NHL on CTV is a formertelevision program that broadcastNational Hockey League games on theCTV Television Network.
CTV's involvement with the NHL began in the1965–66 season with a series of Wednesday-night regular season games. These were produced by the McLaren ad agency, which also produced the Saturday nightHockey Night in Canada games for theCBC. As was the case with the Saturday games, they were contests (usually at home) of theMontreal Canadiens,Toronto Maple Leafs, and after 1970, theVancouver Canucks. CTV decided to pull out of midweek NHL coverage in 1975, opening the way for local TV stations in the three Canadian cities that had NHL clubs to carry mid-week telecasts of their hometown NHL clubs.
On March 16, 1966, CTV's coverage of the game betweenthe Canadiens and Maple Leafs was frequently interrupted for news updates on theGemini 8 space mission, which had run into serious trouble after being successfully launched that morning; when the game ended, CTV joined a simulcast ofCBS News coverage in time for the capsule's re-entry and splashdown.
Ironically, CTV affiliateCFCF-TV in Montreal carried some local Canadiens' telecasts starting in the 1975–76 season.
In the1984–85 and1985–86 seasons, the NHL returned toCTV, with regular season games[1] on Friday[2] nights (and some Sunday afternoons) as well as partial coverage of the playoffs andStanley Cup Finals.
CTV/Carling O'Keefe[3][4][5] initially signed a contract well into the 1984–85 season. As a result, they wanted to cram as many games as possible (beginning in February) in the brief window they had. 1985–86's coverage didn't begin until November, so to avoid conflicts with CTV's coverage of theMajor League Baseball postseason.
WhileMolson continued to presentHockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights on the CBC, rival breweryCarling O'Keefe[6] began airingFriday Night Hockey on CTV. This marked the first time in more than a decade that CBC was not the loneover-the-air network broadcaster of the National Hockey League in Canada.
The deal with CTV was arranged by theQuebec Nordiques (who were owned by Carling O'Keefe[3]) and all 14 U.S.-based NHL clubs,[5][6][7][8] who sought to break Molson's monopoly[5][8][9][10] on NHL broadcasting in Canada. All of the CTV's regular-season telecasts originated fromQuebec City or theUnited States, as Molson shut them out of the other six Canadian buildings (as Carling did to them in Quebec City).
After the 1985–86 season, CTV decided to pull the plug[11][12][13][14] on the venture. Their limited access to Canadian-based teams[15] (other than Quebec, whose English-speaking fan base was quite small) translated into poorratings. For the next two years, Carling O'Keefe retained their rights, and syndicated playoff telecasts ona chain of channels that would one day become theGlobal Television Network under the namesStanley Cup '87 andStanley Cup '88, before a merger between the two breweries put an end to the competition.
In1979–80,1982–83,1985–86,1988–89, and1989–90, CTV televised a handful of games of theNHL–Soviet Super Series, where touring Soviet clubs visited NHL teams in a series of exhibition games.
OnNew Year's Eve 1985, CTV broadcast one such game between theMontreal Canadiens andCSKA Moscow inMontreal.[16] Although CTV aired the game (as a "Special Presentation of CTV Sports"), it was not considered an official part ofNHL on CTV package. That was because the broadcast was presented by Molson instead of Carling O'Keefe. Therefore, a special on-air talent was utilized;Bob Cole,Ron Reusch, andDick Irvin Jr. called the game whileDan Matheson andBrian McFarlane hosted the telecast together on CTV.[17]
Sportsnet was launched on October 9, 1998 asCTV Sportsnet. The name was chosen to match the regional "Fox Sports Net" operations across theUnited States.CTV owned 40% and was the managing partner of the new network; Rogers,Molson, andFox owned 20% each.
The new network gained credibility before it went on the air, wrestling the NHL Canadian cable package away from long-time holderTSN. From1998–99 until2001–02, Sportsnet airedLabatt Blue Tuesday Night Hockey to a national audience throughout the regular season, and covered first-round playoff series not involving Canadian teams. On the day CTV Sportsnet went on the air, its first live sports event was an NHL opening-night telecast between thePhiladelphia Flyers and New York Rangers. The national cable rights have since returned to TSN, though Sportsnet retains English regional rights to five of the seven Canadian-based clubs (TSN, through regional feeds, holds regional rights to the remaining two.)
"The Hockey Song" was used to open NHL broadcasts on CTV Sportsnet in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The possible movement ofHockey Night in Canada to another broadcaster caused some controversy and discussion during the2006–2007 hockey season. CTV had outbid theCBC for Canadian television rights to the2010 and2012 Olympics as well as the major television package for curling. The broadcast requirements would have focused on CTV-owned TSN (The Sports Network), a cable channel that already carriesCanadian NHL hockey during the week as well as other NHL games throughout the season. CTV did, however, buy out theprevious theme to CBC'sHockey Night in Canada for use in TSN's broadcasts immediately after the2007–08 NHL season.[18][19][20]
The CBC's deal with the NHL was set to expire after the2013–14 season. CTV parent Bell had been expected to make a joint bid for CTV and sister network TSN for all national English-language television rights to the NHL in Canada. Under such a deal, CTV would likely have carried the Saturday-night games during the regular season, weekend playoff games in the first three rounds, and the Stanley Cup Finals. TSN would likely have kept midweek national cable coverage of the league and gained midweek early-round playoff games of Canadian-based teams now seen on CBC. Some midweek regular-season games could have been sub-leased to the variousRogers Sportsnet regional networks. Such a deal could also have put a few local midweek telecasts onCTV Two stations in Barrie (Toronto), Vancouver Island (Vancouver), Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton; along withCKY-TV Winnipeg andCFCF-TV Montreal.
But on November 26, 2013, the league announced thatRogers Communications had won all Canadian television rights to the league beginning with the2014–15 season and extending through the 2025–26 season. While Rogers will sublease Saturday night and playoff games (including theStanley Cup Finals) toCBC, thereby keeping that network's iconicHockey Night in Canada in place until at least the2017–18 season. However, Rogers will take over the production of games. Rogers and CBC later renewed their partnership through the end of the 2025–26 season.[21][22][23][24][25] On April 2, 2025, the deal between Rogers and the NHL was renewed through the 2037-38 NHL season.[26]
Thus, CTV, TSN, and their parent company will be out of NHL coverage until at least 2038, though some TSN regional agreements with some Canadian-based teams are set to expire in 2026.