HNIC - Availability Outside of Canada

Availability Outside of Canada

As mentioned previously, during the era that HNIC was on radio, it was broadcast over several powerful CBC clear-channel stations whose nighttime signals reached much of the northern United States. As a result, the games had a following throughout the northern U.S., and especially so in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and New York, the four U.S. cities that had NHL teams at the time. Foster Hewitt always acknowledged these listeners in his opening greeting, "Hello Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland" (before Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949). This continued into the television era (despite waning in recent years with the expansion of local team TV coverage on regional sports networks), although some C-band satellite dishes can still receive the CBC's over-the-air feeds. U.S. cable television outlets near the international border (including markets such as Metro Detroit, Seattle, Buffalo, Burlington, Vermont, and Sault Ste. Marie) typically carry a nearby CBC affiliate on their systems (though some cable systems carry a non-regional station). As a general rule, CBC stations are carried within about 150 miles of the border, and are not blacked out of sporting events.

Beginning with the 2008–09 season, Hockey Night's main games were simulcast weekly in the United States on NHL Network, complete with pre- and post-game shows. If U.S.-based teams appear in these games, the telecast is blacked out in the markets of the participating teams. As an example, if the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Boston Bruins in "Hockey Night"'s main game, the NHL Network's telecast is blacked-out in the Boston area. In the 2009-10 season, only the first game of the HNIC doubleheader is simulcast live on NHL Network, with the second game and post-game After Hours program being shown in tape delay on Sunday, the sole exception being the Hockey Day in Canada event.

NHL Center Ice offers some Hockey Night in Canada games at the same time as the CBC broadcast. Usually these games are the regional Hockey Night games from either Ottawa or Montreal. Center Ice usually only shows the 7 p.m. ET games because the late games are usually national.

Beginning with the 2006 playoffs, the U.S. cable channel Versus simulcast the CBC's coverage of some games, generally first and second round match-ups from Western Canada, instead of using their own crews and announcers. In the early 1990s, SportsChannel America covered the Stanley Cup playoffs in a similar fashion. Versus, and its current incarnation as the NBC Sports Network, continues to use CBC and TSN feeds to augment its own playoff coverage, sometimes even picking up a Canadian broadcast of a game involving two American teams.

Hockey Night in Canada is also broadcast live (and occasionally as-live) in the UK and Ireland on ESPN and ESPN America. When the broadcast is shown on the main ESPN channel it is also available in high definition on ESPN HD. The pre- and post-game segments are not included, but the entirety of the two games are shown, as well as the segments between periods.

Hockey Night in Canada is also seen in some other European markets on ESPN America, distributed on multiple cable and satellite platforms.

Hockey Night in Canada is available on 27 in the Cayman Islands as part of their regular Saturday night programming, and to Canadian Forces members on Canadian Forces Radio and Television.