After Nearly 75 Years, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Era Comes to an End
CBC and Rogers Communications have ended their sub-licensing deal, bringing an end to nearly 75 years of the national public broadcaster airing NHL games on Hockey Night in Canada.
The final whistle has blown on one of Canada's most enduring cultural traditions. A recent decision by CBC and Rogers Communications to end the sub-licensing agreement that allowed CBC to air National Hockey League games has marked the close of nearly 75 years of Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts on the public network.
The news has sparked a wave of emotion across the country. Some Canadians have called for defunding the national broadcaster and criticized successive federal governments for failing to properly invest in CBC. Others have expressed anger, regret, disappointment and sadness at the loss of a Saturday night institution. Yet many have simultaneously mourned the decision while acknowledging that the shift of broadcasting rights to private, for-profit networks may represent a necessary evolution.
A Tradition Born in Radio
The story of Hockey Night in Canada stretches back to the 1920s, when the first radio broadcasts of hockey games captured the imagination of listeners across the country. Foster Hewitt, the legendary radio broadcaster, became the voice of the era with his iconic greeting — "Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland" — and his signature call: "he shoots, he scores!"
When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established in 1936, it took over the Saturday night broadcast of NHL games and gave the program its enduring name. For two decades, radio remained the primary vehicle for bringing the game into Canadian homes, laying the foundation for hockey's explosive growth from coast to coast.
The Television Era
By 1952, both CBC and the NHL were ready to move the broadcasts to television. Despite concerns that televised games might hurt ticket sales in Toronto and Montréal, the NHL saw the potential of reaching a national audience and threw its support behind the venture. The gamble paid off. Canadians tuned in, sponsors signed on, and professional hockey became a fixture of popular culture.
Hockey Night in Canada was the conduit through which generations of Canadians experienced professional hockey, and they did so for free, in the comfort of their own homes, alongside family and friends.
The decades that followed cemented hockey's bond with Hockey Night in Canada. Announcers including René Lecavalier, Danny Gallivan, Dick Irvin and Bob Cole became household names, their voices inseparable from Canadian fans' most cherished hockey memories. For generations, Saturday nights meant tuning in to watch their favourite teams compete, live and commercial-supported by the public broadcaster.
A Changing Game
The final quarter of the 20th century transformed both the sports media industry and professional hockey itself. What had once been primarily a national pastime became big business. Cable sports networks began competing for broadcasting rights, and the NHL's profile expanded — particularly following Wayne Gretzky's trade — bringing the sport's visibility to new heights in the United States and beyond.
This shift in the media landscape and the professionalization of hockey set the stage for today's outcome, in which the broadcasting of NHL games has migrated to private networks competing for premium content. The end of CBC's sub-licensing deal signals the culmination of these long-term industry trends, marking a departure from the model that had served Canadian hockey fans for nearly three quarters of a century.