Free Hockey Night in Canada Ends
CBC to End Iconic Hockey Night in Canada After 2025-26 Season
Key Points
CBC said it was “unable to come to an agreement on a new sublicensing deal with rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet” for NHL games, including the Saturday night double-headers—framing the end as a negotiation failure rather than a league-driven shutdown.
Craig Baird told CBC News the impact was personal and national: “It’s not just a show, it’s a part of our culture. It’s woven into the fabric of Canada.”
Hockey Night in Canada is credited with helping introduce instant replay to sports coverage in 1955, according to Baird’s account of the program’s legacy.
CBC notes HNIC’s deep roots in Canadian broadcasting: CBC started NHL broadcasts on radio in 1936 and began televising them in 1952.
Under the prior sublicensing arrangement, CBC carried Sportsnet-produced games and provided free terrestrial airwaves to maximize reach—reportedly “routinely pulling over 7.5 million weekly viewers”—while Sportsnet managed advertising and editorial control.
After 74 years, Hockey Night in Canada will air on CBC for the last time. On June 16, 2026, CBC and Rogers Sportsnet confirmed they could not reach a new sublicensing deal, ending free over-the-air Saturday night NHL hockey on the national broadcaster CityNews Ottawa. Starting with the 2026-27 season, Rogers will keep all games on its own paid platforms — Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, and Citytv.
The final NHL game on CBC aired June 15, 2026, when the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final Sportcal. It marked the end of a television tradition that began on November 1, 1952 — and a radio tradition that stretches back to 1936.
A Deal Collapse 12 Years in the Making
Rogers has held exclusive national English-language NHL rights in Canada since November 2013, signing a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal Daily Faceoff. Under that arrangement, CBC got the games for free but earned $0 in advertising revenue — Rogers kept all of it. CBC provided the free airwaves and the reach. Rogers controlled everything else.
In April 2025, Rogers and the NHL signed a new 12-year extension worth $11 billion CAD Rogers Communications. That deal starts in 2026-27 — and it does not include CBC. Rogers no longer needs a sublicensing partner to maximize reach. It wants viewers on its own paid services instead. CBC said it was "unable to come to an agreement on a new sublicensing deal with rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet" CBC Sports.
7.5 Million Viewers Will Now Need to Pay
Saturday night double-headers on CBC routinely pulled over 7.5 million weekly viewers, according to CBC internal reports. Many of those viewers watch over the air — no cable, no streaming subscription required. Starting in October 2026, that free option disappears. Fans will need a paid Sportsnet or Citytv subscription to watch.
Advocacy group Friends of Canadian Media raised alarms about "anti-siphoning rules" — laws that could force major cultural events to stay on free TV, similar to protections in the UK CFJC Today. No such rules currently protect NHL hockey in Canada. Former HNIC broadcaster Dave Hodge called the shift "inevitable," telling CBC News that the CBC version had become "almost indistinguishable" from Rogers' own production anyway.
74 Years of Saturday Night Hockey, From Radio to Streaming
CBC first broadcast NHL hockey on radio in 1936. The television era began October 11, 1952, with a French-language broadcast, followed by the first English-language telecast on November 1, 1952 CBC Sports. In 1955, HNIC introduced kinescope replay — one of the first uses of instant replay in sports history. For many Canadians, buying a first TV set in the 1950s meant buying it to watch hockey on Saturday night.
Historian Craig Baird told CBC News: "It's not just a show, it's a part of our culture. It's woven into the fabric of Canada." Author Michael McKinley, who wrote Hockey Night in Canada: 60 Seasons, was blunter. "I can't imagine it," he said. "I don't want to imagine it" Global News.
CBC Pivots to Olympics as Rogers Takes Full Control
CBC Sports chief Chris Wilson framed the exit as a fresh start. "Nothing has changed in our strategy," he said. "We're just going to lean in harder" on Canadian athletes The Canadian Press. CBC plans to fill the Saturday night slot with a new prime-time show focused on high-performance athletes, timed to build toward the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, for which CBC holds the broadcast rights.
For Rogers, the math is simple. Cutting out the sublicensing middleman means centralizing all ad sales and pushing subscribers toward paid tiers. Rogers Sports & Media president Colette Watson said Sportsnet is "privileged to continue delivering" the Saturday night tradition CBC Sports. But for millions of Canadians who relied on free TV, the tradition now comes with a monthly bill.
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