When Rogers stunned the hockey world in the fall of 2013 by scooping up the whole of the NHL’s national broadcast rights in Canada, Hubert Lacroix, then the head of the CBC, was at the press conference, like a guest at his own funeral.
Rogers and the CBC had cut a side deal that allowed the privately owned media giant to borrow the public broadcaster’s airwaves to continue airing NHL games, while Rogers would have editorial control and sell ads and keep the revenue.
