CBC’s NHL hockey loss points to the need to rethink public media for the digital age
CBC’s NHL hockey loss points to the need to rethink public media for the digital age
Publish Date: 2026-07-05 08:59:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
The sudden end of Hockey Night in Canada on CBC television after nearly 75 years on the air came as a shock to many Canadians.
But the end of Canada’s longest running and most cherished television program is an opportunity for the CBC to embrace the sort of transformative change that will help to ensure its future.
Sports broadcast rights
The end of an NHL-based Hockey Night has been a long time coming with the increasing value of live sports broadcast rights in a digital media environment characterized by audience fragmentation.
However, the CBC has retained the Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) trademark. The broadcaster’s executive director of sports said the CBC intends to use the HNIC brand in “some fresh new ways,” noting that CBC still has “a hockey strategy that already includes PWHL, USports, Olympic and Paralympic hockey, with the potential for more to come.”
A program focused around a range of hockey coverage would serve the CBC’s mandate while offering a striking contrast to the gambling-filled NHL broadcasts that have so irritated many Canadian viewers in recent years.
The CBC should think big and act boldly as it revamps its most iconic program. But CBC must also seize this moment to show Canadians that the public broadcaster has a compelling plan for how it will serve the country in a distinctive manner in the age of smartphones, digital platforms and artificial intelligence.
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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
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