New Rogers-NHL broadcast deal comes with lots of dollar decisions​on April 2, 2025 at 7:55 pm

Some NHL officials — even a few big names in Rogers — hadn’t expected spending Wednesday morning at a snap media conference with league commissioner Gary Bettman in Toronto.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Bettman had planned to be in Raleigh, N.C., to track Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record.

But as hockey is a fast sport, so were talks on a new 12-year, $11-billion deal for national media rights in Canada that starts in 2026-27.

Out of the blue, without going on the open market amid speculation Rogers could be cutting back, the league re-upped with it during a window of exclusive re-negotiation for the network that began Jan. 1. The final season of the previous record 10-year, $5.2 billion pact with Rogers was set to be next season.

“It wasn’t contentious in the least,” Bettman said of discussions, sitting next to the Stanley Cup that has eluded Canadian teams since 1993. “We had to work a little bit on the money, but that came together as well.”

Rogers is promising more live games, more platforms, behind-the-scenes features, bells and whistles, knowing they get competition from TSN’s regional packages, TNT in the United States and sub-license French-language games and one Monday match per week to Amazon Prime.

Article content

Article content

More streaming was predicted to be the NHL’s direction in the next decade.

“As we look to the next 12 years, we’ll look for opportunities to sub-license where it makes sense,” Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers, said. “This partnership is a win for fans, for Canadians and for our shareholders.”

The latter group might be hard to convince as Rogers will fork over to the league double what it did a decade ago. There are questions of how much money Rogers might have lost in the course of the previous deal, before fan interest sparked by the 4-Nations Face-Off and the home-nation Edmonton Oilers extending the Stanley Cup final to seven games likely renewed its desire to stay in the game.

“The value of live sports content just continues to appreciate,” Staffieri said. “It’s really rooted in viewership that continues to grow and what you see is revenue growing at a steady pace in terms of advertising, subscriptions and now sub-licensing.

Article content

“As we look to the next 12 years, we were very thoughtful about the economics. What we foresee the next 12 years will be solid.”

Regional rights for the Leafs still will be split between Rogers and TSN, other than Rogers’ exclusivity in playoffs said Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports and Media.

There should be fewer blackouts she added, as the new deal will give Rogers the option of converting regional games for the Canucks, Flames, Oilers and some Leafs, Jets and Senators matches, into national telecasts.

The fate of games on the traditional CBC outlet, the ancestral home of Hockey Night in Canada since the early 1950s, is not clear beyond ‘25-26.

“We value our partnership with the CBC and, over the next 18 months, we’ll look to see if there’s a continuation,” Watson said.

Bettman sounded his support for the CBC and “the longest-running program in the history of television in Canada” saying “I’m sure our friends at Rogers will make the right decisions and have the right discussions with them.”

Article content

Watson didn’t think there would be any major change to how the Leafs games are divided by the network in coming years, though left the door open for a possible shift on traditional viewing nights.

There has been some criticism of Rogers for not being more technically innovative or more edgy in coverage as it phased out familiar and out-spoken commentators through the years. But its brass brought out some new visual toys during the 4 Nations tournament with the blessing of the league and its Players Association.

“The innovations we’ve focused on the last five years were to bring the game to as many screens as we could,” Watson said. “We launched North America’s first live-streaming service for hockey, continue to make that good, then on to great.

“I can’t predict what technology will happen in the next 12 years, but it’s not anything we’ll shy away from.”

Bettman cited puck and player tracking as examples of “more customization and personalization” of technology with the ongoing influence of AI.

Article content