In May 2020, due to postponement of the regular season and other factors relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that the 108th Grey Cup festivities in Regina, Saskatchewan (which were to be the first to be hosted by the new Mosaic Stadium) had been cancelled and postponed to 2022, and that the site of the game, if held, would be based on regular season records rather than as a neutral site.[1] The Grey Cup itself was later cancelled in August along with the 2020 CFL season, which was the first year that the Grey Cup was not contested since 1919.
The 107th Grey Cup in 2019 was televised in Canada by TSN (English) and RDS (French), in the United States on ESPN2, in the United Kingdom by BT Sport, and in Mexico by MVS. Outside of North America, the Grey Cup was broadcast by ESPN International and its affiliated networks to 74 countries.[2] The game was also available for online streaming for international viewers (outside of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom) through the CFL's streaming platform, in Canada through the TV Everywhere system TSN Go and in the United States via ESPN's TV Everywhere system.[2]TSN Radio stations, including Tiger-Cats flagship CKOC and Winnipeg's CFRW (replacing game coverage on CJOB), carried the Grey Cup on radio across Canada. Those stations were distributed online and to mobile devices via iHeartRadio. The game was watched by an average of 3.9 million viewers, split between TSN and RDS. Nearly nine million Canadians watched some or all of the game. This represented a 19% increase in viewership over the 106th Grey Cup. Viewership on TSN's streaming platforms also increased 77% over the previous year. In the United States, the game attracted an audience of 109,000 viewers on ESPN2.[3]
The 106th Grey Cup in 2018 was televised in Canada by TSN (English) and RDS (French),[4] and in the United States on ESPN2. For the first time, a Spanish-language telecast was provided by ESPN Latin America for ESPN3 in Mexico, with Aaron Soriano on play-by-play and the Toronto Argonauts' Frank Beltre on colour. The move came on the heels of a letter of intent between the CFL and Mexico's Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, which contained a proposal for partnerships between the two leagues and the possibility of a CFL game played in Mexico as early as 2020.[5][6]
The 105th Grey Cup in 2017 was watched by an average of 4.3 million viewers, with viewership peaking at nearly six million during the Argos' comeback in the fourth quarter. Nearly a third of the population of Canada watched part of the game. The game saw a ten percent increase in viewership over the previous year and a fifty-eight percent increase in viewership in the Toronto/Hamiltonmarket. Overall, the 105th Grey Cup was the most watched Grey Cup since 2013.
The 104th Grey Cup in 2016 was watched by an average of 3.9 million Canadians, with the average viewership peaking at 5.7 million during the Stampeders' fourth quarter comeback and overtime. The day following the game, the CFL announced the game saw increases in viewership over the previous year, including a 15% increase in viewers from the 18–34 male demographic. This was also the first Grey Cup game broadcast in 4k on TSN's newly created TSN 4k channel.[7] The game also saw significant growth in online viewership and in coverage on social media sites such as Twitter. Overall, approximately ten million Canadians watched at least part of the game.[8] According to the CFL, approximately 2.5 million viewers in the United States watched the Grey Cup, either on ESPN 2 or through livestreaming.[9]
In Canada, the English broadcast of the 101st Grey Cup in 2013 was presented on TSN, while the French language broadcast was handled by its sister station, broadcast in Canada by RDS. In the United States, the game was broadcast on the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN, simulcasting the TSN feed). On the radio, the game was covered by TSN Radio, AM900 CHML, CKRM and Sirius XM.[10] Overall, the game was seen by 11.5 million viewers, or approximately 1 in 3 Canadians, with an average viewership of 4.5 million.[11][12]
The 100th Grey Cup in 2012 was broadcast in Canada on TSN in English and its sister station, RDS, in French. TSN commissioned a documentary series, Engraved on a Nation, to commemorate the centennial.[13] The game was televised in the United States by NBCSN.[14] With an average of 5.5 million viewers for TSN, it was the most watched Grey Cup game of all-time on English television. Including RDS, viewership averaged 5.8 million, while over 13 million Canadians watched at least part of the contest. While these totals represented a 28% increase over the year before,[15] both fell short of the all-time records of 6.1 million viewers on average and 14 million total set in the 97th Grey Cup in 2009.[16] The half-time show averaged 6.1 million viewers.[15]
In Canada, the 99th Grey Cup in 2011 was televised in high-definition by both TSN (English) and RDS (French). TSN play-by-play was provided by Chris Cuthbert, while Glen Suitor provided colour commentary. Play-by-play man Denis Casavant and colour commentator Pierre Vercheval announced the game for RDS. The RDS broadcast team also included Marc Labrecque, Mike Sutherland and Claude Mailhot. The game was watched on television by an average audience of 4.6 million people. Although this was down from the 6.04 million viewers that the 98th Grey Cup drew, it was still the highest-rated television program of the week in Canada. In the Vancouver market, over half the population watched the game, and more than 11 million Canadians overall watched some or all of the broadcast on TSN and RDS.
