The future of the CFL

For the most part, Americans could care less about DAZN. DAZN specializes in broadcast sports originating from other countries into a different market. US pretty much only watches their own leagues and whatever remaining leagues already have broadcast deals in place. About the only reason to subscribe to DAZN in the US would be if you followed Bellator.

It goes without saying that generally speaking, Americans have no interest in the CFL. For almost a decade, all CFL games were available via tv or stream in the US if you had ESPN. We are talking at least 80 million people who had access. After all that exposure, what is the number of US viewers watching each CFL game? Probably somewhere in the 100,000 - 150,000 range if you are lucky.

DAZN has not much content for the US market while in Canada it has Premier league , MLS , MLB and NFL . It also has many fights and other sports leagues like the KHL .

They might at some point gain NHL or NBA rights .

If DAZN can get anywhere from 10 k to 25 k more subscribers with the addition of the CFL in Canada it has value .

That should be worth another 1m to the CFL in the Canadian market .

They could also get a small stipend in other markets .

When looking at auxiliary resources the CFL has to be aggressive and quick to change with the technology at it's fingertips when any of this tech has money that can be used to get the CFL further away from a bums in the seats league .

Whoever or whatever wants to expand the audience it should be welcomed as this only helps with sponsors and advertisers who want as much exposure as one can get for their dollar .

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Dazn won't get streaming rights in the US with the CFL because of ESPN+. Best hope is Europe, considering there's no more NFL Europe there's a fighting chance they'll care over there.
But this 25k new users because the CFL is added? No chance. You'd be lucky if it's 25.

With TSN trying hard to establish their own streaming service (TSN Direct) as a popular go to for younger cord cutters, there is no reason for them to use DAZN or any other streaming service in Canada. I use TSN direct for my CFL 6 months a year and I use DAZN for my NFL 4 months a year. So as far as I'm concerned, everything is fine the way it is. As mentioned, the CFL already has a worldwide streaming service outside of North America as well (https://cfl.yaretv.com/) and a streaming service in the USA with ESPN+. People are debating about strategies that already have solutions and things in place. I only mentioned I would be fine if the CFL went on DAZN because I could then just subscribe to one thing.

Yes and ESPN plus and Dazn are in direct competition as well .

Not sure it’s fine though as the CFL needs growth and TSN is not taking them there currently by themselves .

DAZN is going global then coming around to take on the states .

8 million subscribers total worldwide . With one million in the US .

ESPN plus 12.5 million subscribers total .

For me as a consumer I prefer DAZN and have NFL and CFL together in one package .

It is cheaper and I get all the games as football is my preferred sport .

For the CFL’s sake they do need more exposure and with that more revenue .

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Respectfully TSN Direct is not fine as it is. I too have used it for the past couple of seasons, however, limiting viewing to a browser is beyond archaic in this day and age. Considering I have the AHLtv app now on my Roku and Amazon firestick so that my son and I can watch our NHL teams farm team games but have to basically use a PC to log into TSN to view games you are seriously limiting your streaming market. TSN should have an app on the media players and mobile devices just like MLB, NHL, AHL, and other sports leagues do. TSN is in fact not reaching the potential audience that they can and their lack of a an app for media and mobile devices shows how out of touch that they are.

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TSN Direct is on my kids Xbox and last season the TSN phone App allowed me to cast to any TV I wanted using a $30 Chromecast. It was fine. It’s also on Apple TV. I agree they need to be on more platforms like Roku. Crave is now on Roku and that is Bell so I hope they will get a Roku TSN app as well soon.

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$76.99 USD for CFL Pass is not a solution in place that’s going to work. Nobody is paying that other than players family and established CFL fans (Canadians) living abroad.

Dazn for Eur and Asia would be a strategy because it would hit a massive customer base already paying for the service.

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They charge $76.99 USD for the full season. Which is another problem on its own.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with ESPN about the CFL not on CTV.
It’s simply a business decision, they have determined that the TSN audience is a “sports” network and if you watch sports you will subscribe to TSN.

