The End Of The NHL On CBC TV's 74-Year Era Was Inevitable But Sad

Tuesday marks the end of an era as the CBC announced it will no longer carry NHL games on its channels.

Sportsnet and CBC said in a joint statement that after a 12-year partnership and ahead of Rogers' new media deal with the NHL, the Canadian public broadcaster is moving forward with a new programming strategy that highlights Olympic sports on Saturday nights.

Many thought this was an inevitability once Sportsnet began airing Hockey Night in Canada nearly a dozen years ago, but it's a sad day now that Canadians from coast to coast won't have the opportunity to tune into the NHL's biggest on-ice moments on the CBC.

Now, we can look back on the 74 years of NHL hockey on CBC TV with nostalgia, as hockey was the great connector for Canadian hockey fans, and having hockey on the national broadcaster felt like the natural order of things.

Back in the day, not every game was broadcast on television, so the Saturday night games were sometimes the only chance for Canadians to see their favorite team.

For this writer, growing up in Toronto, all that was needed was an antenna to watch the Maple Leafs on Saturdays. The Harold Ballard Era may not have produced the success Toronto expected, but the memories of sitting in front of the TV with the rest of Canada meant a lot. Even when comparing the broadcast and watching the game in person, the CBC held its own.

The Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers stand out as well when recalling some of hockey's biggest moments being broadcast on the CBC. Seeing The Great One become the best player in NHL history on Hockey Night in Canada during the best times of year was very special.

And there was no doubt the CBC knew what it was doing. From legendary broadcasters Danny Gallivan and Foster Hewitt to Bob Cole and Chris Cuthbert, Hockey Night in Canada has always had voices of their generation to describe the game to fans old and new, and they raised the bar for the quality of broadcasting across all sports.

Since 1952, it didn't matter what part of Canada you were tuning in from or what streaming package you had – we all watched the same games together in real time. Our collective memory came from the same source, and it was effectively a nation-building activity.

As such, it's a real shame the CBC and Sportsnet couldn't find a way to keep NHL games on the CBC while making financial sense for both parties.

Over the past 12 years, Sportsnet produced the games and managed the advertising, while all the CBC could really do was broaden the reach and promote some of its own shows to try to get advertising revenue elsewhere.

Of course, the NHL will still generate huge ratings in Canada. This is, after all, still Canada, and fans have done their best to tune into games from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic to the Atlantic in a changing media landscape, even if that means buying multiple streaming packages to do so if satellite and cable packages aren't the right fit for any particular individual. There are still regional games on Sportsnet and TSN, and Prime Video has entered the scene as well.

Nevertheless, it's becoming more difficult to watch any NHL hockey for free in Canada. Hopefully, it won't hurt efforts to grow the game, with these other networks taking on more responsibility than before to be accessible to as many Canadians as possible.

Sportsnet will continue as the modern home of the NHL and one of the caretakers of Canadian pride and storytelling. But overall, the CBC will feel like less of a connector for Canadian hockey fans from this point on.

Hockey's been a great equalizer for Canadian sports fans, and the CBC made that possible for much of the past 74 years, even longer if you include its radio broadcasts.

But make no mistake, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Rogers and Sportsnet made the right move in 2013 to agree on a sublicensing deal for English-language broadcasts, and it's understandable that a new agreement could not happen for the upcoming 12-year deal. Hockey fans have adapted and will always continue to adapt.

Who knows what effect the changes will have on the CBC's financial bottom line as it turns its focus to airing a primetime Olympic sport-themed show on Saturdays. But the emotional bottom line was considerable, and Canadians will all miss what hockey brought to their lives through the national broadcaster.

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