NASL “investigating” ways to make more games available to Canadian viewers By Steven Sandor Posted on April 27, 2015 5 0 792 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Canadian NASL followers who are frustrated by the state of the league’s current broadcasting deal will have to be patient. The current deal, introduced at the start of the 2015 season gives Canadian fans free access to all streams involving the Ottawa Fury and FC Edmonton, home or away —either through the Fury’s official website, TSN GO or Citytv’s website (depending on who’s doing the broadcasts). But, while American viewers can watch all of the streams for free through ESPN3, Canadian viewers can’t access the majority of American-team vs. American-team games. ESPN3 is not available to Canadians. For a “North American” league, there’s a real disparity between the access Canadian and American supporters have to the broadcasts. I have received a few tweets and LOT of e-mail about this. Fans were frustrated that they couldn’t watch any of the games this past weekend outside of the Fury/Strikers match. No Cosmos. No Rowdies. None of the remaining games that have bearing on the NASL spring-season race. NASL released this following statement to us on Monday. “Under our current arrangement with TSN GO, the only U.S.-based games that are currently available for Canadian viewers are as follows: • Games involving FC Edmonton or Ottawa Fury FC • Select marquee matchups involving two U.S. clubs (Example: Week 1 FTLvNYC) We’re investigating the possibility of offering additional games via TSN GO, but at this point it is unclear which ones or how many.” So, for Canadian viewers, the NASL broadcast picture remains unclear.But, for now, Canadians remain shut out of the majority of the NASL broadcast schedule. The broadcast quality of games has greatly improved under the new ESPN3 pact. But, in terms of coverage, the old NASLLive service, discontinued after the 2014 season, served Canadians far better – simply because all of the games were available.
