TSN getting set to launch companion channel

by WILLIAM HOUSTON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
August 7, 2008

In an ambitious move that will have an impact on sports television in several ways, TSN is planning to launch a companion channel called TSN2.

The new service, which will start in the fall, will provide content that will include major-league programming such as NHL and NBA telecasts on a cycle of 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Executives and spokespeople at TSN are mum on the subject, but sources in advertising say TSN has already bought for the channel the rights to NBA games that were discarded by Rogers Sportsnet at the end of last season.

The new service will provide extensive auto racing and tennis coverage and, apparently, will air at least one major-league event daily.

And it will be the first digital channel in Canada to provide programming in high-definition television.

A sidebar to TSN's plans is the status of the network's existing alternative digital channel, which has been carrying overflow programming for the past several years.

TSN asked cable and satellite companies this summer to sign agreements to carry TSN2. By the end of last week, several, including Rogers Cable and Bell ExpressVu, had not agreed.

As a result, TSN's alternative channel, which had been available free of charge, was cut off from the distributors who were unwilling to commit to TSN2.

The alternative channel will be discontinued once TSN2 is up and running, but, in the short term, its absence will have an impact, particularly in September, when it airs U.S. Open tennis telecasts.

The launch of TSN2, which was previously licensed by the federal regulator, will not be good news for Sportsnet or The Score. It will represent more competition. Nor will it be helpful to the CBC, which is hoping to start its own digital sports channel.

More on this later.

TSN and Shaw have handled the TSN Alternate Channel extremely badly in the Vancouver area.  Shaw didn't show it for a long time and then brought it on for a few weeks during the hockey playoffs and then took it off "only in the Vancouver area" according to Shaw Customer Service.
With all the channels available nowadays Shaw should have never taken it off.  

of course it will probably live in a different satellite package and cost me an extra $15/month...

Shaw misses the boat by not carrying the Global Vancouver HD signal on Vancouver Island. Where's the outcry. I'm all about HD, once a convert, it's hard to go back to standard def.

Might be due to folks enjoying the absence of sim-subbing.  It's been great being able to watch US feeds without Canadian commercials and station promos inserted.  Especially annoying were Global's "ads in the stands" that were inserted in between the last commercial spot and the network's return to the actual game.  Seriously, anyone ever seen a Canadian Tire ad on a US stadium scoreboard in person?

Anyone know why Shaw Cable is not carrying this channel??  

Quoted from redhotcrew2004

Anyone know why Shaw Cable is not carrying this channel??  

None of the big boys of cable/satellite have agreed to pick up TSN2 yet. Starchoice, Bell, Rogers, Shaw....none of them are picking up TSN2 as of the moment. I suspect the folks at TSN are trying to overcharge for the channel.

If I somehow end up missing my curling coverage because of this situation, I will be LIVID....hopefully they get it straightened out.