CBC announces pathetic replacement for Hockey Night in Canada broadcast

One of the longest-standing Canadian traditions is officially over.

Today, Rogers Sportsnet announced that Hockey Night in Canada will no longer be broadcasted on CBC on Saturday evenings. The program has been available to all Canadians for free on the public broadcaster since 1936, starting next season though Canadian hockey fans will need a Sportsnet subscription to watch their beloved Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights.

From Sportsnet:

In Hockey Night's replacement, the CBC will run "a new Saturday night prime time show on CBC and streaming on CBC Gem, featuring Canadian athletes competing at home and at the biggest events around the world."

Hockey Night in Canada is more than just a television program; it is one of the most iconic institutions in Canadian broadcasting history. For generations of Canadians, Saturday nights meant gathering around the radio or television to watch the country's national game. Since its beginnings as a radio broadcast in 1931 and its transition to television in 1952, Hockey Night in Canada became a cultural touchstone that was synonymous with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). However, over the past 12 years, the program has undergone the most dramatic transformation in its history as control shifted from CBC to Rogers Sportsnet.

For decades, CBC was the unquestioned home of NHL hockey in Canada. Legendary broadcasters such as Foster Hewitt, Danny Gallivan, Bob Cole, Ron MacLean, and Don Cherry became household names through Hockey Night in Canada. The show helped define Canadian sports broadcasting and routinely delivered some of the largest television audiences in the country. By the early 2010s, however, the media landscape was changing rapidly as broadcasters increasingly competed for valuable live sports rights.

The turning point came on November 26, 2013, when Rogers Communications announced a landmark 12-year, $5.2 billion agreement with the NHL. The deal granted Rogers exclusive national television, digital, and multimedia rights to NHL games in Canada beginning with the 2014-15 season. At the time, it was the largest media rights agreement in NHL history and represented a seismic shift in Canadian sports broadcasting.

Many Canadians feared that the beloved Hockey Night in Canada brand would disappear from CBC entirely. Instead, Rogers and CBC reached a sublicensing agreement that allowed Hockey Night in Canada to remain on CBC television while Rogers assumed complete control of production, advertising sales, and editorial decisions. Beginning in the fall of 2014, the broadcasts were produced by Sportsnet, even though they still aired on CBC. It marked the end of CBC's direct involvement in producing NHL broadcasts after more than six decades.

The first years of the Rogers era featured sweeping changes. Sportsnet introduced a new presentation style, expanded national coverage, and attempted to modernize the broadcast. George Stroumboulopoulos was brought in as studio host in a high-profile move designed to attract younger viewers, though longtime viewers were often resistant to the changes. Eventually, Ron MacLean returned to the primary hosting role as Rogers adjusted its approach.

Perhaps the biggest change was structural. Under CBC, Hockey Night in Canada largely focused on regional broadcasts. Rogers transformed the program into a fully national package that could be distributed across CBC, Sportsnet, Citytv, and digital platforms. Fans gained access to more nationally televised games and expanded streaming options, reflecting changing viewing habits in the digital age.

In 2017, Rogers and CBC extended their sublicensing partnership through the conclusion of Rogers' original NHL agreement in 2026. The extension ensured that Hockey Night in Canada would continue airing on CBC every Saturday night while Sportsnet maintained complete operational control. Both companies emphasized that keeping the program on free over-the-air television was important to preserving its national reach.

Throughout the 2020s, Sportsnet continued to evolve the presentation with new studio technology, enhanced digital integration, streaming offerings through Sportsnet+, and partnerships with platforms such as Amazon Prime Video. While many traditionalists continued to associate Hockey Night in Canada with CBC, the reality was that the program had effectively become a Sportsnet production carrying a historic CBC brand.

The transition reached another milestone in 2025 when Rogers secured a new 12-year NHL media rights agreement worth approximately $11 billion, extending its control of Canadian NHL broadcasting well into the late 2030s. The new deal reinforced Rogers' position as the dominant force in Canadian hockey broadcasting and confirmed that the company's vision for Hockey Night in Canada would continue long after the original 2013 agreement expired.

Looking back, the past 12 years have represented a remarkable evolution for Hockey Night in Canada. What began as a CBC-produced national institution transformed into a Sportsnet-controlled multimedia property while still retaining much of its traditional identity. Although the familiar CBC logo remained on television screens for much of that period, the business, production, and creative direction of Canada's most famous sports broadcast had fundamentally shifted. The result is a modern Hockey Night in Canada that blends nearly a century of tradition with the realities of contemporary sports media, ensuring that one of Canada's most cherished broadcasting brands continues to evolve for future generations.