CBC Sports


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.
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, 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. 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, 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. 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 to January 2019.

Sports properties

Current

Alpine Skiing
Athletics
  • Diamond League
  • World Athletics Championships
  • U Sports Athletics
Baseball
  • Little League Canadian Championships
Basketball
  • FIBA 3x3 World Cup
Cricket
  • Global T20 Canada
  • *All matches streaming
Curling
  • Grand Slam of Curling
Equine sports
  • Spruce Meadows
Figure Skating
  • World Figure Skating Championships
  • International Skating Union
  • Skate Canada International
  • Canadian Figure Skating Championships
Gridiron Football
  • Vanier Cup
  • U Sports Football
Hockey
  • National Hockey League - Hockey Night in Canada
  • *Produced by Sportsnet 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.
  • *Produced in-house by the league.
  • *Weekly Saturday afternoon game of the week on CBC Television
  • *Additional streaming games. Canadian Hockey League
  • *Early-season weekend games across its constituent leagues.
  • *Additional streaming regular-season games.
  • U Sports Hockey
Horse racing
  • Queen's Plate
Multi-sports competitions
Rugby
Soccer
Volleyball
  • U Sports volleyball

    Previous

Canoe Sprint
Curling
  • Cross Canada Curling
  • CBC Championship Curling
  • CBC Curling Classic
  • Canadian Curling Association
Baseball
  • Major League Baseball
  • * Major League Baseball on CBC
  • **Toronto Blue Jays
  • **Montreal Expos
  • **All-Star Game/Postseason/World Series
Basketball
  • National Basketball Association
  • * NBA on CBC
  • **Toronto Raptors
  • Canadian Elite Basketball League
  • * All games streaming, 7 regular-season games and the championship game on CBC Television
Gridiron Football
  • Canadian Football League -
Hockey
  • AHL on CBC - 10 games during the 2010–11 season
Multi-sports competitions
Soccer
Tennis
  • Canadian Open

    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
  • Ron Hunka
  • Don Goodwin
  • Gordon Craig
  • John Hudson
  • Ron Devion
  • Denis Harvey
  • Don MacPherson
  • Arthur Smith
  • Alan Clark
  • Nancy Lee
  • Scott Moore
  • Jeffrey Orridge
  • Greg Stremlaw
  • Chris Wilson

    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.
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. 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. The restrictions effectively made the application and license non-viable, and paired with the CBC's budgetary restrictions, the network never commenced operations.