Rogers will continue to bring the Canadians hockey for another 12 years, after the announcement of another exclusive agreement between the telecommunications company and the NHL.
The $ 11 billion agreement announced today gives Rogers the rights to transmit hockey games throughout the country until 2037-38. The details are similar to the last agreement, which also covered 12 years, but cost only $ 5.2 billion and expires at the end of the 2025-26 season of hockey.
This gives Rogers’ national rights through television, transmission and digital for all regular seasonal games and playoffs, in addition to the Stanley Cup final and all special events. This also extends to coverage in all languages and all regions.
“For us, this is not just a game, it is our game, and we are proud to be the home of the hockey over the next 12 years,” said Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, at a press conference on Wednesday.
But what will the new agreement mean for hockey fans when they feel to see the game? Experts say there are some things to take into account.
Will the price upload?
When asked if the cost of the $ 11 billion agreement could happen to the spectators, Staffieri did not respond directly, but said that Rogers focuses on increasing his audience to obtain new income. He added that the approach would be to achieve the best value for customers at the lowest prices.
Richard Deitsch, a sports journalist for Atlético, says Rogers and Sportsnet should be careful with any cost increase for their services. As passionate as Canadian hockey fans are, he says there is still a threshold when it comes to how much they will pay to see the game, especially given the growing cost of living in other areas of life.
“I think if they were Rogers, I would think a lot and hard about what that price for hockey would be,” said Deitsch.
Less blackouts on the horizon
The NHL demands that its rights holders adapt which games are available by region, causing what is known as blackouts. Montreal Canadiens fans often can’t see their team in Alberta, for example. However, because some hockey games are considered national, they are played throughout the country.
Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports and Media, told journalists on Wednesday that part of the New Deal will allow them to convert some regional games to the nationals. The details are still coming, but in general that means that there would be more games available to the whole country instead of only in specific regions.
Where can I see hockey?
Although Rogers has the exclusive rights to convey the NHL games in Canada, subgride the rights of several other media organizations. That is why you see hockey games transmitted in entities such as TSN, TVA and, more recently, Amazon Prime.
The transmission giant reached an agreement with Rogers last year that allowed him to transmit regular seasonal games on Monday night, something that both companies announced as a good way to find new audiences.
Rogers staff said it is a “great possibility” to continue their dealings with Amazon in the future.
Dan Berlin, sports media assistant at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, says that the agreement is aligned with which the public moves, that is, far from the traditional cable and the transmission platforms. He says that working with Amazon, who has a “massive and incorporated audience” only helps Rogers, and the sport of hockey, grows and innovate.
“I think we are only really scratching the surface of how that possible sub -reference arrangement could be or attract Amazon as a partner,” Berlin said.
Subliance agreements are also how Hockey Night in Canada, the iconic Hockey Games program on Saturday night that runs on television since 1952, has been broadcast on CBC television. The CBC was the initial station of the Hockey Night in Canada, but lost the rights when Rogers signed his first exclusive agreement with the NHL in 2013.
It has never been more complicated or expensive to see NHL hockey as the Rogers transmission treatment of several years ends. To see each game of the 2024/2025 season, fans must subscribe to Sportsnet, TSN, TVA and Amazon Prime.
A continuous agreement for hockey night in Canada in CBC has not been made. Watson said today that Rogers and CBC continue to discuss their agreement.
“We value our association with the CBC. And in the next 18 months, we will look to see if there is a continuous association there,” said Watson.
If that agreement disappeared after the next season, when the agreement between Rogers and CBC expires, it would mark the first time that the Night of Hockey in Canada would not be free free for all Canadians through the CBC since the beginning of the program.
Berlin says that while the CBC remains interested in bringing hockey to Canadians throughout the country, does not see that the institution disappears. What could complicate that image is how much financing the CBC has available, says Berlin, pointing out the fact that the conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has campaigned. Lossing the CBC.
“My hope is that [the] The relationship will continue because … everyone should have the opportunity to see that institutional game broadcast on a Saturday night, “Berlin said.
What else could change in the long term?
Berlin says there are great growth opportunities in digital and transmission spaces in the next 12 years. He says he anticipates that the content will become more personalized and adapted to individual fans during the new agreement.
“[It] Fans who wish to see a complete transmission, but the diversity of the content and how he has the ability to meet the audience where they are, I think they will go through a really deep change, “he said.
Deitsch agrees. He hopes to see the technological innovations used to make the visualization experience more personal, especially if Rogers ends up increasing prices.
But Cary Kaplan, founder and president of the Marketing firm Cosmos Sports, says that an exclusive agreement for more than a decade solidifies what he calls the monopoly of Rogers over Canadian sports.
With all complete rights and an audience that probably does not give up seeing hockey in the short term, Kaplan says that he is concerned that he can make Rogers complacent in terms of the quality of the programming they are presenting.
“If you know that you are going to get your audience, you can do two things. You can say ‘we have an incredible audience, let’s go to,” Kaplan said. “Or you can say ‘the spectators go anywhere’, which is true.”
He says that Rogers takes this as an opportunity to innovate, and that the NHL included terms in the agreement that will guarantee a high quality transmission.