In Canada, the 98th Grey Cup in 2010 was televised in high-definition by both TSN (English) and RDS (French). TSN play-by-play was provided by Chris Cuthbert, while Glen Suitor provided colour commentary. On RDS the game was announced by play-by-play man Denis Casavant and colour commentator Pierre Vercheval. The RDS broadcast team also included commentary from Marc Labrecque, Mike Sutherland and Claude Mailhot. TSN aired Grey Cup-related programs throughout the week leading up to the 98th Grey Cup, culminating with extensive coverage on Grey Cup Saturday and TSN's broadcast of the 46th Vanier Cup. TSN's Grey Cup Sunday coverage began at 1 pm ET with a Grey Cup pre-game show hosted by the regular CFL on TSN panel of Dave Randorf, Jock Climie, Matt Dunigan and Chris Schultz. After the game, the panel hosted the post-game show, which was followed by a special post-game edition of SportsCentre.[17] The game was watched on television by 6.04 million Canadians, making it the second most-watched game in Grey Cup history, slightly behind the previous year's game, which drew 6.1 million viewers. BBM Canada reported that the audience for the game peaked at 7.6 million viewers and that, overall, close to 14 million Canadians—or about 42% of Canada's population—tuned in to watch some or all of the broadcast on TSN and RDS. RDS' French-language broadcast drew an average audience of 1.1 million viewers.
The 96th Grey Cup in 2008 was the first Grey Cup not to be broadcast on CBC Television since they started broadcasting the Grey Cup in 1952. In Canada, the game was telecast solely on the cable channel TSN and its French-language sister network RDS. Internationally, both Versus, telecasting in the United States, and Canadian Forces Radio and Television, broadcasting to Canadian forces internationally, used the TSN feed and graphics. The game was available in HD on both TSN HD and RDS HD and shown in HD in the United States on Voom HD Networks's WorldSport. It was also seen online at ESPN360.com.
The 95th Grey Cup in 2007 was viewed by approximately 3.337 million viewers on CBC television, up from 3.202 million the previous year.[18] This was the last Grey Cup and CFL game broadcast by CBC, as TSN became the exclusive TV home for the CFL the following season.
With the shutdown of the league-run Canadian Football Network broadcast service after the end of the previous season, the 79th Grey Cup in 1991 was the first Grey Cup game to be broadcast on only one network since 1960, CBC Television. All Grey Cup games since have been broadcast on CBC or, since 2008, TSN.
Raghib 'Rocket' Ismail's 87 yard kickoff return is a Grey Cup record for kickoffs. Surprisingly, Ismail (who went on to a long NFL career) admitted in a recent television interview on the CBC that he had not seen a replay of the return since the game (some 15 years earlier). The CBC provided him with a DVD copy of the game.
The 78th Grey Cup in 1990 was the last game broadcast by the CFL's league-run syndication broadcast service, the Canadian Football Network, which started in 1987 and was shut down after this game. All CFL playoff and Grey Cup games would be exclusively broadcast on CBC Television starting the next year, continuing until 2007, when TSN gained exclusive broadcast rights to all CFL games, including the Grey Cup.
The 1982 Grey Cup broadcast drew the largest Canadian TV audience up to that time.
For the 1986 Grey Cup, each network presented its own coverage.
After the 1986 season, CTV dropped coverage of the CFL altogether. In response to this, the CFL formed its own syndicated network, called CFN (Canadian Football Network). CFN had completely separate coverage of the Grey Cup (when compared to CBC), utilizing its own production and commentators. From 1987–1989, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the Grey Cup championship, aired in the United States on a tape-delay basis on ESPN.
The CFL operated the Canadian Football Network, a coalition of private broadcasters that shared league games and the Grey Cup with the CBC, from 1987 to 1990.[21]
From 1971–1986, CBC and CTV fully pooled their commentary teams for the game. The first set of commentators listed described the first half of the game, and the second set described the rest of the game.
The CBC carried the first national telecasts exclusively, but the CTV Television Network purchased rights to the 1962 game. The move sparked concern across Canada as the newly formed network was not yet available in many parts of the country.[23] The debate over whether an "event of national interest" should be broadcast by the publicly funded CBC or private broadcasters reached the floor of Parliament as members of the federal government weighed in.[24] It was decided that both networks would carry the game.[23] The two networks continued with the simulcast arrangement until 1986 when CTV ceased its coverage.[25]
The 1962 Grey Cup was the first CFL contest to be broadcast by an American TV network, when ABC's Wide World of Sports carried the game in the United States. (The game, which was shown live on the CBC starting at 12:30pm in Toronto, was shown on ABC via tape delay beginning at 4:00 Eastern time. The end of the contest the next day was carried by the CBC but not ABC.) It would be the only CFL game to air on a US network until 1980, when the nascent ESPN cable network acquired American broadcast rights to the league. The first CFL game seen on ESPN was on July 9, 1980, when the Montreal defeated Toronto, 18-11.
