Canadians from across the country shared their outrage at the CBC for not showing hockey playoff games featuring Canadian teams.
Games five and six of the Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference final were only available to subscribers of Sportsnet, as they were not shown on CBC.
Rogers Media, which owns Sportsnet, holds the rights to broadcast all hockey games in Canada. However, Rogers Media and CBC signed a seven-year agreement in 2017, allowing CBC to broadcast all Hockey Night in Canada and Stanley Cup Playoffs games from the 2019-20 to 2025-26 seasons.
Despite having the option to broadcast the Edmonton Oilers’ fifth and sixth games of the Western Conference final, with game six being a potential (and eventual) elimination game, CBC chose to broadcast something else.
“We set our schedule long before the playoffs are determined. And that schedule includes Canada’s Ultimate Challenge on Sunday nights (April 28-June 2) as well as the CSAs gala,” said Chuck Thompson. “With that context, we knew there would be occasions during the playoffs when CBC would not be playing certain games.”
While Canada’s only remaining hockey team’s games were not televised by CBC, the game the night prior between two American teams, the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers, was broadcast on CBC.
In the previous series, despite having two Canadian teams in a single series, even some of the Vancouver Canucks versus Edmonton Oilers games weren’t broadcast on CBC.
One X user called to defund the CBC, indicating that they were out of touch with Canadians.
“Imagine the BBC saying they could not show England in the Euro Finals. Idiots,” he said.
Other Canadians complained that they had no other way to watch playoff games.
“What’s with (the CBC) not televising the Oilers games? There’s been at least four this playoff season that I haven’t been able to watch! I can’t afford Sportsnet, and due to chronic illness, I just can’t go out to a bar or a restaurant to watch the game. I’m very disappointed,” said an Oilers fan on X.
CBC gave 100% of its executives bonuses totaling $14.9 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year. During the same year, 87% of CBC employees received pay raises despite the state broadcaster laying off hundreds of employees at the end of the year.
Between 2015 and 2022, taxpayers funded $156 million in bonuses and raises for CBC employees.
The CBC receives $1.4 billion annually from the federal government and will receive an additional $42 million for 2024-25 thanks to the Liberals 2024 federal budget.
“The CBC get billions in subsidies, and they can’t negotiate content scheduling when there is a large demand for Canada’s national sport,” said Eva Chipiuk in a post to X. “And they wonder why their organization is dying. I don’t. They are not listening to Canadians, and Canadians have rightfully lost trust in them and have moved on. Time for the money to follow.”
The CEO of CBC, Catherine Tait, was awarded the Teddy Waste Award by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for wasting millions of taxpayers’ dollars.
The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs saw record TV ratings, with almost 9 million viewers tuning into the seventh game of the Boston Bruins versus Toronto Maple Leafs series. This was the most viewed Game 7 of a first-round ever, the most viewed first-round game since 2012. and the third-most viewed first game of all time, according to the NHL.
While the NHL has been setting TV viewership records, the viewership of the CBC has been plummeting. Between 2021-22 and 2022-23, CBC’s audience share viewership dropped from 5.8% to 4.4%, even beneath its target of dropping only to 4.9%. The target for 2023-24 projects another significant decrease to 4.1%.
Instead of broadcasting the NHL, which is setting viewership records, CBC decided to air the Canadian Screen Awards, Just for Laughs, and Canada’s Ultimate Challenge, a cross-country reality show.