Canadian NHL TV rights negotiations start January 1, 2025

[Fenway]

Someone heard anything more on this subject?

It appears the NHL wants to see what else is out there

Amazon has impressed with its coverage this year and it is safe to assume Apple is looking at the package along with Netflix.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Hope Amazon kills these trash canadian broadcasts/channels.

 

[BraveCanadian]

I wonder if the bath Rogers took on this deal will make them shy about sticking with it?

My understanding is that they have lost a ton of money but maybe I am misinformed.

Would love to see the NHL realize they are making it so difficult to be a fan by spreading games across a bunch of services and having blackouts etc. Impossible for casual fans to pick it up and absolutely grating for invested fans too.

Hope Amazon kills these trash canadian broadcasts/channels.

I hate Amazon but this is a best case scenario at the moment. The NHL needs to consolidate this stuff and make it easy to access imo.

 

[BraveCanadian]

I like listening to Bieksa on CBC, not sure if that was a Rogers move

He's the only one with an actual opinion that isn't just a dumb cliche for the 10,000th time.

 

[eojsmada]

He's the only one with an actual opinion that isn't just a dumb cliche for the 10,000th time.

Bieksa is probably my favorite "panel" guy out of all of the NHL ones I have seen in the last 5+ years.

 

[rojac]

It appears the NHL wants to see what else is out there

Amazon has impressed with its coverage this year and it is safe to assume Apple is looking at the package along with Netflix.

Rogers has a two month exclusive negotiation window -- until the end of February -- before others can bid. My guess is that Rogers (if the exclusive renewal window allows) will bring in Amazon as a partner in the deal.

So, while a deal could be struck at any time, I think both sides are likely to use the time they have to hammer out a deal, so I wouldn't expect to hear much until closer to the end of February.

 

[eojsmada]

Rogers has a two month exclusive negotiation window -- until the end of February -- before others can bid. My guess is that Rogers (if the exclusive renewal window allows) will bring in Amazon as a partner in the deal.

So, while a deal could be struck at any time, I think both sides are likely to use the time they have to hammer out a deal, so I wouldn't expect to hear much until closer to the end of February.

Very sensible approach. Hopefully a better situation (no Ron McLean) can be reached.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Rogers has a two month exclusive negotiation window -- until the end of February -- before others can bid. My guess is that Rogers (if the exclusive renewal window allows) will bring in Amazon as a partner in the deal.

So, while a deal could be struck at any time, I think both sides are likely to use the time they have to hammer out a deal, so I wouldn't expect to hear much until closer to the end of February.

I wouldn’t expect to hear much until maybe between September and the end of the year.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

I wonder if the bath Rogers took on this deal will make them shy about sticking with it?

My understanding is that they have lost a ton of money but maybe I am misinformed.

Would love to see the NHL realize they are making it so difficult to be a fan by spreading games across a bunch of services and having blackouts etc. Impossible for casual fans to pick it up and absolutely grating for invested fans too.



I hate Amazon but this is a best case scenario at the moment. The NHL needs to consolidate this stuff and make it easy to access imo.

I also have just heard people comment "bad deal, rogers losing money" but has not seen any factual data that supports this, and the articles ive seen resently is saying, they are looking to double the deal, 10 billion for 10 years.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I also have just heard people comment "bad deal, rogers losing money" but has not seen any factual data that supports this, and the articles ive seen resently is saying, they are looking to double the deal, 10 billion for 10 years.

Which articles are those? Haven’t seen that anywhere,

 

[varsaku]

I also have just heard people comment "bad deal, rogers losing money" but has not seen any factual data that supports this, and the articles ive seen resently is saying, they are looking to double the deal, 10 billion for 10 years.

That would be a massive overpayment for a population the size of Canada. NBA got $76B/11yrs deal for a population of 334 million. That scaled to Canada's population of 40 million would only be $827MM/Yr.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

It's going to be interesting to see if the trends that are cropping up within American TV bubbles (grossly overpaying for sports properties from legacy media, tech companies trying to get into the space) ultimately hold water up here. More then anything, even if the duopoly is insulating it massively, it's only a matter of time before the RSN apocalypse pops up here, mainly from Rogers deciding that it isn't worth it having a bunch of regional channels only really segmented by geography, and instead goes to the TSN model of 5 channels, with one as a designated second channel, the rest being overflow.

Dunno that it's a bubble honestly. 20 years ago the cable companies had a negotiating advantage because you only had so many time slots to fill.

Now with streaming, the content demand is endless and all the platforms are at a war with each other to get more. It'll eventually slam into a wall, but the wall is when the consumer decides they've had enough of the individual streaming platforms raising their prices to cover the ridiculous contracts they're handing out.

Or, more likely, leagues just continue to spread their rights over numerous platforms so it keeps cost down for the platform but the league gets more money.

Judging by the fact that even the major wrestling companies can get absurd TV contracts from Netflix and HBO despite consistently decreasing ratings, it's not slowing down any time soon.

 

[varsaku]

Dunno that it's a bubble honestly. 20 years ago the cable companies had a negotiating advantage because you only had so many time slots to fill.

Now with streaming, the content demand is endless and all the platforms are at a war with each other to get more. It'll eventually slam into a wall, but the wall is when the consumer decides they've had enough of the individual streaming platforms raising their prices to cover the ridiculous contracts they're handing out.

Or, more likely, leagues just continue to spread their rights over numerous platforms so it keeps cost down for the platform but the league gets more money.

Judging by the fact that even the major wrestling companies can get absurd TV contracts from Netflix and HBO despite consistently decreasing ratings, it's not slowing down any time soon.

The arms race between streaming services might keep this gravy train going a little bit longer. I think it is going to be a hard reality check for most services when they realize outside of NFL, other leagues are not a big draw.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

The arms race between streaming services might keep this gravy train going a little bit longer. I think it is going to be a hard reality check for most services when they realize outside of NFL, other leagues are not a big draw.

It takes the advertisers and the consumers realizing it's not worth what the streaming platforms are charging them. The ungodly contracts are probably why all these streaming services (DirecTV Now, Sling, YoutubeTV, etc.) are spiking their monthly subscription prices.

The NHL survives because their audience is generally more upper middle to upper class, thus they draw more upper class advertisers that pay more. Which is why WBD regularly bumps their wrestling content off TNT to TBS for the NHL even though the wrestling draws more viewers. Advertisers view wrestling as trailer park content and thus pay less.