NHL fans will now have to pay to watch games on Sportsnet. What that means for Rogers — and CBC

will rogers Sports and Media, the parent companion of Sportsnet, of late renewed its accord with the NHL for the scoop Canadian English television broadcasting and streaming rights in an $11.2-billion deal for the next 12 years.

It first acquired those rights in 2013, for $5.2 billion at the time, but struck an agreement with Canada's public broadcaster to air playoff games and regular-season games featuring Canadian teams on its Saturday night show Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) since 1952.

"They've got big plans and they have to monetize it as a business," he said. "We weren't able to find a number that made sense for both."

At the same time, he says, it appears Rogers is making an "economic calculus" that Canadians have become more accustomed to digital streaming subscriptions than they were in 2014 and will pay up if they want to keep watching NHL games.

And it's not just competing with traditional platforms, he says, but also streaming services like Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and Netflix — all of which have ventured into live sporting events to some degree.

The shake up will come at a high cost for NHL fans who don't subscribe to Sportsnet either through cable or streaming service Sportsnet+ — the cost of which has risen significantly in recent years.

A standard plan for the streaming service costs $29.99 a month or $249.90 annually, up from $14.99 per month and $179 a year in 2023. Adding Sportsnet to a cable package costs $15 per month.

Cheri Bradish, a professor of sport marketing at Toronto Metropolitan University, expects Rogers may come up with creative ways to deliver NHL content to fans, but she's not certain how the company could offer men's hockey to non-subscribers.

It could be a gamble to keep too much behind a paywall, she says, adding that consumers may push back, which could prompt some sort of legislative reaction in order to preserve access to an institution like the NHL.

Naraine believes there might have been more pushback had Rogers made a move like this 12 years ago, pointing to other countries like Australia and the United Kingdom that have enacted what's known as anti-siphoning legislation.

That means that certain sporting events and other cultural broadcasts of "national significance" can't be put behind any sort of paywall.

The U.K., for example, has a list of "crown jewels" that must be made available for live coverage on free-to-air TV, including the men’s and women’s World Cups.

Though losing the NHL is a "bittersweet" moment for University of Guelph sport business professor Katie Lebel, who says she grew up watching HNIC with her family, the move doesn't necessarily come as a surprise.

Lebel says both the business model and the audience have changed. While she's curious how NHL fans will deal with the fallout, she sees potential for the public broadcaster to corner new and emerging sports markets.

She says many devout NHL fans are likely already paying for Sportsnet. It's the casual or newer hockey fans who may be less likely to do so, she says, including new Canadian residents along with older viewers and people on fixed incomes.

"The easiest fan to create is someone who stumbles across a game," she said.

"I think that same accessibility that helped introduce generations of Canadians to men's hockey could potentially help introduce a new generation to women's professional hockey."

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Lebel says the women's league is also proving itself as an emerging business with plenty of room to expand its fanbase.

"Think of the new audiences that they could bring in," she said. "Tapping into that growth of women's sport."

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Senior Writer

With files form Georgie Smyth, Caroline Barghout and The Canadian Press

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