Latest news with #MondayNightHockey
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Inside Amazon's first year streaming the NHL and whether their Rogers deal will continue
When the NHL and Rogers announced last April that Amazon had signed a two-year deal to produce and stream Monday NHL games exclusively in Canada, it was reasonable to wonder about Amazon Prime Video's long-term play. Now that the league has announced a 12-year extension of Rogers' exclusive Canadian broadcast rights — beginning at the end of next season, when the current deal expires — we have more insight into the future of hockey broadcasts on Canadian screens. Prime Video launched 'Monday Night Hockey' this season by subletting one night's worth of those rights from Rogers. It will continue next season, essentially giving Amazon a two-year audition for a larger portion of NHL broadcasting rights in the future. Advertisement If Prime Video pulled off 'Monday Night Hockey' with any degree of success, could the streaming giant angle for a bigger piece of the Canadian NHL deal after its first two years are up? Tony Staffieri, Rogers president and CEO, said on Wednesday that Rogers has every intention of subletting its exclusive rights. 'Yes, we'll look to it — as a possibility and as a strong possibility,' Staffieri said. 'Today, we sublicense French content as well as streaming with Amazon. Those have been terrific partnerships and as we look to the next 12 years, the agreement with the NHL is that we'll look for opportunities to continue to sublicense where they make sense.' Amazon declined to comment on how Rogers' announcement affects the future of Prime Video and NHL broadcasts. Still, it has to be good news when the president of Rogers is asked about your existing sub-lease and says, 'Those have been terrific partnerships.' Rogers paid $11 billion for 12 years' worth of exclusive Canadian rights starting in 2026-27. One way to recoup some of its investment — and spare itself from taxing Sportsnet staff with the heavy lift of broadcasting every Canadian game — is to continue those subleasing agreements, whether to Amazon, RDS or on new frontiers. Whether Prime Video continues its Monday night broadcasts, picks a new night or expands to add a second night remains to be seen; what's clear is that there is opportunity for it to grow its NHL footprint heading into 2026-27. 'There is nothing more valuable in this country from a media standpoint than having the rights to the NHL,' NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at the joint news conference. How much of that value will belong to Amazon? Now that Prime Video has completed most of its first season, we have insight into how they've approached it. There are elements of Amazon's production during their Monday night broadcast (and in its behind-the-scenes documentary series 'Faceoff') that are resource-intensive. Prime Video has committed budget in the form of on- and off-air broadcasting talent that travels from one city to the next. It broadcasts with features like AI-enhanced slow-motion replays, Dolby 5.1 surround sound and warm-up footage, using a 1080p HD resolution other Canadian broadcasts don't yet match. Advertisement In an effort to put a focus on the Canadian cities, the broadcast team is traveling from city to city for all 26 games. Prime Video's goal is to make each city feel like a character in the broadcast — something they've achieved in part through that travel and in part through the collection of additional footage of each city. The other way Prime Video has made the most of its resources is hiring top on- and off-air talent, said Mark Shopiro, head of Prime Video Canada. John Forslund was one of Prime Video's key NHL hires, topping a talent list that includes Adnan Virk, Andi Petrillo, Thomas Hickey, Blake Bolden, Jody Shelley and Shane Hnidy. Forslund, whose nearly 40 years of play-calling experience include TNT, ESPN, NBC, and a host of other American broadcasts, recalls that Prime Video's pitch to him was unique. 'In my career, no one's ever asked me, 'What's your opinion on how to call a hockey game?'' Forslund said. Forlsund told his wife after the interview that it was the first time in his career that it felt like someone cared how he thought a hockey game should be presented. The feeling stuck with him. Forslund said the beauty of an NHL game is that there are 20 players on each team who could become the story on any given night. He does his homework on each one, so that he's ready no matter what happens instead of trying to shoehorn topics into the game in advance. Shopiro also points to Prime Video's hiring success behind the camera. Each Prime Video game is directed by Mark Askin, who produced Toronto Maple Leafs games for 36 years, including for 'Hockey Night in Canada.' He was coaxed out of retirement. Seated at the front of the truck, watching the live action through all of Amazon's angles simultaneously, Askin spends each broadcast calling out instructions to the team of technicians who turn live audio and video into the produced broadcast. Every time there's a big play — or a subtle, important one — Askin calls cues to his crew, with staff responsible for preparing each color-coded feed in real time. Advertisement Is all of this investment working? Prime Video says it is. Their 'Monday Night Hockey' broadcast delivers significantly younger audiences than other broadcasts, according to data provided by Prime Video. The median age for their viewings is 43 years old, compared to 55 for last season's Monday night games and 54 for 'Hockey Night in Canada' this season, with growth in various demographic ranges from age 18 to 54. Prime Video's analytics also show that the average length of a watching session has increased by 33 percent compared to last season. Live sports are part of the next streaming boom, with Prime Video, Apple TV and others competing with each other for the eyeballs they don't already get from film and TV series. Now that Rogers has secured another 12 years worth of broadcast rights, will Prime continue its partnership? 'I can't speculate on future rights. I think what I can say is that we remain committed and focused to getting the game right in our first season of the deal that we're on,' Shopiro said. 'We're always looking at opportunities for how we can bring value and enhance the Prime membership and believe that live sport has a big part to play in that.' (Top photo of the Prime Video broadcast truck: Courtesy Kendra Hope Penner)
CBC
03-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Rogers, NHL have agreed to another broadcast deal. What will that mean for how you watch the game?
