TORONTO — The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will no longer air National Hockey League games on Saturday nights, ending a broadcasting relationship that has spanned nearly 75 years and making the 2025-26 season the last for “Hockey Night in Canada” on the public broadcaster, CBC and Rogers Sportsnet said this month.
The change follows the expiration of a sublicensing agreement between Rogers Communications, which holds national NHL media rights in Canada, and CBC. The companies said they did not renew the arrangement for the 2026-27 season, the first year of Rogers’ new 12-year broadcast rights agreement with the NHL. Under the previous partnership, CBC carried national Saturday-night games and playoff coverage while Sportsnet handled production and advertising.
In a joint statement released on June 16, CBC and Sportsnet said the public broadcaster would “no longer carry NHL broadcasts after the current season” as CBC pursues a new sports programming strategy. The statement added: “Watching hockey on Saturday night is a time-honoured tradition for Canadians, and Sportsnet is privileged to continue delivering that tradition.”
“Hockey Night in Canada” first appeared on CBC television in 1952 and became a fixture of Canadian Saturday-night viewing. Over the decades, the program featured some of the country’s best-known hockey broadcasters and commentators and served as a primary platform for NHL coverage nationwide.
The current arrangement dates to 2013, when Rogers acquired national NHL rights and reached a sublicensing agreement allowing CBC to continue carrying games. That agreement enabled the public broadcaster to maintain the long-running program despite no longer holding the league’s national television rights.
CBC Sports executive director Chris Wilson told The Associated Press that the broadcaster views the transition as “an opportunity as opposed to a loss,” while acknowledging that some viewers would lose access to NHL games through CBC. Wilson said CBC is focused on its next phase of sports programming.
Sportsnet said it will continue broadcasting Saturday-night NHL games as part of its new long-term agreement with the league. CBC said it will move forward with a revised sports strategy following what it described as the success of its coverage of the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games. Details of future CBC sports programming remain limited.
