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  1. #1
    scottdude8's Avatar
    scottdude8 is online now Moderator, Contributor, Zoubek disciple, and resident Wolverine
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    Watching college basketball in Canada

    Now that it’s officially the off-season (ending on a sour note for me, lol), I thought it was appropriate to post this. I’m moving to Toronto in a couple of months and obviously want to make sure I can watch Duke (and hopefully Michigan) on tv. Do any Canadian Dukies our there know the best way to do this? Is there a cable package or something?

  2. #2
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    Rogers has an add-on called Super Sports Pak which includes NCAA sports. You can subscribe for a minimum of four months which covers most of the basketball season and nearly all the Duke games have been available. Part of one of Rogers' regular bundles includes an Atlanta station (I think it's called Peachtree maybe) that sometimes carries the ACC network games.

    https://www.rogers.com/consumer/tv/super-sports-pak

  3. #3
    scottdude8's Avatar
    scottdude8 is online now Moderator, Contributor, Zoubek disciple, and resident Wolverine
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    Thanks! Any other options that anyone knows of?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by scottdude8 View Post
    Thanks! Any other options that anyone knows of?
    The super sports pack that was mentioned is the best tv option. Just be aware that every now and then a big game (eg. Duke vs UNC) will be on the Canadian version of ESPN. It's called TSN, and actually has 5 different channels. You have to be a bit wary of which provider you choose, as they may not offer all five TSN channels (as I found out).

    The two main cable tv companies are Rogers and Bell. To some extent you can play them off against each other to get a better deal. Good luck - their customer service is improving, but still is very challenging to navigate.

  5. #5
    scottdude8's Avatar
    scottdude8 is online now Moderator, Contributor, Zoubek disciple, and resident Wolverine
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    So I've been looking into this in more detail and it looks like both Bell and Rogers (the two major companies) have college sports packages... but it's hard to get a firm answer from either of them as to what they actually include since it's the off-season. Sounds like a couple of people have used the Rogers pack and found that it gets most of the Duke games. Does anyone know about Bell? It seems like they might be the cheaper option where I'm living so I'm leaning towards them, but if they can't guarantee my college basketball then that is a dealbreaker, haha.
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  6. #6
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    Keep in mind the Canadian court is 20% smaller.

    The doughnuts are better though ...

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by BD80 View Post
    Keep in mind the Canadian court is 20% smaller.

    The doughnuts are better though ...
    I miss Tim Hortons, but Krispy Kreme is still better. If we are talking coffee, Timmy takes the cake (doughnut).

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by scottdude8 View Post
    Thanks! Any other options that anyone knows of?
    you can always purchase a slingbox, and through the kindness of someone here in the area, have it hooked to their back room, little used cable box..
    "One POSSIBLE future. From your point of view... I don't know tech stuff.".... Kyle Reese

  9. #9
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    Steamboat Springs, CO

    NS Dukie??

    Quote Originally Posted by bluenorth View Post
    The super sports pack that was mentioned is the best tv option. Just be aware that every now and then a big game (eg. Duke vs UNC) will be on the Canadian version of ESPN. It's called TSN, and actually has 5 different channels. You have to be a bit wary of which provider you choose, as they may not offer all five TSN channels (as I found out).

    The two main cable tv companies are Rogers and Bell. To some extent you can play them off against each other to get a better deal. Good luck - their customer service is improving, but still is very challenging to navigate.
    I am surprised that NSDukeFan hasn't weighed in. He could give you a view from the Maritimes.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by scottdude8 View Post
    So I've been looking into this in more detail and it looks like both Bell and Rogers (the two major companies) have college sports packages... but it's hard to get a firm answer from either of them as to what they actually include since it's the off-season. Sounds like a couple of people have used the Rogers pack and found that it gets most of the Duke games. Does anyone know about Bell? It seems like they might be the cheaper option where I'm living so I'm leaning towards them, but if they can't guarantee my college basketball then that is a dealbreaker, haha.
    I can report that the Bell NCAA package will generally get you all but a couple of Duke games, generally the early-season games against low-majors. However, it might get more complex this year with Barrett on the team, since TSN took a significant segment of Kentucky games when they had Jamal Murray. I expect that you can safely get everything with a combination of the two this year. The other potential complication is the streaming service DAZN, which picked up the Pac-12 license in the middle of the season. It wouldn't surprise me if they picked up the ACC streaming license this year, which wouldn't affect the TSN games but might affect the NCAA package, since their licenses sometimes preclude cable or satellite packages from airing their games on specialty packages, like the NFL this past year.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    I am surprised that NSDukeFan hasn't weighed in. He could give you a view from the Maritimes.
    I have had trouble watching Duke games the past couple years as out East I have Bell Aliant that doesn't have a college sports package. No one seems to want to take my money so that I can consistently watch the games legally.

    Heaven's Guardian makes a great point about more Duke games being available this year on TSN as I recall a few more Kansas games available the year Wiggins played there also. A college sports package would be better though.

  12. #12
    scottdude8's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heaven's Guardian View Post
    I can report that the Bell NCAA package will generally get you all but a couple of Duke games, generally the early-season games against low-majors. However, it might get more complex this year with Barrett on the team, since TSN took a significant segment of Kentucky games when they had Jamal Murray. I expect that you can safely get everything with a combination of the two this year. The other potential complication is the streaming service DAZN, which picked up the Pac-12 license in the middle of the season. It wouldn't surprise me if they picked up the ACC streaming license this year, which wouldn't affect the TSN games but might affect the NCAA package, since their licenses sometimes preclude cable or satellite packages from airing their games on specialty packages, like the NFL this past year.
    Yeah, the lady at Bell told me their college sports package includes "thousands" of basketball and football games so I would hope that would include most Duke games that would be on major networks. This DAZN thing is interesting though. Do you know exactly what rights it holds? Regardless the Bell college sports package is only 99 bucks for the whole year (Rogers packages it in with a bunch of other sports packages, making it much more expensive), so I'm probably going to end up going with them.
    Scott Rich on the front page

    Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
    Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
    K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012

    Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
    If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by scottdude8 View Post
    Yeah, the lady at Bell told me their college sports package includes "thousands" of basketball and football games so I would hope that would include most Duke games that would be on major networks. This DAZN thing is interesting though. Do you know exactly what rights it holds? Regardless the Bell college sports package is only 99 bucks for the whole year (Rogers packages it in with a bunch of other sports packages, making it much more expensive), so I'm probably going to end up going with them.
    DAZN has nothing but the Pac- 12 for now (all sports), but I expect them to try and get other licenses for college networks, especially since they lost their NFL exclusive deal.

  14. #14
    Find Dan Meagher - I bet he knows where...

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by HereBeforeCoachK View Post
    Find Dan Meagher - I bet he knows where...
    And, if he doesn't, he'll spit in your face...
    [redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.

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