On June 16, 2026, Sportsnet and CBC announced that CBC would no longer be broadcasting NHL games for Rogers Sportsnet, the official broadcast rights holder of NHL games in Canada.
As background, the NHL awarded Rogers exclusive rights to NHL broadcasts in Canada in 2013. In order for Canadians to continue to have easy access to games, CBC was contracted by Rogers Sportsnet to air games on Saturdays during the regular season as well as playoff rounds. This agreement ran for 12 years and was under review.
Despite best efforts, CBC and Rogers Sportsnet were not able to reach a new agreement that worked for both parties for upcoming NHL seasons. CBC was prepared to do a financially responsible deal that would preserve NHL hockey on Saturday nights, however a deal could not be reached.
CBC's mandate is to provide programming to all audiences across Canada across all interests and genres. While sports is certainly one of those genres, we could not justify cutting content from other programming areas to make a deal for one professional league only that would limit other types of sports coverage, and that we ultimately felt was not financially responsible.
The Hockey Night in Canada brand is owned by CBC and will remain with the public broadcaster. CBC will continue to use the brand moving forward and will update on those plans in the future as it releases its new strategy for sports.