Mark Fox's Weblog

I have occasionally thought that either the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) or a private broadcaster should create a sports channel dedicated to covering the Olympic sports that Canadians get excited about every four years and then ignore (e.g. everything but hockey, gymnastics and figure skating). While no such channel is planned for Canada, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) plans to launch the U.S. Olympic Network in the United States with Comcast as a partner. This may conflict with a similar plan by US Olympic rights holder NBC for its Universal Sports channel which will focus on “off-season events, lower-profile Olympic sports and other "lifestyle sports" programming.” In fact some suggest the USOC’s plan could endanger the chance of Chicago being awarded the 2016 Summer Games as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could take offense at the USOC competing with its official sponsor.

Could Canada get one Olympic Channel? I hear our rowers are top competitors.

Update: July 16, 2009

As noted in a comment by Joe Clark, CBC has in fact received CRTC approval for CBC SportsPlus. Its license requirements include:

As part of the licence, at least 30% of the content must be covering amateur sport, calculated weekly. Also, no more than 30% of weekly broadcasts could involve pro sports and only 10 per cent could be high-profile sports such as hockey, baseball, football, basketball, golf, soccer or tennis.

The CBC originally asked for 30% coverage of high-profile sports and was opposed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) which represents Canada’s private broadcasters
(PDF).

CBC SportsPlus' launch is planned for this year.