CBC announced this afternoon that their digital channel CBC Bold will launch in HD in “early June” ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which CBC has exclusive Canadian English-language rights to. This is really good news because Bold will have 8 exclusive game (see those at the bottom of the post) and primetime encores of all games. Rogers in Ontario will launch the channel tomorrow (June 3) and Cogeco will launch it on June 9. It has not been confirmed by other providers like Shaw, Shaw Direct and Bell TV, but I would expect all will add it, and probably put it on free preview for the month.


Bold also airs many other sports events including live coverage of Spruce Meadows equestrian, the World Curling Tour Grand Slams, Alpine Skiing World Cup and Canadian and World figure skating events. It is also expected that they will provide live coverage of the 2011 World Alpine Ski Championships, World Snowboarding Championships and World Freestyle Ski Championships. Not all of these events are available in HD, but 16:9 SD certainly beats 4:3 SD.

Now here is Bold’s live World Cup schedule. I’ll do a complete Bold encore schedule when I have more time than the 15 minutes between periods of the Stanley Cup Finals. All times are EDT

June 22, 9:45am – France vs. South Africa
June 22, 2:15pm – Nigeria vs. South Korea
June 23, 9:45am – United States vs. Algeria
June 23, 2:15pm – Australia vs. Serbia
June 24, 9:45am – Paraguay vs. New Zealand
June 24, 2:15pm – Denmark vs. Japan
June 25, 9:45am – North Korea vs. Cote d’Ivorie
June 25, 2:15pm – Switzerland vs. Honduras

Article courtesy of Canadian Sports Fan’s Blog.