CBC Sports
Sports broadcasts by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-language Radio-Canada network also produces sports programming.)
 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Genre | Sports |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Headquarters | Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario |
Key people | Chris Wilson (Executive Director) |
| Services | Hockey Night in Canada (controlled by Rogers Media beginning 2014) Olympics IAAF Golden League Grand Slam of Curling CHL on CBC |
| Owner | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Website | cbcsports |
Once the country's dominant sports broadcaster, in recent years it has lost many of its past signature properties – such as the Canadian Football League, Toronto Blue Jays baseball, Canadian Curling Association championships, the Olympic Games for a period, the FIFA World Cup, and the National Hockey League – to the cable specialty channels TSN and Sportsnet. The CBC has maintained partial rights to the NHL as part of a sub-licensing agreement with current rightsholder Rogers Media (maintaining the Saturday-night Hockey Night in Canada and playoff coverage), although this coverage is produced by Sportsnet, as opposed to the CBC itself as was the case in the past.
As a result of funding reductions from the federal government, increased costs for licensing, and decreased revenues, in April 2014, the CBC announced it would no longer bid for professional sports broadcasting rights.[1] The CBC has since used its digital platforms to provide overflow coverage of events not on television, and simulcasts of television coverage. Since then, the CBC's in-house sports coverage has been largely focused on Olympic sports, other domestic amateur and semi-professional competitions such as the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), along with coverage of Spruce Meadows' show jumping competitions.
The majority of CBC Television's sports coverage is broadcast on weekend afternoons, under the blanket title CBC Sports Presents (formerly Road to the Olympic Games from 2015 to 2022, and CBC Sports Weekend prior to 2015).[2][3] CBC Sports also streams all of its programming, as well as other event coverage not shown on television, via its website and digital platforms.
Former CEO of Curling Canada Greg Stremlaw was the head of CBC Sports from April 10, 2015[4][2] to January 2019.[5]
Sports properties
Current
Alpine Skiing
- FIS World Cup races[needs update]
Athletics
Baseball
Basketball
- FIBA 3x3 World Cup (2012–present)[8]
Cricket
- Global T20 Canada (2023–)[9]
- All matches streaming (championship match on CBC Television)
Curling
- Grand Slam of Curling (weekend coverage of selected events)
Equine sports
Figure Skating
- World Figure Skating Championships
- International Skating Union (excluding domestic events (rights owned by TSN))
- Skate Canada International
- Canadian Figure Skating Championships
Gridiron Football
- Vanier Cup (beginning with the 55th (2019) edition)[10]
- U Sports Football[11]
Hockey
- National Hockey League - Hockey Night in Canada (1952–present)
- Produced by Sportsnet (Rogers Sports & Media) since the 2014–15 season under a sub-licensing deal.
- Weekly Saturday night doubleheader and at least one playoff game each night a playoff game is played.
- Professional Women's Hockey League (2023–present).[12][13]
- Produced in-house by the league.[14]
- Weekly Saturday afternoon game of the week on CBC Television
- Additional streaming games.
- Canadian Hockey League (2021–present)[15]
- Early-season weekend games across its constituent leagues.
- Additional streaming regular-season games.
- U Sports Hockey[16]
Multi-sports competitions
Soccer
Volleyball
Previous
Canoe Sprint
Curling
- Cross Canada Curling (1961–1965)
- CBC Championship Curling (1966–1972)
- CBC Curling Classic (1973–1979)
- Canadian Curling Association (1961–2008)
Baseball
- Major League Baseball
- Major League Baseball on CBC (1953–2008)
- Toronto Blue Jays (1977–1980, 1992–2002, 2007–2008)
- Montreal Expos (1969–1989)
- All-Star Game/Postseason/World Series (1969–1996)
- Major League Baseball on CBC (1953–2008)
Basketball
- National Basketball Association
- Canadian Elite Basketball League
- All games streaming (2019–2022), 7 regular-season games and the championship game on CBC Television (2020–2022)[18]
Gridiron Football
Hockey
- AHL on CBC – 10 games during the 2010–11 season
Horse racing
Multi-sports competitions
- Olympics on CBC
- Commonwealth Games
- 1999 Pan American Games - (sublicenced to TSN)
- 2015 Pan American Games/2015 Parapan American Games - (soccer sublicensed to Sportsnet)
- 2019 Pan American Games/2019 Parapan American Games (streaming only)
- 2023 Pan American Games/2023 Parapan American Games (streaming only)
- 2017 North American Indigenous Games[19]
Rugby
Soccer
- Canadian Premier League – 20 games (10 streaming only).[21]
- U Sports men's soccer championship
- Major League Soccer - Toronto FC and MLS Cup (2007–2010)[22]
- 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup
- FIFA World Cup (1954–2014)
- CONCACAF Canadian Championship (2008) - Most games show live on bold, then on tape delay on CBC.
