On Friday I sat down to watch Strikeforce Challengers Series on Super Channel, a pay TV channel in Canada. (It originated from Showtime in the USA.) Prior to tuning in, I was confused at the start time of 8:45PM. I was a little angry because Read more »

Finding top mma on television in Canada has been a more or less hit-and-miss process. Sure, there’s pay-per-view, but what about us poor schmucks who can’t afford that? If you subscribe to “extended” cable, you probably get Spike TV. Here you can watch many UFC events, as well as The Ultimate Fighter reality gameshow. And every once in a while, CBS will throw some mma event on in primetime. Most cable companies in Canada carry CBS affiliated channels on their basic service. (Unlike the United States, most homes in Canada have some sort of cable service.)

But where can I find a Canadian channel that carries mma? As you may know, if you read my previous post, mma is technically illegal in Canada. And while it is not illegal to show the sport on television, it sometimes feels like some channels are afraid of being prosecuted for it. I first saw mma while flipping the channels about five years ago. It was something from the UFC, but it was over too fast. And it was on TSN (The Sports Network).

TSN is the reigning king of sports channels in Canada, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009. Most in Canada joke that the ‘T’ stands for Toronto, since most of its coverage is centred there. Their headquarters are in Toronto. And Ontario is notorious for enforcing the anti-mma law. After seeing this fight on TSN, I continued to look for more, but there was none to be had.

The Ultimate Fighter began in January 2005 on Spike TV. At the time, Spike was a haven for Star Trek reruns … and that’s about it. So this show was kept off my radar until I happened across an ad for the live finale. Ooh, I thought, mma on TV! So I watched Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar beat the shit out of each other. How could one not be hooked after that? I watched a lot of mma on Spike after that!

A couple of years ago, Rogers Sportsnet in Canada started airing The Ultimate Fighter. The problem is that they tend to air it later than Spike, due to Canadian laws regarding content. Spike airs it at 10PM, however cable companies in Canada tend to carry only the eastern feed of US cable channels, so it airs in Vancouver at Read more »