The 45th Grey Cup in 1957 was the first Grey Cup game to be covered on coast-to-coast television.
Canadian television was in its infancy in 1952 when Toronto's CBLT paid $7,500 for the rights to carry the first televised broadcast of a Grey Cup game.[23] Within two years, it was estimated that 80 percent of the nation's 900,000 television sets were tuned into the game,[26] even though the first national telecast did not occur until 1957.[27] The Grey Cup continues to be one of Canada's most-viewed sporting events.[28]
The 40th Grey Cup in 1952 was the first Grey Cup match to be televised as CBC Television's Toronto flagship station, CBLT, paid CAD$7,500 to the Canadian Rugby Union for the rights to broadcast the game. The broadcast was only available locally on CBLT which had only begun broadcasts less than three months earlier.[29] Live network television connections with other CBC stations were not available until 1953, although kinescope films of the game were produced for movie theatres and other television stations.[30] A technical failure prevented viewers from seeing 29 minutes of the game video. This interrupted the telecast during much of the third quarter, although commentator audio was still transmitted. Images were restored into the final quarter when CBC technicians repaired the link at the CBC's tower which received the feed from Varsity Stadium.[30][29] The reported cause of the transmission relay failure was a vacuum tube worth $1.85.[31] Despite this setback, this inaugural Grey Cup broadcast was reported to have had the most viewers of any Canadian television production to that date.[30]
United States
NBC: 1954 [32] – The predecessor to the CFL's East Division, the IRFU, had a television contract with NBC in 1954 that provided far more coverage than the NFL's existing contract with DuMont. NBC aired games on Saturday afternoons, competing against college football broadcasts on CBS and ABC. The revenue from the contract allowed the IRFU to directly compete against the NFL for players in the late 1950s, setting up a series of CFL games in the United States beginning in 1958 and a series of interleague exhibitions beginning in 1959. Interest in the CFL in the United States faded dramatically after the debut of the American Football League in 1960.[33]
SCORE: 1985 – FNN-SCORE is unrelated to the Canadian "The Score".
ESPN: 1980–1984, 1986–1989, 2016–2022 - ESPN host Chris Berman became a fan of the game in the early days of ESPN, when the network used to air CFL games, and continues to cover the Canadian league on-air.[35]
ESPN2: 1994–1997, 2014–2022 – Beginning in 1994, with now four US-based teams in the league, ESPN reached a deal with the league to produce and air two games per week and all post-season games on its fledgling ESPN2. They also put some games on the main network to fill broadcast time vacated by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. The 1994 and 1995 Grey Cups were shown live on ESPN2 and then re-aired on ESPN the following day, leading into the network's Monday Night Countdown show. ESPN's on-air talent included a mix of the network's American football broadcasters and established CFL broadcasters from Canada. Most of the US-based teams also had deals with local carriers to show games that were not covered in the national package. Though there were no US teams in the league after 1995, ESPN2 continued showing games until 1997.
Regional sports networks and America One: 2001–2007, 2009–2010 [36] – America One held CFL broadcast rights in the United States from 2004 to 2009 and aired a majority of the league's games.[37] Until the 2007 season, America One syndicated CFL games to regional sports networks like Altitude, NESN, and MASN; these were discontinued in 2008, mainly because America One and the CFL were able to reach a deal only days before the season began, not allowing the network time to establish agreements with individual RSNs. The Grey Cup aired on Versus on November 22, 2008, with a replay the next day on America One. From 2006 through the 2008 season, Friday Night Football was carried exclusively on World Sport HD in the United States; however, due to the January 2009 shutdown of that channel's parent company, Voom HD Networks, America One reclaimed those rights.
ESPN3: 2009–2022 – On July 1, 2010, NFL Network began airing live Canadian Football League games simulcast from Canada's TSN. NFL Network aired Thursday games, three Saturday games in July, and then Friday night games beginning again in September (after ArenaBowl XXIII). NFL Network didn't air CFL games in August due to a large number of NFL preseason broadcasts.[38][39] In addition, NFL Network didn't show any playoff games, including the Grey Cup championship, as those games are all played on Sundays opposite the NFL. Those games were instead broadcast on the online service ESPN3, a sister network to TSN. NFL Network announced it would not renew its deal with the CFL on May 25, 2012.[40]
The Grey Cup game was first broadcast on radio in 1928.[45] The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) carried radio coverage of the game for 51 years until 1986, when a network of private broadcasters took over.[46]
CFL teams had local broadcast contracts with terrestrial radio stations for regular season and playoff games, while The Fan Radio Network (Rogers Communications) owned the rights to the Grey Cup.[50] In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio gained exclusive rights for North American CFL satellite radio broadcasts and broadcast 25 CFL games per season, including the Grey Cup, through 2008.[51]