According to their site TSN is available to 30 million people, but only 3 to 4 million people watch the Grey Cup. Therefore there are 26 MILLION sports fans that subscribe to TSN that won’t watch the Grey Cup. That is the root of the problem. You don’t gain any viewers by putting it on CTV, the sports fans already subscribe to TSN but they aren’t watching!!

It comes down to the “same old” fewer fans in the stands, fewer watching on TV. The CFL has an older demographic and they can not attract the younger fans.

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30 million available is not 30 million subscribers. At least that’s not how I read it.

Edit. TSN had “just over 9 million subs” as of 2011. I can’t imagine that number hasn’t decreased.

Yes I should’ve said “viewers” not subscribers and that includes RDS, and doesn’t include the new TSN “streaming”

I’ve heard this argument a bunch of times. During the regular season that might be true, but if the Grey Cup was on regular CTV you would get way more non football , or casual fans , watching. That would be the point. For Superbowl they get 100 million viewers in North America. Not all are football fans. It is the one game where non fans will watch.
It would be the equivalent of putting the Superbowl only on ESPN and then complaining that ratings are down.

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Maybe, but I’m still not convinced that non-sports fans would watch the Grey Cup in great numbers. Like I said above, there are millions of TSN viewers that did not watch the Grey Cup, so many potential viewers there.

The Raptors had huge numbers on Sportsnet and TSN when they shared the playoff rounds. They didn’t show it on CTV or CBC. The Jays get huge numbers on Sportsnet, especially at the playoff time. The NHL is getting good numbers on Sportsnet even though the CBC still gets the prime time HNIC
The future is “streaming” not CTV or CBC TV broadcasts

The Raptors playoffs in 2019 were shown on the full CTV network for a couple weekend games.
It shouldn’t be lost on people that the 3-4 million Grey Cup viewers is still a very large number for a country of 38 million. It would be a perfect way to showcase the league one game a year on CTV and get potentially more casual viewers that could become potential ticket buyers. And chances are they are watching with someone who does go to games sometimes. It is a no brainer in my opinion.

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I seem to recall it was only the championship clinching game that was shown on the main CTV network.

Also, when the Grey Cup was on CBC, it appears even then it was averaging a viewership of ~3-4.5 million.

“The CFL’s first all-Prairie championship showdown, won 23-19 by Saskatchewan, drew a national average (game-only) audience of 3.337 million viewers.”

“The highest recorded game-only audience was 4.416 million in 2002, when the Montreal Alouettes beat the host Edmonton Eskimos 25-16.”

Well obviously Bell/ TSN agree with you and keep it exclusive to TSN. So what do I know?

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The largest TV audience for a Grey Cup was the 1983 classic with an audience of 8.1 million tuning in on both CBC and CTV.

8.1 million out of population of 24 million at the time.

Along with streaming, it’s also important to get the league on broadcast television to ensure maximum coverage.

Sportsnet’s coverage of the NHL on its own not the greatest. CBC and TSN did a far better job of NHL broadcasting together as partners.

They can do it for the CFL as well.

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Great post .

They need to get the Grey CUP showcase game on more channels .

It has always been about HYPE . Superbowl is hyped for two weeks .

You want the hype for the event that is followed up with a national broadcaster that is free OTA and on as many venues as possible . It helps with sponsors and advertisers .

Also Make a deal like CBC for the Saturday night game until HNIC starts up then switch to late afternoon game that leads up to HNIC .

Make the same deal and see if it can help with more sponsors and advertisers .

Sports broadcasting First and foremost is about advertising . T You want more exposure to get the ad money .

TSN is nice to get all the reg season games televised and it’s comfortable right now but it wags the dog and it’s growth of the game is not compatible with the league’s best interest .

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I believe the Super Bowl was also broadcasted on Nickelodeon.

Perhaps something similar with the Grey Cup long side with CBC and TSN.