- Amazon (NDAQ:AMZN) will begin airing Monday night NHL games in Canada on Prime Video next season.
- It’s the NHL’s first exclusive national broadcast package with a digital-only streaming service in Canada.
- Rogers Communications gets some relief from the 12-year, C$5.2 billion exclusive media rights deal that began with the 2014-15 NHL season.
- Shares of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.A) were down 0.36 per cent Thursday, closing at C$55.50.
While angst-filled coverage of all four Canadian playoff teams recovering from losses in their respective series filled the airwaves, a glimpse of future National Hockey League TV broadcasting emerged somewhat quietly Thursday.
Amazon (NDAQ:AMZN) will begin airing Monday night NHL games on Prime Video next season in the league’s first exclusive national broadcast package with a digital-only streaming service in Canada.
Current rights-holder Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.A; NYSE:RCI), Amazon and the NHL announced the two-year agreement for “Prime Monday Night Hockey” to produce and stream all national regular season Monday night NHL games in English exclusively to Prime members in Canada.
“With ‘Prime Monday Night Hockey,’ we’re offering our customers even more from their Prime membership,” Magda Grace, head of Prime Video, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement. “We’re committed to driving more innovation for fans as we bring the NHL into more Canadian homes and across more devices on Monday nights than ever before.”
While no dollar figures were available, the deal is a victory for all three parties:
- Amazon gets a foothold on digital-only streaming rights before the NHL’s Canadian media rights deal ends after the 2025-26 season, likely fending off any streaming rivals.
- Rogers gets some relief from the 12-year, C$5.2 billion exclusive media rights deal that began with the 2014-15 NHL season.
- The NHL brings in a high-profile media partner with broad reach that will compete with other broadcasters on the next media deal.
Hockey fans in Canada, however, will have to adjust to the fractured coverage after many years of Sportsnet airing Monday night NHL games. For an idea of what’s to come, NHL fans need only look south at what has happened with National Football League digital-only streaming.
Amazon began airing “Thursday Night Football” in 2017 in a non-exclusive streaming deal (local markets for the two teams playing still received over-the-air network broadcasts). Prime Video’s deal has gradually grown, with its first playoff game in 2020 (simulcast on CBS) and a Black Friday game in 2023. In 2025 it will exclusively air a wild-card playoff game.
In January, NBC Universal’s Peacock aired the first exclusively streamed NFL playoff game. Despite some backlash, the NFL is planning for more exclusive streaming.
This means a Stanley Cup Playoff game exclusively on Prime Video, or another streaming service, in Canada can’t be too far in the future.
“Today’s content ecosystem is evolving, and we’re really pleased to work with Amazon to continue to grow the game and help hockey fans watch games when and where they want,” Colette Watson, president, Rogers Sports & Media, said in a statement.
That evolution most likely won’t see Rogers repeat its exclusive deal that has been hampered by declining ad revenues, cord cutting, no Canadian NHL teams making the playoffs in the second year of the deal and a global pandemic that drastically impacted the 2020 playoffs and the 2020-21 season.
To get maximum return from its next Canadian broadcast deal, the NHL is expected to seek multiple network partners like it did in the United States with seven-year deals worth US$4.375 billion from Disney’s ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports. This should bring Bell Media’s TSN back into the fold and an even bigger role for Amazon Video.
“We are committed to serving hockey fans and reaching new audiences with our robust content distribution strategy that brings viewers exciting NHL content to a multitude of streaming services. With this groundbreaking partnership, we are continuing to stay true to that goal,” David Proper, NHL senior executive vice president, media & international Strategy said in a statement.
Also Thursday, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken announced its non-nationally televised games next season will be available to Amazon Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Shares of Amazon Inc. (NDAQ:AMZN) were down 2.92 per cent Thursday, closing at US$173.67.
Shares of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.A) were down 0.36 per cent Thursday, closing at C$55.50.
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