How the CBC Lost its Most Iconic Television Program. New Algonquin College Speaker Series Presentation
Posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2019
As hockey fans prepare for the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Algonquin College Speaker Series explores how the CBC lost control of its most treasured television program, Hockey Night in Canada. Author and Globe and Mail sports journalist, David Shoalts, has written a new book called Hockey Fight in Canada and will be at the Pembroke Waterfront Campus on Wednesday, April 3 to talk about the backroom maneuvering that led to the biggest sports broadcasting deal in Canadian history.
In 2013, Rogers Communications shocked the broadcasting world when it paid $5-2-billion for exclusive national television rights to broadcast NHL games. The deal ended a 60-year relationship between the CBC and NHL, and resulted in wholesale changes to the way games were presented on television.
Not all of those changes were well received by hockey fans, such as the failed move to replace longtime Hockey Night in Canada host, Ron MacLean, with George Stroumboulopoulus. After two years, MacLean was brought back in as ratings slipped and fans protested the removal of MacLean who with Don Cherry are the face of the Saturday night national broadcasts.
Rogers did negotiate an agreement with the CBC to continue carrying NHL games on Saturday nights, but as part of the agreement, the CBC lost all of its ad revenue that had been generated through Hockey Night in Canada. That loss amounted to millions of dollars, money that had helped fund other CBC programming for decades. In his book, Shoalts reviews how each of the major sports broadcasting entities approached the negotiations with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and why Rogers won, and the CBC and Bell Media lost in this high stakes game of poker that has changed the relationship between professional sports and its media partners.
This thought-provoking talk will provide information that hockey and CBC fans have never heard before, about how there were warning signs for the public broadcaster that this would be a very different round of negotiations than previous contract talks. Shoalts writes that a confrontational exchange between Bettman and MacLean during a 2010 interview during the Stanley Cup Final set the tone for those talks and contributed to the ultimate decision to replace MacLean. The presentation will also cover the devastating impact the loss of controlling Hockey Night in Canada has had on the CBC.
Shoalts joined the Globe and Mail in 1984. He has been covering the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL since 1990 and has written three books. Shoalts has also won several awards including the 2009 Outstanding Sportswriting Award from Sports Media Canada.
Register today for this Speaker Series!
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