Canadian programming

[Jimbo]

To each his own I guess, I see the hockey coverage as extreme and excessive to the point where TSN doesn't cover any other sporting events. If there is no hockey, watching sports center on TSN is irrelevant, they'll some how throw in 45 min analysis of the meetings that were held to set a date for the next round of CBA talks lol, its silly. Give me some NFL coverage more than just the highlights, same with NCAA.

I hadn't realized you don't get the same type of coverage up there, Im would have figured that TSN would have covered NFL and College Football, but I guess not.
I've never had the opportunity to have TSN before.

 

[Danny001]

All they give us is the highlights, no injury updates or analysis or anything like that. None of our cable or satellite providers have The NFL Network in HD either. Sunday ticket on Satellite only has 5 HD channels, so the NFL coverage we get is blurry We only get the national NCAA games. I rarely get to see Duke play in men's hoops. But, lucky me on TSN 2 I can see the Phoenix Coyotes play the Anaheim ducks.. 2 markets that are as dull as dry bread LOL. Hockey is king here, there is no doubt.

 

[SamCdbs]

Legalities.....

And here they are, more or less:

Divide TV into OTA networks (CBS, NBC, etc in the USA; CBC, CTV, etc in Canada) and "cable" channels (ESPN, TSN, all of that).

"Cable" channels are easy. The USA and Canada are different countries, and the rights to shows are bought, and priced, based on market size. Everything else being equal, a Canadian "cable" channel will pay the producer about 1/10th the price that a US "cable" channel will pay for the same show. Thus each country has its own set of "cable" channels (although some are owned by the same people,with the same name, are are generally the same, with different commercials).

Now to OTA. Understand that 95% of English speaking Canadians live within 100 miles of the border. And getting US OTA networks pre-dates the existance of not only dishes, but of cable TV, in Canada.

So Canada has the CRTC (its version of the FCC). The CRTC rules say that a cable or dish company can pick up any US OTA channel (without payment to the station) and carry it, subject only to a thing called "sim-sub", which boils down to if, say CBS and, say CTV were showing the same show at the same time, only the CTV broadcast will be seen in Canada (which preserves the value of the Canadian commercials). Further, because "superstations" like WGN and what is now WPCH (nee, WTBS) were originally OTA channels, these likewise are covered under that regulation and remain on Canadian systems (in there original Chicago and Atlanta versions, not WGN America or TBS).

But the US FCC has a different rule. For cable, Canadian stations can only be carried by cable companies within 150 miles of the border. Which is to say, places that could get the channels anyway w/o cable. So if you live in, say Detroit, the Windsor channels will be on your cable. DBS is not mentioned in the rule, because it did not exist when it was written. But, probably is they took it to court, DBS would be under the same rule. DirecTV or DISH could include Canadian stations in local packages in places like Detroit, Buffalo, inland New England, Fargo, etc. Never asked.

It is a copyright violation under US law to carry a Canadian station outside the 150 mile border zone on cable or DBS.

A long time ago, there was a station called Trio, which in its orignial version, conisted of Canadian network TV dramas, some of which were quite good (North of 60, Black Harbour, etc) and there was a channel called Newsworld, which was a slightly modified version of the CBC all-news channel, both on DirecTV, but both have since closed.

 

[The Fat Man]

The argument of better NHL coverage is irrelevant if there is no NHL season.

There is no NHL season YET! It is relevant because even though there is no NHL being played now, doesn't mean it isn't coming back. By that argument, we couldn't compare football coverage in March, because it's the off season.

 

[Jimbo]

IF the NHL Does come back this year (season), will it still be RELEVANT ?

Or will in not be being talked about once the season gets under way, till the Playoffs, the way it typically does ?