The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that the era of free hockey on Canadian television is over. The Globe's Simon Houpt and Irene Galea write that on Tuesday, Sportsnet and CBC said the pact that had kept NHL games on the public broadcaster had come to an end. The announcement means the country's longest-running weekly program, Hockey Night in Canada, which began airing in the fall of 1952, will also cease to exist in its current form. The program was an icon of Canadian culture, one that Michael McKinley, author of the commemorative book Hockey Night in Canada: 60 Seasons, had called "our date night with the country." Saturday night games will now air exclusively on the Rogers subscription service Sportsnet, which had been producing English-language NHL broadcasts for its own network and CBC ever since it bought the national rights to the league in a $5.2-billion, 12-year deal that began in the fall of 2014. Prior to that, CBC had owned the rights to Saturday night games for decades. Brock University professor Michael Naraine said, "The thing is, the CBC was lucky to be airing hockey for the last 12 years." Rogers has been able to sharply increase the amount it charges Sportsnet subscribers.