The news came in a brief, simple joint statement from Rogers Sports and Media and CBC, issued a day and a half after the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs: “the public broadcaster will no longer carry NHL broadcasts after the current season…”
Sunday’s game, in which the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup against the Vegas Golden Knights, was the last NHL game to air on CBC Television.
Here’s what we know so far about how this shakes out:
Citytv is out too
I asked Rogers to clarify what this means for Rogers-owned Citytv, which also airs Saturday night games as part of Hockey Night in Canada. A Sportsnet PR spokesperson said NHL Saturday night and playoff games will be exclusive to Sportsnet, so no more games on Citytv either. A Citytv spokesperson said Citytv will air “entertainment programming” instead on Saturday nights, so expect reruns of Hudson and Rex and other shows unless they come up with something else.
What CBC will do with Saturday nights
CBC, meanwhile, plans to start a new Saturday night primetime show with Olympic-style sports, the kinds of sports they currently air on weekend afternoons.
CBC owns the Hockey Night in Canada brand and trademarks, and says it will continue using them for non-NHL hockey content. Right now the only organized hockey content on CBC is some weekend afternoon regular-season PWHL games.
(Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada theme song, which it commissioned when HNIC lost the rights to the original hockey theme, remains Sportsnet’s property.)
How Sportsnet will schedule Saturday nights
One of the reasons Sportsnet kept CBC as part of its NHL broadcast network in 2014 is that it needed more channels to show simultaneous national games on Saturday nights. At the time, Sportsnet’s main network, the four regional channels, carried the same programming for national games, because many households didn’t have access to all four of the regional channels.
Twelve years later, most people are on a digital cable system or streaming and do have access to those channels. Add in Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360 and it gives six channels, which for most Saturdays should be enough, even if there’s also a Blue Jays game, UFC Fight Night, curling or some other event they need to broadcast. And in a pinch, they can also bring Citytv back into the fold, use a non-sports channel like FX or have something exclusive to streaming.
OMNI and APTN third-language broadcasts
It’s unclear how this will affect Sportsnet’s partnerships with Rogers-owned OMNI or independent APTN, which broadcast some Saturday NHL games in Punjabi and Cree/Inuktitut, respectively.
Asked about these agreements, Sportsnet PR said there were no updates on this and we’d know more closer to the start of the season.
OMNI still has some over-the-air transmitters in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, and APTN has transmitters in Yellowknife and Whitehorse, so there might still be some NHL on over-the-air TV.
Both adopt the “Hockey Night” branding so would probably have to change their names if they continue.
A history recap
CBC and Citytv have been part of the Rogers HNIC plan since Rogers first acquired national NHL rights starting with the 2014-15 season. The deal with CBC was first established at four years, then extended to the full 12 of the original NHL contract.
Under the deal, CBC essentially gave over control of its signal to Rogers, who retained all advertising revenue from the (mostly Leafs) games in exchange for some on-air promotion of other CBC shows. The broadcasts also counted as free Canadian content for CBC, which was not a trivial consideration back when the broadcaster was a bit more budget-sensitive.
This fall, Rogers moves to a new NHL deal that will see it pay more than double to the league on average. And it looks like it has decided it needs to give people more of a push to subscribe to Sportsnet, even if that means losing some Saturday night fairweather fans.
The reason for this decision (and whether it was Rogers or CBC who made the call) wasn’t announced, but the fact that Rogers is also pulling Citytv out of the mix gives a pretty big hint. CBC says it tried to negotiate a new deal but the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement.
The writing was a bit on the wall two years ago when CBC lost the rights to stream NHL games that aired on CBC TV on its Gem streaming service.
The risks of going subscription-only
Whether to broadcast on over-the-air television is always a tough decision for sports leagues and their partner broadcasters. Some games for free can give people a taste of the action that would then spur them to subscribe. But too much for free and people might decide they can live without the rest.
Some leagues, like the NFL, have prioritized over-the-air while still offering some games to streamers and pay TV. Others, like MLS, have gambled on giving exclusive rights to pay services, only to face anger from teams in the league that nobody watches their games anymore.
I suspect this decision will put the NHL somewhere in the middle. The NHL is more popular in Canada than MLS, and Sportsnet is a popular service among people who follow sports. But the decision to pull playoff games from free TV means we probably won’t see record-setting audiences the next time a Canadian team goes deep. (They’ll still be high though, Sportsnet and TSN alone can still draw in millions for the right event.)
I suspect we’ll also still see Rogers running games on Citytv when they also air on ABC, to recoup that simultaneous substitution money. And if Rogers keeps running Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi on OMNI, people who have that station over the air or on basic cable will still be able to watch the games, even if they don’t understand the language.
