The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / The National vs.National Hockey League

**Posted by Hamiltonboy** March 26, 2025 11:07 pm

NHL season ends April 17, so playoffs will begin a couple of days later. Four, maybe five Canadian teams involved. What happens to The National in the week leading up to the April 28 oelection?

**Posted by Ale Ont** March 27, 2025 12:32 am

I would guess the main network would carry hockey leaving CBC News Network to carry on.

**Posted by ED1** March 27, 2025 2:04 am

Hamiltonboy wrote:
NHL season ends April 17, so playoffs will begin a couple of days later. Four, maybe five Canadian teams involved. What happens to The National in the week leading up to the April 28 oelection?

Just like every other year since time in memorial, The National will probably be broadcast right after the hockey game on CBC TV, while The National will air as scheduled on CBC News Network.

The hockey games will also probably cause the local CBC channels to be blacked out on CBC Gem unless the corp struck a new deal with Sportsnet.

Last edited by ED1 (March 27, 2025 2:05 am)

**Posted by Aytononline** March 27, 2025 7:33 am

This is an long time issue between Hockey Night in Canada and CBC news. Hockey was the only program that could push the news out of its time slot. For all other programs the news is King and can cancel other programs at will.
Today I'm not so sure how important the OTA stations are. CBC election night will be on every social media platform that they can find. For Election Night hockey should be on Rogers Sportsnet or City, but if its not, for those who want to watch the election special there will be no shortage of options to find the CBC production.

**Posted by mace** March 27, 2025 8:39 am

Hockey hasn't always taken priority over The National. On March 14, 1987, when the Calgary/Toronto game ended early, the CBC switched to the Philadelphia/Montreal game. As the game was headed for OT, a network decision was made for HNIC to sign off so The National could air on time at 11pm. This incident also included Dave Hodge's pen toss in disgust over the OT not being broadcast. This ultimately lead to his firing two weeks later.

**Posted by torontostan** March 27, 2025 9:09 am

Of course I am unsure what the terms of their agreement are.. but CBC would probably earn more revenue from airing The National that week as opposed to giving up all advertising dollars to Rogers.

**Posted by RadioAaron** March 27, 2025 9:12 am

On the election night itself, CBC will absolutely carry it. The NHL may even schedule a game involving a Canadian team around it.

**Posted by I Used Carts** March 28, 2025 2:26 pm

I would imagine election night all games will be on Sportsnet / streaming (perhaps even FX for a US-US matchup if they run out of room). CBC & CBC News network would be cover the returns.

I don't imagine there would be any changes leading up to the 28th, hockey on CBC, The National on CBCNN, then The National after hockey - but wouldn't surprise me if Rogers kept a few more Canadian matchups on SN again this year. The "all playoff games with a Canadian team must air on CBC rule" went out the window last year several times.

It would be risky to schedule a 7pm puck drop on CBC, even with the western polls open until 10pm Eastern, because there could be overtime (playoff games don't always fit into that nice tidy 2:40 regular season runtime), or the chance that this is one of those elections that is called early... can you imagine some suit trying to decide - break into the game and potentially miss an overtime goal OR announce the country's new PM via a crawl at the bottom of the screen?

We've come a long way from having a NHL playoff game bumped to the CBC Parliamentary Network in the 80's on election night.

**Posted by torontostan** March 28, 2025 3:07 pm

I Used Carts wrote:
I would imagine election night all games will be on Sportsnet / streaming (perhaps even FX for a US-US matchup if they run out of room). CBC & CBC News network would be cover the returns.

I don't imagine there would be any changes leading up to the 28th, hockey on CBC, The National on CBCNN, then The National after hockey - but wouldn't surprise me if Rogers kept a few more Canadian matchups on SN again this year. The "all playoff games with a Canadian team must air on CBC rule" went out the window last year several times.

It would be risky to schedule a 7pm puck drop on CBC, even with the western polls open until 10pm Eastern, because there could be overtime (playoff games don't always fit into that nice tidy 2:40 regular season runtime), or the chance that this is one of those elections that is called early... can you imagine some suit trying to decide - break into the game and potentially miss an overtime goal OR announce the country's new PM via a crawl at the bottom of the screen?

We've come a long way from having a NHL playoff game bumped to the CBC Parliamentary Network in the 80's on election night.

FX hasn't aired a game in years. Sportsnet now has the ability to multiplex their feeds, so using an entertainment channel is bad business now.

Agree with you though.... people here seem to forget that they do not put all playoff games on CBC anymore.

**Posted by mace** March 29, 2025 7:43 am

I Used Carts wrote:
I would imagine election night all games will be on Sportsnet / streaming (perhaps even FX for a US-US matchup if they run out of room). CBC & CBC News network would be cover the returns.

I don't imagine there would be any changes leading up to the 28th, hockey on CBC, The National on CBCNN, then The National after hockey - but wouldn't surprise me if Rogers kept a few more Canadian matchups on SN again this year. The "all playoff games with a Canadian team must air on CBC rule" went out the window last year several times.

It would be risky to schedule a 7pm puck drop on CBC, even with the western polls open until 10pm Eastern, because there could be overtime (playoff games don't always fit into that nice tidy 2:40 regular season runtime), or the chance that this is one of those elections that is called early... can you imagine some suit trying to decide - break into the game and potentially miss an overtime goal OR announce the country's new PM via a crawl at the bottom of the screen?

We've come a long way from having a NHL playoff game bumped to the CBC Parliamentary Network in the 80's on election night.

I believe that was a provincial election so it was only Ontario viewers that had to tune in to the Parliamentary Channel. I think it was a game 7 between the Habs and Nordiques. I was an OTA guy back then so I went to a bar to watch the game.

**Posted by I Used Carts** April 3, 2025 10:39 pm

torontostan wrote:
FX hasn't aired a game in years. Sportsnet now has the ability to multiplex their feeds, so using an entertainment channel is bad business now.

Agree with you though.... people here seem to forget that they do not put all playoff games on CBC anymore.

The March 1st Columbus/Detroit stadium game aired on FX just last month, and at least one game of the Vegas/Dallas series last year was there too. So it’s not impossible…

**Posted by torontostan** April 4, 2025 9:03 am

I Used Carts wrote:
torontostan wrote:
FX hasn't aired a game in years. Sportsnet now has the ability to multiplex their feeds, so using an entertainment channel is bad business now.

Agree with you though.... people here seem to forget that they do not put all playoff games on CBC anymore.

The March 1st Columbus/Detroit stadium game aired on FX just last month, and at least one game of the Vegas/Dallas series last year was there too. So it’s not impossible…

Who knew... my apologies. I can't see Rogers putting a Canadian team on FX.... not that you suggested that. They'd also be limited to about 2 games a week based on their license if I am remembering those rules correctly