The End of Hockey Night in Canada 2026

The renewal of the very lengthy 12 year Rogers NHL contract should have been a clue. Some of the changes were already announced such as Amazon Prime games as well as more Netflix games. Television came to Canada in 1952 and that is when CBC began to broadcast it on Saturdays. Foster Hewitt led the TV broadcast from that year until 1965. It was familiar territory for him as he had been the national radio broadcaster for hockey since 1931. From 1952 to 1965 CBC TV and CBC radio simulcast Hockey Night in Canada.

Everything about hockey broadcasting was as a result of the CBC and it went on to become the most watched sport on a weekly basis across Canada. Alas, the profitability of it made it more difficult for CBC to keep bidding on it and winning. They could have possibly had a partnership and retained some rights but dropped the puck on that. Rogers took control in 2014 and only used the CBC network for its coast to coast broadcast reach as well its talent.

As of June 16, the CBC will not host any NHL hockey on Saturday as Rogers brings it all in house. Both sides, Sportsnet and CBC, jointly announced the end of the arrangement. Neither side as really indicated what comes next aside from the name will change for Rogers broadcasts on Saturday on CityTV, Sportsnet channels and streaming partners like Netflix and Amazon Prime. It will likely cost more to see hockey each year as more things move to streaming.

In the early part of my life, Hockey Night in Canada was on a bit too late for me. By 1968, they were on at 7 in Winnipeg on Wednesdays on CTV and Saturdays on CBC. The French channel broadcast every Montreal Canadiens game Saturday so if, by chance, the Canadiens were not on CBC, the switch was made to French. The Canadiens were on a lot though because they were a winning team with the best players. By 1975 CTV was no longer doing weekday games but individual channels were. Winnipeg was not one of them. Our family only got cable and a colour TV by 1971.

There was only one game a night Saturday even though Vancouver Canucks joined in 1970. Back to back games only happened occasionally when Wayne Gretzky was traded to Los Angeles Kings in 1988. After, when a Canadian team was in LA, CBC made time for a back to back game. It was in 1994 that back to back games became the staple of Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday. It was no doubt because of the frustration in much of Canada that the Toronto Maple Leafs were locked into Saturday night, every night, despite the lack of a winning record.

Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary all came on broad the NHL from 1979 to 1980, the most any western team could hope for was many one or two games on HNIC. This is where the regional broadcasts by CTV and CKND became very important. Many fans of the Winnipeg Jets came to believe there was a curse playing on Hockey Night in Canada and still do. We often performed poorly.

Prior to 1979 though, it was possible to be a fan of the WHA Jets as well a team in the NHL. And there were plenty of those. My dad was originally from Montreal so the Canadiens were a favourite and the fact they were a very winning team meant I liked them a lot. The first NHL game for the Jets versus Canadiens, everyone wore tuxedos and ball gowns. It felt like a royal affair.

To get NHL hockey for the 2027-2027 season, Canadians will have to have pay for a cable or streaming subscription. CBC was free for everyone. It is hard to get regular season viewer numbers but Hockey Night in Canada likely got a base of 500,000 people for the first game of the night and rose higher according to who was playing the Leafs. In the playoffs, Canadian matches could bring in 5 million viewers in Canada alone if a Canadian team was playing.

This was the best year for NHL ratings for playoffs in many years. Live television is still something that can attract eyeballs but the new Rogers contract is more than double the last contract. A licence agreement on CBC is not enough money and certainly more than CBC was willing to pay when it doesn't get any ad revenue from broadcasting it. The grand bargain was that CBC was able to provide studio and labour resources. Rogers took that all in house three years ago. So, coming this fall, there will be no Saturday NHL that is free to watch for Canadians.

The CBC has been instrumental in creating the dynamic of how the NHL, CFL and curling are broadcast. Eventually, these sports became so successful, they longer needed the public broadcasters support. The private networks now want these jewels and it will be to Canadians to see if they want to pay for them. With many people cutting cable, the hunt for sports could take people to many streaming sites. In the end, it might be as expensive as cable was.

Rogers will be going into details about the new name and look and where to find their NHL games. Toronto fans might end up paying the most since they have the most games broadcast. There may be a re-evaluation on hosts, panels and even how the broadcast is filmed. At this point, all we know is it will look different. And if a new streamer is added for the mid-week game, what will that look like? Another subscription? A new broadcast team?

As for CBC, the new program will feature sports on Saturday. The Hockey Night in Canada name will pop up from time to time. More than likely for women's hockey although we might see university hockey for men and women now as well. To be blunt, compared to the U.S., Britain and Australia, we are pathetic for sports coverage. There is superior high school and college sports coverage in much smaller North Dakota. Some of our national newspapers barely cover sports. We are luckier than most in Winnipeg that we have reporters who cover sports for both our newspapers but it has been a long time since The Sun has sent reporters on the road to travel with teams. The Free Press is one of the last newspapers to do that. CJOB does exceptional sports coverage but it is for programs they could rights for.

Our national news media barely covers it. Nada is in the National Post. The Globe has a tiny sports section. The media companies have gutted their local sports departments in radio and TV. Most newspapers barely report on amateur sports even in their own areas. The CBC could have plenty of material in sports they could build an audience in at a fraction of the cost. It has been many a year since ABC and CTV's Wide World of Sports but it does show that one network can cover a range of amateur and professional sports. No one else in Canada is covering these areas and CBC has a proven track record of building an audience for Canadian sports.

I remember watching Jim Nantz on Wide World of Sports and so many sports were introduced to me from watching that show. In Canada, Rod Black eventually hosted the CTV version. One of the reasons these sports shows ended is because of the rise of the four professional sports leagues taking up more and more of the schedule. Expansion teams like the Blue Jays in 1977 and the Jets and Nordiques in 1979 and Calgary shortly after in 1980 expanded coverage of those sports. CTV gave up on the Wide World of Sports in the mid 1970s but had other sports they began to cover.

CBC has one other asset that can enhance their newly focused Saturday Night and that is their streaming service Gem. Sports on the network can be mirrored on CBC.ca as well as Gem. In fact, Gem has been seriously underutilized since it was founded in 2018. It seems only now they are realizing they can actually bring older CBC material there that is still popular as well as commission to kids and documentary material. This applies to news and sports. There is no reason that Gem can't be the Tubi or DAZN of the north. It is time the CBC took sports seriously as part of its national mission.