Hockey Night in Canada will continue on CBC through 2014, under the terms of a six-year contract extension with the NHL, announced Monday at a Toronto press conference featuring CBC TV head Richard Stursberg and league commissioner Gary Bettman. The news ends speculation that the sports series – a Ceeb TV mainstay for 54 years – would fall victim to a failed bidding war with CTVglobemedia.

The deal is believed to be worth $100 million a year, an estimated 50% increase over what the CBC had been paying. It takes effect following the 2007/08 season and gives the pubcaster national English-language broadcast and multimedia rights to NHL games in Canada, including exclusive Canadian coverage of NHL games on Saturday nights. CBC will also continue to cover Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The agreement also grants CBC exclusive coverage of the Stanley Cup finals, the NHL Awards and the All-Star Game, in addition to a multimedia package that includes video-on-demand.

The NHL is still in talks with CTVglobemedia, which controls TSN, about the sports channel’s own rights situation. Some insiders speculated that CTVglobemedia would be able to steal away much of the rights from the Ceeb with a huge offer, but it would appear that CBC had an exclusive window in which to negotiate. The CBC’s pitch to the league apparently emphasized its long-running tradition of hockey coverage.

The agreement is subject to approval by the NHL board at its June 20 meeting. Hockey Night in Canada is the Ceeb’s highest-rated show, averaging more than one million viewers on Saturday nights.

With files from Sean Davidson