In the 2023 CFL season, the league announced CFL Plus for international viewers. In the United States, fans could watch most of the season on CFL Plus which was not broadcast by CBS Sports Network. CBS Sports Network aired 34 games this past season.
The CFL had spent the previous seasons on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNews, plus had its games streamed on ESPN+, which made it nice to watch all of the regular season and playoffs.
The bonus with the CFL Plus was the league streamed preseason games. In the United States, you could not watch those games before. It was nice to see players getting an opportunity to make a case about why they should be on a CFL roster spot.
As the season unfolded, CBS Sports Network, regardless of what the network and CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie say was a failure. I say this because if CBS Sports Network cared about the CFL, they would’ve found a way to broadcast the playoff games and the Grey Cup. Once the college football season started, the CFL took a backseat and was barely mentioned again. The CFL Plus kept those interested in the games. However, the CFL Plus can improve in the future.
First, the CFL needs to make an app available for Amazon Fire, Roku, and other streaming platforms so fans can watch the games on their televisions and not rely on a computer or connecting their iPads to their television. Many companies have partnered with other companies to develop apps and the CFL needs to do the same if they want to continue to grow or risk losing fans interested in the United States.
Next, with their current contract at TSN, it would be cool if CFL Plus could add other CFL content like CFL Wired, pre-and post-game shows, and even let fans watch classic games from the past. If the league wants to grow worldwide, let them watch the classic Grey Cup games and player profiles of those who played in the league.
There are a ton of fans who do not know that a majority of players, like Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia, Warren Moon, and Cameron Wake have all played in the CFL. Some of them have won both the Grey Cup and the Super Bowl like Bobby Singh, Harald Hasselbach, Ed George, and Brandon Browner. It would be cool to see player profiles like you see on NFL Films interviewing players and telling their stories about what the CFL has meant to them.
In the future, once the CFL contract with CBS Sports Network is up, they need to make all the games available on the Plus. Like in any business, they need to eventually start charging people to make money like the NFL does with Sunday Ticket but do not outprice the consumer to the point no one can afford it.
In Canada, once the TSN contract is up after the 2026 season, I would like to see the league air their games on more than one network. For example, have TSN air the Eastern Division games and bring back CBC to air all the Western Division games, plus add Rogers SportsNet to air Friday Night Football. Doing this would generate more revenue for the league and easier to watch the games on CFL Plus.
In today’s era, many sports leagues make their money through television contracts and the CFL has been left in the dust. The league relies on ticket revenue and that must change in the future. They got the CFL Plus right and now it’s time to make it grow.
With the right leadership in the CFL, they can make the CFL Plus a bigger success by potentially adding new fans, keeping homegrown talent, and adding more American players to the league which will make the product better than where it is right now.
