena football. The first few years that I watched the Arena bowl, the game was interesting but when TNN started showing regular season games, the game itself wasn't that interesting and I started to listen for names of former NFL and CFL players.

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Hello there...

I'm hoping that carriage of the Grey Cup on Versus will lead to bigger things, like Versus carrying all games next season. If it does come to pass I'll drop DISH Network's Multi-Sport Package and move up to America's Top 250 (where Versus is currently placed).

For now I'll have to listen to the online broadcast.