Rogers will continue to bring hockey to Canadians for another 12 years, following the announcement of another exclusive deal between the telecommunications company and the NHL. The $11-billion deal announced today gives Rogers the rights to broadcast hockey games across the country until 2037-38. The details are similar to the past deal, which also spanned 12 years, but cost just $5.2 billion and expires at the end of the 2025-26 hockey season. This gives Rogers national rights across TV, streaming and digital for all regular season and playoff games, plus the Stanley Cup Final and all special events. This also extends to coverage in all languages and all regions. "For us, this isn't just a game, it's our game, and we're proud to be the home of hockey for the next 12 years," Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, said at a news conference Wednesday. But what will the new deal mean for hockey fans when they sit down to watch the game? Experts say there's a few things to watch for. Will the price go up? When asked if the cost of the $11-billion deal might get passed on to viewers, Staffieri didn't answer directly, but said Rogers is focused on growing its viewership in order to bring in new revenue. He added that the focus would be on bringing the best value for customers at the lowest prices. Richard Deitsch, a sportswriter for The Athletic, says Rogers and Sportsnet should be wary of any cost increases for their services. As passionate as Canadian hockey fans are, he says there's still a threshold when it comes to how much they'll pay to watch the game, especially given the rising cost of living in other areas of life. "I think if I was Rogers, I would think very long and hard about what that price point would be for hockey," Deitsch said. Fewer blackouts on the horizon The NHL mandates that its rights holders tailor what games are available by region, causing what are known as blackouts. Montreal Canadiens fans aren't often able to watch their team in Alberta, for example. However, because some hockey games are deemed national, they are played across the country. Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports and Media, told reporters Wednesday that part of the new deal will allow them to convert some regional games to national ones. Details are still to come, but overall that means more games would be available to the entire country rather than just in specific regions. Where will I be able to watch hockey? Though Rogers holds the exclusive rights to broadcast NHL games in Canada, it sub-licenses the rights to a number of other media organizations. That's why you see hockey games broadcast on entities like TSN, TVA and, most recently, Amazon Prime. The streaming giant made a deal with Rogers last year that allowed it to stream regular-season games on Monday Night Hockey — something both companies heralded as a good way to find new audiences. Rogers' Staffieri said it's a "strong possibility" that they'll continue their deal with Amazon going forward. Dan Berlin, an assistant professor of sport media at Toronto Metropolitan University, says the arrangement falls in line with where audiences are moving — that is, away from traditional cable and onto streaming platforms. He says that working with Amazon, who have a "massive, built-in audience" only helps Rogers, and the sport of hockey, grow and innovate. "I think we're only really scratching the surface of what that potential sublease arrangement or bringing Amazon in as a partner could look like," Berlin said. Sublicensing agreements are also how Hockey Night in Canada — the iconic, Saturday night hockey game program that's run on TV since 1952 — airs on CBC television. The CBC was the initial broadcaster of Hockey Night in Canada, but lost the rights when Rogers signed their first exclusive deal with the NHL in 2013. WATCH | It's never been more complicated — or expensive — to watch NHL hockey: It's never been more complicated — or expensive — to watch NHL hockey 6 months ago Duration 2:04 It's never been more complicated, or expensive, to watch NHL hockey as the multiyear Rogers broadcast deal winds down. To watch every game of the 2024/2025 season fans will need to subscribe to Sportsnet, TSN, TVA and Amazon Prime. A continued deal to air Hockey Night in Canada on CBC hasn't been made as of yet. Watson said today that Rogers and CBC are continuing to discuss their agreement. "We value our partnership with the CBC. And over the next 18 months, we'll look to see if there's a continued partnership there," Watson said. If that arrangement were to go away after next season, when the deal between Rogers and CBC is set to expire, it would mark the first time that Hockey Night in Canada wouldn't be available free to all Canadians via the CBC since the program's inception. Berlin says as long as the CBC remains interested in bringing hockey to Canadians across the country, he doesn't see the institution going away. What could complicate that picture is how much funding the CBC has available, Berlin says, pointing to the fact that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has campaigned on defunding the CBC. "My hope is that [the] relationship will continue because … everybody should have the opportunity to be able to watch that institutional game broadcast on a Saturday night," Berlin said. What else might change in the long run? Berlin says there are huge opportunities for growth in digital and streaming spaces over the next 12 years. He says he anticipates that content will become more personalized and tailored to individual fans over the course of the new deal. "[It] might not lend itself to fans wanting to watch an entire broadcast, but the diversity of the content and how it has the ability to meet the audience where they are, I think will go through a real profound change," he said. Deitsch agrees. He expects to see technological innovations used to make the viewing experience more personal — especially if Rogers ends up raising prices. But Cary Kaplan, founder and president of marketing firm Cosmos Sports, says an exclusive deal for more than a decade solidifies what he calls Rogers' monopoly over Canadian sports. With the full rights and an audience that's not likely to give up watching hockey any time soon, Kaplan says he worries that could make Rogers complacent in terms of the quality of the programming they're putting out. "If you know you're gonna get your audience, you can do two things. You can say 'We have an amazing audience, let's go all in,' " Kaplan said. "Or you can say 'The viewers aren't going anywhere,' which is true."