One winner of this decision might be TVA Sports, if it renews its deal with the NHL. There were a non-trivial number of francophone Canadiens fans who watched Saturday nights on Citytv because they either didn’t like the TVA broadcast or didn’t subscribe to TVA Sports. If TVA retains the French-language national rights (and we still don’t know if they will), then we might see a slight uptick in people who subscribe for those games.
Money talks
At the end of the day, what matters is money. Yes, Sportsnet may lose some audience and the ad revenue that comes with it, but over the past decade the focus has shifted from ad revenue to subscription revenue. And Rogers has decided that it needs to use those Saturday and playoff games to push people to subscribe to Sportsnet, because that’s where they make their money.
“ CBC, meanwhile, plans to start a new Saturday night primetime show with Olympic-style sports”. Hmm…. I would welcome that but over all, broadcasters in Canada would like to see the end of over-the-air.
I wonder what happens during the first month of the NHL regular season when somewhat often a number of Saturday night NHL games would end up CBC or Citytv exclusive when Sportsnet had conflicts with MLB playoffs. If Sportsnet is showing MLB playoffs and there’s 3 or 4 early 7pm ET NHL games they need to show on a Saturday, where does it all end up? Do some NHL games end up Sportsnet+ streaming only?
That’s a big question. When the CBC deal was first reached, Sportsnet was a lot more reluctant to split the four Sportsnet regional channels for national NHL games (probably because a lot fewer people had more than one Sportsnet channel). Since then, they’ve split up the network more, so I suspect we’ll see Habs games on Sportsnet East, Leafs on Sportsnet Ontario, Flames or Oilers on Sportsnet West and Canucks on Sportsnet Pacific, with Senators and Jets games on Sportsnet One or Sportsnet 360. And in a pinch they can always still move something to Citytv or use a channel like FX or something.
Back when Rogers initially won the bid to the NHL rights, wasn’t the network and the league so proud to say there was no more regional difference and more choice, more hockey for all? All four regional cable channels get one game, CBC another, Citytv yet another. CBC used to split its signal and show Ontario the Leafs, Quebec the Habs, the Atlantic region one or the other, and some other mix out west depending on whether the original or new Jets were playing, or EDM/CGY/VAN playing an Eastern team for the early game, but it all changed then. Now… well, it looks like we’ll be told something else at the end of the day and something that actually will look like a blast to the past.
Rogers’s messaging 12 years ago was a bit unclear, talking about ending blackouts when, in fact, they meant fewer blackouts. The NHL hasn’t shown much of a willingness to change its national/regional TV rights scheme, though it has over the years allowed more national games on the schedule.
So, no NHL games on OTA in Canada, no problem, NFL, and MLB will get my attention this fall. Not giving Rogers or any sports speciality station a dime.
This decision is totally insane. I understand if they wanted to drop the CBC from the mix, but CITY! Why CITY? It’s a Rogers owned network. Lets make more room on to show crappy shows on CITY. As it it doesn’t have enough of that right now. I can tell you for certainty, I will not subscribe to Sportsnet. Screw them. I will watch whatever games show up on ABC. If any US border stations have any brains. they’ll add more regional NHL games to their schedules. A built in audience is waiting to tune in up here.
The last and only reason I even bothered to watch the CBC was the Hockey games. At this point, the federal government should just defund the whole thing. Nothing on it is worth keeping.
While some U.S. TV stations do have regional rights to some games in leagues that do contracts that way, they can’t just add games at will. Many border markets like Burlington/Plattsburgh, Rochester or Grand Forks don’t have NHL teams. The Bruins own NESN so I don’t see why they would just hand over games to an unaffiliated OTA station. Seattle already does over-the-air with KING5, and the Red Wings are moving to a new regional channel. I believe the Minnesota Wild’s rights are currently being negotiated so there’s a possibility for some over-the-air action there.
But in any case, we know Canadian audiences watch Canadian teams, so I don’t see why they would flock en masse to a U.S. TV station to watch a U.S. NHL team.
It would be interesting to see what happens if Seattle put a game against Vancouver on KING5, or the Detroit Red Wings end up selling a package of games to a local station including one or two against Canadian teams. Regarding Rochester, the Buffalo Sabres are on cable south of the border and maybe they could be convinced to simulcast games, but outside of Buffalo itself the games might be aired on subchannels of a main station (i.e. unavailable to Canadian cable viewers)
It is pretty sad… next year’s Stanley Cup Finals could very well end up cable exclusive on both sides of the border as TNT airs it down south and Rogers has no incentive to simsub.
