- CBC is filling the Saturday slot Hockey Night in Canada held for 74 years with curling
- Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League signed five-year deals with CBC and Sportsnet
- Read below for what CBC plans to do with the Hockey Night in Canada name it still owns
Saturday nights on CBC are about to sound very different.
Curling is taking over the window Hockey Night in Canada owned on the public broadcaster for 74 years. The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League announced five-year broadcast agreements with CBC and Sportsnet on Thursday, and Grand Slam playoff games move into CBC’s Saturday primetime starting in October.
The two agreements add up to more than 300 hours of television coverage across CBC and Sportsnet in 2026-27. Sportsnet keeps most of it, airing three draws a day from Tuesday through Friday at all five Grand Slam stops plus the Sunday finals.
Playoff Saturdays land on CBC television and CBC Gem, along with select finals. Rock League, the six-team mixed-gender pro circuit that debuted this past April, returns to CBC in January 2027 with every game on CBC TV and Gem.
Curling writer John Cullen laid out just how big the shift is for his sport:
Hockey created the opening. CBC and Sportsnet announced in June that they would not extend their partnership, and the Rogers sub-licensing agreement that put NHL games on the public broadcaster expired when last spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs ended.
That closed a run on CBC television dating back to 1952. Rogers begins its 12-year, $11 billion rights deal this fall, and Saturday NHL games in Canada now live exclusively on Sportsnet, with Prime Video handling Wednesdays.
CBC Sports executive director Chris Wilson framed the curling deal as an extension of something the network has done for decades.
“CBC has a long history of curling coverage, and by providing a national platform to these premier curling tournaments for another five years, we hope to engage and entertain an even wider audience of fans,” Wilson said in a statement.
The Hockey Night in Canada name is not gone, though. CBC still owns the brand and told Daily Hive it intends to keep using it.
“We’ll have more information about Saturday night programming available in the coming weeks,” a CBC spokesperson said. “The Hockey Night in Canada brand will remain with CBC and we will reveal how we will move forward with it soon.”
The public broadcaster already carries PWHL games, so women’s hockey under the Hockey Night banner is one obvious path. Curling gets the first crack at the slot either way.
