NHL hockey will remain on Sportsnet for the next dozen years.
Rogers Communications' contract to broadcast the NHL in Canada is up at the end of the 2025-26 season, leading many to speculate that another company would swoop in to nab the national broadcasting rights, such as TSN and Bell Media or perhaps even Amazon, which broadcasted games this season for the first time on their streaming platform, Prime Video.
Instead, according to , Rogers Communications and the NHL have reached an agreement on a new 12-year deal worth $11 billion CAD, which works out to around $7.7 billion USD at the current exchange rate.
The previous deal between Rogers and the NHL was also for 12 years but was for less than half the amount — $5.2 billion CAD. It should be noted, however, that the per-year amounts on that original deal increased significantly at the back-end of that contract. On a per-year basis, the new deal won't be as big an increase as the totals might suggest.
The new broadcast deal is roughly equivalent to the NHL's current U.S. broadcast deal with ESPN and Turner Sports. That contract was signed in 2021 and pays $4.5 billion over seven years, which works out to roughly $642.9 million per year. The Canadian deal will work out to roughly $641.7 million per year.
The NHL's broadcast rights deals pale in comparison to , which they signed last year with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. That deal pays the NBA $76 billion over 11 years — roughly $6.9 billion per year.
There are positives and negatives to Sportsnet retaining broadcast rights in Canada.
On the positive side, maintaining the status quo means continuity, as hockey fans can expect broadcasts to remain roughly the same for the foreseeable future. For Vancouver Canucks fans, that means more of beloved play-by-play broadcaster John Shorthouse, for instance.
On the other hand, the broadcasts remaining the same can also be a negative.
Amazon's Monday Night Hockey on Prime Video has illustrated what fresh ideas can bring to a hockey broadcast, while also bringing a stability to the streaming experience that is not shared by Sportsnet Plus. The video quality and audio quality have been top notch, the intermission features have been a step up in quality from those at Sportsnet, and the countdown to puck drop, with the ability to watch the players warm-up, is a nice touch.
With Rogers retaining the rights to the NHL for the next 12 years, will they feel any need to innovate with their broadcasts or will they remain the same?
