Ten years is a long time, but for TSN.ca, it’s just flown by in a blur of ever-changing technology.

In 1995, an American team, the Baltimore Stallions, won the Grey Cup; the San Francisco 49ers won a Super Bowl without Joe Montana; the Atlanta Braves won the World Series a year after the longest strike in sports history had washed out the Fall Classic; and the National Hockey League solved its own 103-day strike by signing a new collective bargaining agreement with the Players’ Association that would provide a decade of labour peace - the calm before the storm.

In 1995, TSN was 11-years old and well-established as Canada’s Sports Leader thanks to its coverage of events such as those described above. No one went deeper than TSN.

The internet, however, provided the network with an opportunity to go deeper. A lot deeper, as it turned out.
The internet was gaining enough popularity (6.6 million hosts in 1995) that a $50 fee for registering a domain name was introduced to maintain some semblance of control. TSN bought its internet identity, TSN.ca, and was on its way to cyberspace.

When the website was officially launched on September 27, 1995, great things were hoped. The internet was still relatively new in terms of public use and acceptance, but its potential was obvious. Bringing Canadian sports fans up to the minute news, scores and information on their computers was a natural companion for TSN’s television mantra.

Change came quickly as the marketplace rose and fell and technology improved at a seemingly geometric rate. In all, the website has undergone major re-construction eight times in ten years. One thing, however, remains the same.
TSN.ca just keeps on growing.

What started as a 150-page site is now, to borrow a term from Pierre McGuire, a monster consisting of more than 125,000 pages.

In terms of depth, popularity, and advertising impact, TSN.ca is bigger and better than ever in 2005.

This latest incarnation represents a collaborative effort between Bell Globemedia, with all their technical expertise, and the sports minded editorial staff working in TSN's newsroom at CTV's Agincourt studios.
The results have been staggering.

The average number of page views on TSN.ca through eight months of 2005 is over 42.47 million per month. Those page views are made by a monthly average of 1.55 million unique visitors to the site, including more than 484,000 registered users. Some 78,000 people receive news and scores from TSN.ca via morning e-mail.

Interactivity was an early staple of the website. The site host, “George the Couchmaster,” directed most of the back-and-forth through web chats, polls and e-mail.
Today, users contribute to the site in their own words through the “Your Call” feature, which receives about 30,000 submissions every month.

Early on, it was discovered that one of the great advantages for TSN.ca was - and is - the close affiliation with the SPORTSCENTRE newsroom. Since the site’s early days, portions of TSN’s broadcasts have been streamed on the website. At the time, not many sites were offering such innovation. At first, it was just one-minute updates from TSN and TSN Radio, plus features like Plays of the Week and the Highlight of the Night.

Now, over 625,000 minutes of video are played each month from TSN.ca’s audio-video server. That’s the equivalent of about 433 days worth of video being play in one month!
When TSN.ca was launched, it was not intended to be a sports news and information destination first and foremost, but that’s quickly what it became.

In its youth, breaking news was often withheld from TSN.ca until it could be announced on television. Sometimes, depending on programming, it could be a relatively lengthy wait. Once the news had been delivered to TSN’s viewers, the website would get the green light to go with the information.

Eventually, the internet was accepted as being the fastest way to get information to the public - and there were enough eyeballs watching the website to justify changing the process.

Now, when breaking news is delivered to the newsroom, the website producers are pressed to get the information on-line as quickly as possible.

In the race to be first with the news, the internet is the new battleground. And when it comes to sports news, TSN.ca is the Canadian champion.

A case in point is the NHL’s trade deadline day, annually the busiest day for sports internet traffic in Canada. Deadline day is always a weekday, so most hockey fans are at work and away from their television sets. To follow along in the annual sweater-changing derby, fans turn to their computers. On deadline day of 2004, TSN.ca recorded a staggering 41.1 million page views from 511,000 unique visitors - easily the all-time one-day record.

That number hasn’t been approached since, but recent trends continue to head upwards. In July of 2005, the website had seven of its top 10 days of all-time in terms of traffic. The following month, four more top ten days were recorded.
The records just keep falling.

Who knows what the next ten years will hold for TSN.ca? As it rounds the corner on its 10th anniversary, the website is branching out further with some news ventures, such as podcasting, R.S.S. feeds and mobile phone video delivery.
Whatever happens, you can be sure of one thing - that TSN.ca is dedicated to remaining Canada’s Sports Leader online.