CBC/Radio-Canada announced Tuesday it plans to significantly increase its commitment to sports coverage of Canada’s high-performance athletes, professional women’s sport, and major sporting events hosted in Canada and around the world, following record-breaking viewership of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
Canada’s public broadcaster said in a press release its commitment across French and English-language programming and platforms will feature Canada’s athletes “on an unprecedented scale”.
“Across the country, we have witnessed the tremendous unifying power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for people of all backgrounds and generations. Our goal now is to multiply these powerful moments throughout the year,” Dany Meloul, executive vice president of Radio-Canada, said in the press release.
“As Canada’s Olympic network every day through 2032, our increased commitment will include more in-depth storytelling, more live sport, and more coverage of Canadian athletes at home and abroad,” Chris Wilson, executive director of CBC Sports and general manager of Olympics for CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a statement. “We’re focused on the people at the heart of the competition, covering their achievements and sacrifices as they represent our country.”
Sophie Morasse, executive director of entertainment, sports and TOU.TV at Radio-Canada, added: “We want to shine a spotlight on our athletes well beyond the Olympic and Paralympic Games themselves. By sharing not only their victories but also their personal journeys, we create a genuine connection between the public and this new generation of champions.”
With the news Tuesday that CBC will no longer broadcast NHL games — a decades-long feature of the public broadcaster’s Saturday night programming schedule — CBC announced it will launch a new Saturday night primetime show on CBC and CBC Gem later this year, featuring the best performances by Canadian athletes competing at home and at the biggest events around the world. This “will provide Canadian athletes with an unprecedented profile between Olympic and Paralympic Games,” CBC said in its press release.
In addition, this fall Radio-Canada will launch Rendez-vous Podium, a new weekly show combining athletic performances with human stories. Hosted by Roseline Filion and Jacinthe Taillon on a rotating basis, Rendez-vous Podium will air Sunday afternoons on ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV, “bringing live events and stories about the people making a difference on the elite and amateur levels,” the press release said.
CBC/Radio-Canada also said it will have increased coverage of high-profile events leading up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028, including the 2026 Commonwealth Games being held this summer in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), World Figure Skating Championships, World Aquatic Championships, World Athletic Championships, World Volleyball Championships, Diamond League, Northern Super League (NSL), U Sports Championships, and more than 20 other major events and championships available across both English and French networks and/or CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s English and French services will also offer in-depth, documentary-style programming telling the stories of Canadian sport and the athletes who represent the country on the world stage.
Furthermore, CBC’s youth sport streaming platform Sports Local is being expanded across Canada. Enhancing exposure of Canada’s youth participating in sports, this initiative makes it possible for participating local teams across Canada to stream and upload their games to view, watch personalized highlights, gain technical feedback from their coaches and share their clips on social media.
Regarding its commitment to professional women’s sports coverage, CBC/Radio-Canada said it has been a world leader since 2019 with a commitment to equal coverage of women’s and men’s sports across all platforms. “As rights holders of the PWHL, NSL and hundreds of hours of women’s sport content, this commitment will continue to grow as part of the expanded coverage of Canada’s athletes and high-performance sport,” it said.
