{"id":708802,"date":"2026-06-17T04:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708802\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T04:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:09:09","slug":"cbc-to-stop-airing-nhl-games-after-74-years-marking-end-of-free-hockey-on-canadian-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708802\/","title":{"rendered":"CBC to stop airing NHL games after 74 years, marking end of free hockey on Canadian TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The era of free hockey on Canadian television is over. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sportsnet and CBC said the pact that had kept NHL games on the public broadcaster had come to an end. The announcement means the country\u2019s longest-running weekly program, Hockey Night in Canada, which began airing in the fall of 1952, will also cease to exist in its current form.<\/p>\n

The program was an icon of Canadian culture, one that Michael McKinley, author of the commemorative book Hockey Night in Canada: 60 Seasons, had called \u201cour date night with the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday night games will now air exclusively on the subscription service Sportsnet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching hockey on Saturday night is a time-honoured tradition for Canadians, and Sportsnet is privileged to continue delivering that tradition,\u201d the two companies said in a statement. \u201cThis has been a terrific partnership, and both parties look forward to continued opportunities to collaborate in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sportsnet had been producing English-language NHL broadcasts for its own network and CBC ever since the Rogers Communications Inc.-owned service bought up the national rights to the league in a blockbuster $5.2-billion, 12-year deal that began in the fall of 2014. Prior to that, CBC had owned the rights to Saturday night games for decades.<\/p>\n

The announcement did not come as a surprise to Michael Naraine, Brock University associate professor of sport management.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are up in arms about the news, because this is such an ultra-sensitive institution,\u201d he said. \u201cThe thing is, the CBC was lucky to be airing hockey for the last 12 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the deal between the two broadcasters was first struck, Rogers and CBC needed each other. Rogers did not have a national TV broadcast network that would assure the NHL of the widest possible audience for its games, and CBC had just lost one-seventh of its prime-time programming \u2013 as well as a way to advertise its other programs in front of the largest audience it would attract each week.<\/p>\n

Head of CBC looks to meet Canadians where they are amid shifting challenges<\/a><\/p>\n

In the interim, Rogers has been able to sharply increase the amount it charges Sportsnet subscribers, in large part because of the popularity of the NHL programming. In 2013, before landing the NHL rights, it charged approximately $21 a year to those who got the channel through a traditional cable or satellite provider, according to data published by the CRTC. In 2024, the last year for which data are available, Sportsnet received about $72 a year for traditional TV subscribers, or more than triple the 2013 figure.<\/p>\n

The NHL rights are also a key driver for subscriptions to its streaming service, Sportsnet+, which Rogers launched in 2016. <\/p>\n

After being priced out of hockey 12 years ago, CBC chose to increase its focus on the amateur and Olympic sector. <\/p>\n

Neither broadcaster would disclose the extent of their efforts to keep hockey on CBC. <\/p>\n

Chuck Thompson, the CBC\u2019s spokesperson, said despite their best efforts the two broadcasters \u201ccouldn\u2019t come to an agreement that works for both parties.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement, Sportsnet spokesperson Jason Jackson said that Hockey Night in Canada viewership on CBC had \u201cdeclined significantly over the years,\u201d with audiences for the early Saturday night game down 70 per cent since 2014. \u201cMost fans watch Saturday night hockey on Sportsnet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His statement added that Saturday night broadcasts would now air exclusively on Sportsnet. Previously, games had been seen across Rogers\u2019 TV platforms, including CityTV and its multicultural OMNI channel.<\/p>\n

Prof. Naraine noted that the environment for terminating a cultural mainstay such as Hockey Night in Canada has changed over the past decade. <\/p>\n

\u201cRogers is no longer afraid that the Canadian government and the Canadian people would reject this as a mass cultural massacre,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve normalized buying over-the-top streaming services.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Rogers is now aiming to position its sports media division as a premium offering in the marketplace, in particular ahead of the company\u2019s acquisition of the remaining portion of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, expected to close later this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cRogers needs to prop up its sports and media division,\u201d Mr. Naraine said. \u201cWhy would you let the CBC have viewership numbers when you want to drive viewership numbers to your platform, so that you can monetize the division?\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.John Locher\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The shift comes as Rogers embarks on a new 12-year, $11-billion agreement with the NHL that, when it was signed in April, 2025, company executives said would be immediately profitable.<\/p>\n

Rogers had managed to cut the overall cost of the previous NHL rights deal with two sublicense agreements, selling off all 12 years of the French-language rights to Quebecor\u2019s TVA Sports channel and the last two years\u2019 worth of rights for English-language Monday night games to Amazon\u2019s Prime streaming service. But it has not yet renewed either one of those deals for the coming season.<\/p>\n

In April, Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl Peladeau told The Globe the companies were in talks over the French-language hockey games, saying that there is \u201calways a price point somewhere\u201d that could make sense for the company. NHL games are a pillar of programming for TVA Sports, filling the schedule on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday in prime time.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s hockey season begins in about three-and-a-half months. Cheri Bradish, a professor of sports marketing at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the lack of a new sub-license at this point seems delayed compared to the usual schedule. <\/p>\n

In a press release, CBC said it would launch a new prime time Saturday show that would \u201cprovide Canadian athletes with an unprecedented profile between Olympic and Paralympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Thompson said that reports of the demise of Hockey Night in Canada are incorrect. \u201cCBC owns the Hockey Night in Canada brand and we have every intention of using it going forward,\u201d he told The Globe. \u201cWe will have more to share about how we use the brand in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The era of free hockey on Canadian television is over. On Tuesday, Sportsnet and CBC said the pact…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,385,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,99,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-708802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}