The broadcasts of Summer and Winter Olympic Games produced by CBC Sports is shown on CBC Television and heard on the CBC's radio networks in Canada. The CBC was the broadcaster of the 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 Olympics.
History
The first telecast of the Olympics on Canadian television was the CBC's broadcast of the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. The CBC aired black-and-white highlights of the previous day's events and aired the Canada vs. Soviet Union hockey game live by leasing a standby circuit from CBS and making the CBC's 1st winter Olympics in the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, USA. Critics compared the CBC's overall Olympic coverage unfavourably to that of ABC, which broadcast same-day colour highlights throughout the Games. For the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, the CBC produced a total of 17 hours of radio and TV coverage for the 1960 Summer Olympics. CBC Television broadcast same-day highlights each night. The half-hour package featured was provided by CBS Sports, which had the broadcast rights in the United States. CBS sportscasters Bud Palmer, Gil Stratton, and Bob Richards provided commentary. CBS sent videotapes of each day's events by jet to Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City where a mobile transmission unit there beamed the pictures to the CBC and CBS networks. On radio Ward Cornell and Thom Benson gave listeners 15-minute reports every evening except Sunday on the CBC's Trans-Canada Network and Doug Smith gave half-hour evening wrap-ups on the CBC's Dominion Network.
The CBC lost their Winter Olympic broadcasting rights to CTV following the 1960 Olympics, but retained their rights to the Summer Olympics. The CBC Television broadcasters for the 1964 Summer games were Ted Reynolds, Dave Cruikshank, Bob McDevitt, Steve Douglas, and Lloyd Robertson. Ward Cornell, Al Hamel, Bob Moir, Don Goodwin, and Bill Good were the broadcasters for CBC Radio. For the Tokyo Olympics, CBC Television used the same satellite as NBCUniversal, the recently launched Syncom 3, to transmit late-night highlight packages of events from that day.
The CBC provided its first colour pictures of Olympic competition during the 1968 Summer Olympics from Mexico City. CBC Radio broadcast five-minute hourly updates and occasional live reports. CBC Olympic host Lloyd Robertson was praised by The Globe and Mail writer Leslie Millin for his cool demeanour in the face of many technical glitches including "strange breaks, noises, lapses and unscheduled fade-outs." Millin applauded Robertson, normally a newscaster, for "working with the grace and agility of a man hired to stamp grapes in a Sicilian winery."
The CBC almost cancelled their plans for coverage of the 1980 Summer Olympics after Canada took part in the boycott, but decided not to and was represented by nine accreditation cards.
Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, a joint venture between CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media) and Rogers Media, acquired the rights to broadcast the Vancouver-hosted 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The move was met with displeasure from Americans close to the border, because they cannot access CTV like they can the CBC and prefer Canada's Olympics coverage over that of U.S. broadcaster NBC.
2014 to present
On August 1, 2012, the CBC announced that it had acquired the Canadian broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, returning the Games to the broadcaster for the first time since 2008. While financial details were not announced, the CBC did state that it was a "financially and fiscally responsible bid", which would carry on the organization's 60-year history of Olympic broadcasting. The CBC sublicensed coverage of the Games to TSN and Sportsnet (which were the main cable networks of the Bell/Rogers consortium) in English, and TVA Sports in French. Beginning with the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the Canadian Paralympic Committee acquired the Canadian media rights to the Paralympic Games (which had previously been held by the Bell/Rogers consortium); as part of sub-licensing agreement, the broadcasts are produced in conjunction with CBC Sports and other partners.