[Rumour] Rogers and NHL reach new Canadian Broadcast deal worth $11 billion CAD over 12 years

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Sled

Curious who is broadcasting quality Hockey in Canada?

TSN is not a solution.

I came to ask the same question.

[Toonage]

Sportsnet's Apple TV app still gives me errors that the Blue Jays game is unavailable due to NHL blackout restrictions. Not a typo. NHL. I restart the game and its good but still. This error has survived numerous bug fix revisions.

I tried complaining about it through one of their only two customer service options, chat, and they "hung up" on me more or less. Just killed the chat while I was ranting. Polite ranting, but still ranting.

[Mr.Coffee]

If I was the NHL I would absolutely be negotiating in some revised quality “minimums” that Sportsnet would have to commit to reach. I guarantee they’re losing a tiny bit of revenue from SN’s F- quality.

Also wonder why or why not a company like Netflix doesn’t bid. There’s an auto 40 million person country locking in subscription to you for 11 yrs and you could justify increasing monthly fees for sure.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

If I was the NHL I would absolutely be negotiating in some revised quality “minimums” that Sportsnet would have to commit to reach. I guarantee they’re losing a tiny bit of revenue from SN’s F- quality.

Also wonder why or why not a company like Netflix doesn’t bid. There’s an auto 40 million person country locking in subscription to you for 11 yrs and you could justify increasing monthly fees for sure.

I think Netflix is just stepping their toe into that space and might not actually have the infrastructure to support the production and broadcasting of that many Hockey games.

They've successfully been able to do one off football or hockey games.

And have recently launched wrestling (2 shows per week, and WWE largely had a lot of their own production crew already).

But to launch something on this scale, with the volume of games per week, and your own production teams, and to only have that available in Canada...probably not worth it at all to Netflix.

And if you do the quick math - 5,000,000 incremental subscribers per month, at $20 per month every month for 12 years is still only $14B of revenue before you factor in all the costs (production, crews, network). Really I'd guess is Netflix doesn't actually think it will be super profitable.

[Strange Brew]

Netflix is more about growth than profits. I also don't see why they need their own production teams. You can buy that, the games are already being televised. They just kind of add the last mile.

But to your point, I doubt the hockey market really moves the growth needle for them.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Any chance Amazon could buy them out?

I suppose Jeff could find $11 or $12B in his couch cushions somewhere.

[McG]

Let’s see what I liked about the prime broadcast.

Better hosts. Better cameras. Better quality. Post game!!

Andi Petrillo and Blake Bolman were great; way better and way more relevant to the game that was just on than the immediate oilers fellation on snet.

On topic, I just don’t know why the snet vision is last decades’ application, and a drive to the lowest common denominator. I’m genuinely surprised about the amount of money that they have committed to this.

Funnily enough, apparently Roger’s saw the numbers from the playoffs last year. Who will tell them that the oilers had to get every decision in their favour including matchups? Or that Florida appeared to mail it in after game 3?

Hmmm…that does seem very coincidental no?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Locke

I suppose Jeff could find $11 or $12B in his couch cushions somewhere.

Bezos has retired from Amazon. His hobby in retirement is running Blue Origin and pretending to compete with SpaceX.

Unfortunately for sports fans, he took his couch with him.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Which is quite a bit less than 82. Because... blackouts

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Surprised the NHL didn't try to get more by doing more of a split package and selling off specific rights or nights.

But guess they could have tried to get Rogers to overpay for exclusivity.

Here are the links to the official news release of the contract.
https://media.nhl.com/public/news/18831
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...t-by-12-years/


There will be less blackouts and another potential chance for sub-licensing.

"Under the new agreement, fans will have access to more live national games than ever before and fewer regional blackouts.
The agreement allows for the possibility of strategic sub-licensing for a subset of these rights, including national French-language and a single-night exclusive national package."

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Tsawwassen

Here are the links to the official news release of the contract.
https://media.nhl.com/public/news/18831
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...t-by-12-years/


There will be less blackouts and another potential chance for sub-licensing.

"Under the new agreement, fans will have access to more live national games than ever before and fewer regional blackouts.
The agreement allows for the possibility of strategic sub-licensing for a subset of these rights, including national French-language and a single-night exclusive national package."

I'm surprised that the NHL is continuing to allow Sportsnet to sublicense versus trying to sell it themselves (both French and the second National carrier -- probably Amazon). I'm guessing that was a big negotiation point and the NHL opted to just take the money versus trying to squeeze a little bit more out of it.

Sportsnet could make out decently if they did short-term deals here, considering how TV/streaming rights fees just keep growing and growing. A one-game national deal plus French language by 2030 could end up cutting their bill to the NHL in half by then if they play it right.

[Incogneto]

Originally Posted by Toonage

Sportsnet's Apple TV app still gives me errors that the Blue Jays game is unavailable due to NHL blackout restrictions. Not a typo. NHL. I restart the game and its good but still. This error has survived numerous bug fix revisions.

I tried complaining about it through one of their only two customer service options, chat, and they "hung up" on me more or less. Just killed the chat while I was ranting. Polite ranting, but still ranting.

Mine just hangs. Spinning wheel of death for eternity.

[hwy19man]

"We have secured the right for up to 10 more games on certain teams," she said. "But it will be a decision based on every season, based on matchups.
"So I can't really give you quantified numbers, but there is the opportunity to convert all of our regional games for the Canucks, the Flames, the Oilers
and half of our Leaf games, our half, and a few extra games from the Winnipeg Jets and the Ottawa Senators."
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl...il-2-1.7499786

[hwy19man]

Elliotte Friedman write up on the phasing out of blackouts.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...l-rights-deal/

[Finger Cookin]

Your mileage with The Beaverton may vary, but this headline made me laugh

Rogers CEO says joy of torturing Canadians with garbage hockey broadcast worth way more than 11 billion dollars