KING5 has aired Seattle/Vancouver games in the past, and those would be available to Canadian subscribers who have access to KING5.
Both the Red Wings and Sabres have parts of Canada in their exclusive zone. The Sabres have taken advantage of this, putting regional games in the Niagara region on Bell TV or Fubo. I don’t think the Red Wings have done this though for Windsor.
Honesty, I don’t really care if a Canadian team is featured. I certainly didn’t care that Caroline and Vegas were in the play-offs. Good hockey is good hockey. No matter who plays. The same goes for MLB, NFL, UFL, NBA.
What Anonymous said speaks volumes about sports fans. They think “Pay TV Bad, Free TV Good” and want everything frozen in time like it’s still 1966. That mentality has become a major irritant as over-the-air TV fades away — and I say this living on the “wrong” side of the border.
If you want a truer reflection of how sports fans feel, ask them two important questions:
(1) When was the last time you watched CBC for anything other than sports?
(2) Do you live within range of a CBC station?
They’ll be shocked to know how much of Canada can no longer receive CBC over the air.
>> Sunday’s game, in which the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley
>> Cup against the Vegas Golden Knights, was the last NHL game to
>> air on CBC Television.
… and so ends a glorious 74-year tradition on public television for many Canadian families. Thanks for the memories, CBC. It was fun while it lasted.
The CBC French-language network (Radio-Canada) had to drop over the air broadcasts of NHL games years ago. It managed to adapt, and probably has more viewers than the English television network. Adapt CBC and don’t become a victim.
“One winner of this decision might be TVA Sports, if it renews its deal with the NHL.” …”With” the NHL? My understanding was that the French network was buying its rights from Rogers, as part of a licensing agreement (or something of that effect).
It’s sort of both. TVA’s rights fee means Rogers gets to pay less, but TVA becomes an NHL partner and so there is a deal with the NHL there.
Does this mean we won’t have to endure Ron McLean and Kevin Bieksa anymore? So now we gotta figure out which channel the Habs are on again. It took me 15 years to sort it out. Who are the losers in this new deal? I think many viewers had forgotten the timemine of the Sportsnet deal with the NHL. It seemed to me they just let CBC be in part of the deal cuz they felt sorry for them. For many Canadians, this is the severance of a longtime relationship that CBC has had with hockey. So, yeah, the end of an era is not too hyperbolic.
No. They’re both Sportsnet personalities so are part of the Sportsnet broadcasts. In terms of the way it looks and how it’s produced, it won’t change (unless they want to change it for other reasons). This is really just about what channels it will be on.
There were a few reasons for the deal, like wanting to have some continuity and keep the Hockey Night brand, and the fact that Scott Moore who led Sportsnet at the time used to be in charge of CBC Sports. But the biggest reason was that CBC had the national network of TV stations and the largest reach.
All of this is back to fighting over the leftovers from the main meal. Broadcast anything is already gone onto the dessert phase of life.
The future is in streaming, and it is very likely that the current network / channel model will likely fade over time. Streaming every game at the same time is just not an issue.
Question : How the Québecor push for Corus affect its relations with Rogers ? Could it be that the talks are over between them for NHL French TV rights OR it’s a PR stunt the make Rogers back at the table ?
It has no effect. Quebecor’s interest in Corus is not new, and TVA is still negotiating for NHL rights. There’s no need to bring anyone back to the table.
As an aside, I’m getting some Mets MLB games as well as the Burlington Lake Monsters (who sometimes still dress in their Expos uniforms) on the over-the-air CBS sub-channel.
Plus NBC has Sunday night MLB games with Bob Costas.
I’ve noticed the Vermont Lake Monsters games on WCAX-TV 3.6
The games are on WYCI-TV 40.1 from Saranac Lake, NY. But the signal of that station is very limited, and so they games are also shown on WCAX-TV 3.6
Low production value, but it’s good enough to get the games on TV.
I only wish the programming guide on WCAX 3.6 was accurate in order know when the games are on.
Bell Media is brief and brutal.
further to my post regarding Mets games available over-the air:
New York’s WPIX-TV (Channel 11), is the flagship station of The CW Television Network, and is seen in over 10 million homes through over-the-air and satellite distribution…Founded in 1948 and owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Tribune Company, WPIX has long been regarded as a groundbreaking station in New York…PIX11 has served as the over-the-air home of the New York Mets for over a decade and will broadcast 25 games, mostly on Friday nights. It seems that stations that are both part of the CW TV Network and in the Mets territory are broadcasting these games.
I’ve also come across Savannah Banana games (baseball given the WWF treatment).
I remember the Banana Splits (and their glove puppets in cereal boxes), so I guess I’ve just about come full circle…