NFL Net To Air Canadian Football

Searching for content, the NFL Network has a deal to air Canadian Football League games starting Thursday -- and stretching into the NFL season. Some -- notably cable operators that don't want to pay affiliate fees to offer it -- have charged that the NFL Network lacks compelling content outside of the eight NFL games it offers each fall.

NFL Network will air a weekly CFL game through Nov. 5, for a total of 14. The CFL was once a regular on ESPN and recently has had a presence on ESPN's broadband channel.

CFL uses a wider field than the NFL and two more players on the field at once. NFLN games will be played mostly on Friday nights; the deal does not include the CFL championship Grey Cup game. Canadian programmer TSN, which uses a logo with the same font as ESPN and airs a "Sports Centre," will produce the games for NFLN.

The eight-team CFL, which has had financial issues at its flagship franchise in Toronto. Its current financial issues aren't new. The NFL provided it with help starting in the 1990s.

The league has featured some notables, such as Warren Moon and Doug Flutie ,and made an unsuccessful attempt to expand into the U.S. in the mid-1990s in non-NFL markets.

Rob Assimakopoulos, a CFL executive, stated, the agreement "promises to expose our brand of football to a broad, new audience."

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