Tennis
- Canadian Open (Semi-finals and finals through 2015)[23]
Notable personalities (past and present)
- Ernie Afaganis
- Steve Armitage
- David Archer
- John Badham
- Leo Cahill
- Cassie Campbell-Pascall
- Don Chevrier
- Don Cherry
- Bob Cole
- Ward Cornell
- James Curry
- Chris Cuthbert
- Keith Dancy
- John Davidson
- Jason de Vos
- Gary Dornhoefer
- Steve Douglas
- Don Duguid
- Terry Evanshen
- Darren Flutie
- Greg Frers
- Elliotte Friedman
- Joe Galat
- Danny Gallivan
- Bob Goldham
- Tom Harrington
- Mike Harris
- Foster Hewitt
- Bill Hewitt
- Kelly Hrudey
- Dave Hodge
- Jim Hughson
- Dick Irvin Jr.
- Brenda Irving
- Russ Jackson
- Colleen Jones
- Khari Jones
- Dan Kelly
- Danny Kepley
- Ron Lancaster
- Mark Lee
- Ron MacLean
- Jeff Marek
- Norm Marshall
- Doug Maxwell
- Joan McCusker
- Brian McFarlane
- Wes McKnight
- Mike Milbury
- Greg Millen
- Gord Miller
- Sean Millington
- Howie Meeker
- Bob Moir
- Harry Neale
- Scott Oake
- Mitch Peacock
- Andi Petrillo
- Bruce Rainnie
- Mickey Redmond
- Chico Resch
- Ted Reynolds
- Frank Rigney
- Jim Robson
- Paul Romanuk
- Scott Russell
- Sandra Schmirler
- Craig Simpson
- P.J. Stock
- Glen Suitor
- Eric Tillman
- Alex Trebek
- Chris Walby
- Jack Wells
- John Wells
- Brian Williams
- Don Wittman
Directors
- Len Casey (1965–1967)[24][25]
- Ron Hunka (1967–1970)
- Don Goodwin (1970–1975)[26]
- Gordon Craig (1975–1977)
- John Hudson (1977–1980)[27]
- Ron Devion (1980–1982)
- Denis Harvey (1982–1983)
- Don MacPherson (1984–1988)[28]
- Arthur Smith (1988–1990)
- Alan Clark (1990 – December 8, 1999)
- Nancy Lee (December 9, 1999 – February 28, 2007)[29]
- Scott Moore (March 1, 2007 – April 3, 2011)[30]
- Jeffrey Orridge (April 4, 2011 – April 9, 2015)
- Greg Stremlaw (April 10, 2015 – January, 2019)
- Chris Wilson (July 2, 2019 – present)[31]
Hall of Fame
CBC Sports Hall of Fame recognizes those broadcasters of CBC Sports who have made a unique and lasting contribution to CBC and to the sports broadcasting industry.[32]
- Ernie Afaganis
- Don E. Brown
- Alan Clark
- Gordon Craig
- Margaret Davis
- Tom Fisk
- Danny Gallivan
- Geoff Gowan
- Foster Hewitt
- Dick Irvin Jr.
- Terry Leibel
- Joan Mead
- Howie Meeker
- Bob Moir
- George Retzlaff
- Ted Reynolds
- Fred Sgambatti
- Jim Thompson
- Fred Walker
- Don Wittman
Proposed CBC SportsPlus channel
In 2008, the CBC received CRTC approval for a sports specialty channel, "CBC SportsPlus", which would have aired a mix of amateur and professional sports. Commercial broadcasters, including CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media, and The Score filed petitons against the channel for being unduly competitive with existing sports channels (therefore violating the CRTC's then-policy of genre protection among specialty channels). They showed particular concern for the CBC stating that it planned to devote 75% of its programming to professional sports. The CRTC approved the license application, but restricted it to only devoting 30% of its schedule per-week to professional sports, with only 10% of this quota allowed to be devoted specifically to "professional stick and/or ball sports", which placed major restrictions on the network's intended remit, including hockey and lacrosse coverage.[33][34] The restrictions effectively made the application and license non-viable, and paired with the CBC's budgetary restrictions, the network never commenced operations.