There are billions of reasons why, come the fall, CBC will break with tradition and will no longer be carrying NHL games on Saturday nights in Canada.
It all comes down to one multi-billion dollar NHL rights deal ending and another just beginning,
The old deal, signed in 2013, saw Rogers’ Sportsnet end CBC’s grip on pro hockey by licensing exclusive rights to nationally televised NHL games for 12 years for around $5 billion dollars. That deal just ended last weekend with the Carolina Hurricane’s victory in the 2026 Stanley Cup.
In the new deal, also for 12 years at $11 billion and running through 2038, Rogers’ Sportsnet will continue to be the home of NHL hockey on Saturday nights, but they will no longer simulcast games on Saturday nights on CBC.
This ends a Canadian TV tradition dating back 74 years to the fall of 1952. Hockey Night in Canada on CBC is one of North American network television’s oldest continuous series, dating back farther than The Tonight Show on NBC.
Back in 2013, when the old deal was negotiated, Rogers’ top sports executive, Scott Moore, didn’t want to alienate hockey fans who had watched NHL hockey for “free” for generations. He also felt Canadian audiences — rooted in this tradition of Saturday nights on CBC — might need time to ease over to a specialty channel such as Sportsnet carrying the game.
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Moore wasn’t just being altruistic. A dozen years ago, hockey fans would resent having to subscribe to Sportsnet to watch a game on TV on Saturday nights. Nowadays, however, viewers have to pay for a Prime Video subscription to see NHL action on Monday nights. Other sports and other nights are getting expensive as television properties continue to migrate to streaming platforms.
Therefore, a deal was made back in 2013 where CBC would simulcast Sportsnet’s NHL coverage but that Rogers would retain all the ad revenue. What CBC got was another dozen years of continuity and tradition, plus the exposure of a million-plus viewers to a set number of ads promoting Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland, 22 Minutes and other CBC fare.
What CBC did not have to pay, according to then chairman Hubert Lacroix, was any share of the media rights fee. With Rogers now having to pay an $11 billion fee to stay in business with the NHL, CBC’s “free” ride may have come to an end.
Plus, it is 2026. Tradition is no longer the only way to find a TV show. Viewers can just say, “Sportsnet” into their Xfinity or Roku remote and before you can say “Ron MacLean,” you’re looking at him.
There were negotiations, and CBC was likely asked, and refused, to contribute to the cost of the licensing fee. As Lacroix said back in 2013 when CBC surrendered the rights, the public broadcaster was simply “not in a position to spent taxpayer money in this game of high stakes.”
What Rogers does not own, however, is the brand name Hockey Night in Canada. That remains CBC’s Intellectual Property. Therefore, no HNiC logos will be on the set of the Sportsnet game coverage going forward.
Where you may still see that brand, according to what I’m hearing, is on CBC on Saturday nights. There is nothing to stop the public broadcaster from, say, covering PWHL women’s professional hockey under the old legacy HNiC banner, or even Olympic and other international hockey games.
What CBC is saying for now (and they seem to be taking the brunt of the social media heat for “dropping” Hockey Night in Canada) is that the public broadcaster “will launch a new Saturday night primetime show on CBC and streaming on CBC Gem, featuring the best performances by Canadian athletes competing at home and at the biggest events around the world. This increased commitment will provide Canadian athletes with an unprecedented profile between Olympc and Paralympic Games.”
What you won’t hear on either CBC or Sportsnet come the fall on Saturday nights is the old Hockey Night in Canada theme song. That remains the property of Bell Media’s TSN – just to keep things as confusing as possible.
That this new breaks just days after the death of Ronnie Schell — the original voice of Hockey Night in Canada‘s cartoon pal Peter Puck — just slaps home the point that this is the end of an era.
