Rogers Communications Inc. announced an $11-billion deal on Wednesday to broadcast NHL games in Canada, worth more than double its previous contract’s value and securing national broadcast rights on all platforms for over two decades.
The Canadian company’s deal with the NHL, which was first reported Monday, begins in the 2026-27 season — when the current agreement expires — and will run for 12 years. The deal ends after the 2037-38 season with an escalator structure, as Rogers will pay less money in the deal’s early years and more later.
The contract was agreed upon during an exclusive negotiating window between Rogers and the NHL due to the company’s ongoing contract with the league. Rogers has held the national broadcast rights for NHL games in Canada since the 2014-15 season. The agreement, set to expire next season, was worth $5.2 billion over 12 years when signed.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at Wednesday’s news conference that the negotiating process was smooth between both parties, and they extended the exclusive negotiating window to get a deal done.
“It wasn’t what I would describe as contentious in the least,” Bettman said. “I think we were pretty much on the same page. We had to work a little bit on the money, but that came together as well. But in the final analysis, we wanted to be together. And that’s how it came together, as quickly as it did.”
In the U.S., the price for NHL’s rights grew by 213 per cent from 2011 to 2021, when broadcast networks ESPN and Turner Sports secured a streaming rights deal for $4.5 billion over seven years combined.
NHL viewership has grown 50 per cent over the last decade, according to Rogers chief executive officer Tony Staffieri, which has caused the value of live sports content to appreciate since the last deal. Rogers’ new deal is an 111-per cent raise from 2014 to 2026, and the company will look to further grow its viewership for added revenue to cover licensing costs.
“With that kind of growth, what you see is revenue growing at a very steady and healthy pace in terms of advertising revenue, subscription revenue and in the deal we have now some licensing revenue,” Staffieri said. “As we look to the next 12 years, we were very thoughtful in how we thought about the economics, and the economics have been, for us, solid. And the economics that we foresee for the next 12 years are going to be solid.”
The news comes after TSN’s parent company, BCE Inc., had sold its 37.5 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Raptors, Maple Leafs, Marlies, Argonauts and Toronto FC, to Rogers for $4.7 billion in September, a deal that valued MLSE at $12.5 billion.
With the new rights deal, Rogers has also secured the rights of up to 10 more games on teams they broadcast, which Sportsnet will decide season-by-season on certain matchups. Rogers currently broadcasts regional games for the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and half of the Leafs, which they split with TSN.
Rogers will also have the opportunity to convert a few Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets games, Rogers Sport and Media president Collette Watson said. The company has also promised fewer regional blackouts with the new agreement, Watson said, as it can convert regional games to nationally televised broadcasts.
Rogers also has unlimited rights to bring U.S. matchups to national television in Canada.
“I can’t give you the quantified numbers, but there is the opportunity to convert all of our regional games,” Watson said. “Sportsnet … will make those decisions as they evolve.”
The 12-year extension includes rights to all playoff games and special events, just as Rogers currently owns, with broadcasts in multiple languages. The rights extend across all platforms, including TV, digital and streaming, for all nationally televised games and events.
The World Cup of Hockey, set for February 2028, isn’t included in the deal, but Rogers is to have the right of first refusal.
Beginning this season, Rogers sublicenses games to Amazon Prime Video, the company’s streaming platform, for Monday night games. It also sublicenses French content. Rogers-Amazon have one year remaining on their current deal for those broadcasts.
Staffieri said Rogers will look for opportunities to continue subleasing games “where it makes sense.”
“We’ll look to it as a possibility,” he said, “and a strong possibility.”
When the current rights deal expires, so will Rogers’ agreement with the Canadian Broadcasting Network (CBC), which nationally televises Hockey Night in Canada, the country’s longest-running television program, on Saturdays.
Rogers would look to see if there would be opportunities for a continued partnership between the two companies in the next 18 months before the deal expires, Watson said.
Bettman added: “From a league standpoint, we respect what the CBC has brought to the game … I’m certain that our friends at Rogers will make the right decisions and have the right discussions with people at the CBC.”
Although Bettman has concerns for the league from an economic standpoint amid the U.S.-Canada tensions, Rogers and the NHL said the political climate didn’t impact the deal’s negotiation process.
“That’s an issue in the moment,” Staffieri said. “This is the deal for the next 12 years, and it’s about bringing Canada’s national sport to the largest audience possible.”
