CBC, Canada’s public-service broadcaster, will no longer broadcast NHL action after failing to agree on another sub-licensing deal with long-term rights holder Rogers, the Canadian telecommunications giant, for the 2026-27 campaign.
Rogers acquired NHL rights in 2013 on a bumper 12-year deal that expired with the end of the 2025-26 season this week, and throughout the course of that agreement had sub-licensed the rights to CBC, which covered the iconic weekly Saturday program Hockey Night in Canada, most recently through a seven-year deal agreed in 2019.
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In April 2025, Rogers signed a bumper extension with the NHL, a new 12-year deal starting with the 2026-27 campaign valued at $7.7 billion.
However, sub-licensing negotiations with CBC for that upcoming agreement have not borne fruit, and now the public-service network has confirmed that the pair have not been able to reach an agreement, meaning the end of the NHL on CBC.
This marks the end of an era, with CBC having broadcast NHL action since 1952.
In a joint statement, CBC and Rogers’ SportsNet channel said that the public service broadcaster is moving forward with “a new sports programming strategy following the unprecedented success of the Milano/Cortina Olympic Games,” and that includes the end of Hockey Night in Canada.
CBC will replace the programming block with a new programme, CBC Gem, which will focus on Canadian athletes at home and around the world, which it says will particularly support Canada’s presence at the 2028 Olympic Games and 2030 Winter Olympic Games.
The pair did, however, leave the door open for future collaboration, continuing: “Watching hockey on Saturday night is a time-honoured tradition for Canadians, and Sportsnet is privileged to continue delivering that tradition. This has been a terrific partnership, and both parties look forward to continued opportunities to collaborate in the future.”
Indeed, CBC will retain the right to the iconic Hockey Night in Canada trademark, allowing for a potential future resurrection of the brand.
This comes after two weeks of NHL Stanley Cup Finals action drew major viewership in the US on Disney-owned sports networks ABC and ESPN.
The hotly contested series, which the Carolina Hurricanes won over the Las Vegas Golden Knights in six games, averaged 5.2 million on ABC, up 106% on the 2025 finals.
That figure also represented an increase of 26% on the last time ABC and ESPN had the Stanley Cup finals, back in 2024.
Game six of the series, a 3-0 win for the Hurricanes that ultimately proved the decisive result, averaged 5.9 million, peaking at 7.2 million, making it the most-watched Stanley Cup game six since 2019’s bumper effort on NBC.
Ultimately, every game in the series set some form of multi-year viewership high, thanks to the high-scoring antics of both teams – in only the final game were fewer than six goals scored, and two of the first three games were nine-goal bonanzas.
Game three of the 2026 series, for example, was the most-watched game three since 2002 (averaging 5 million), game four since 2017, and game five since 2018.
Even the first two games of the series, which started comparatively slow from a viewership standpoint (but not an entertainment one), were the most-watched games one and two since 2019 and 2015, respectively.
Even without ABC, coverage on ESPN was the most-watched for that brand of networks ever, averaging 2.2 million viewers per game alone without the aid of the national network ABC.
This is a major win for Disney/ESPN, which rotates exclusive rights for the Stanley Cup with Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TNT Sports and TruTV, meaning it must make the most of its biennial Stanley Cup opportunity.
The 2025 finals, broadcast on TNT and TruTV, struggled throughout and indeed achieved an average of less than half of the viewers that ESPN and ABC drew this month, including the least-watched game five and game six averages on record.
