Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri announced the company plans to pursue renewal of its NHL broadcast rights, which expire after the 2025-26 season.
Staffieri revealed this at a Canadian Club Toronto event on Wednesday, citing how the deal has helped the company’s Sportsnet channels grow. The current deal is a whopping $5.2-billion, 12-year contract signed back in 2013.
During the discussion moderated by Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Willis, Staffieri described the existing agreement as a “terrific deal for us”. However, he did not reveal whether Rogers would seek another exclusive deal or partner with streaming services to expand its viewer base.
“I always like to talk strategy, especially amongst 250 friends,” said Staffieri jokingly, adding, “So we got a ways to go before I can answer that.”
This statement follows Rogers’ recent announcement of an agreement with Amazon’s Prime Video to stream Monday night hockey for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, which is the NHL’s first exclusive broadcast deal with a digital-only service in Canada.
Speaking about the Amazon deal, the Rogers CEO called it “one more example of us moving with the way Canadians actually want to experience and view content.”
Only one Canadian team has made the Stanley Cup finals since Rogers’ took over NHL broadcasting, the Montreal Canadiens in 2021. Currently, the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs are still in this year’s NHL post-season.
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Please don’t…
An AppleTV+ international deal would be transformative for the league as a whole.
Try to tell your coworkers in another country to watch the Canucks game tonight.
In reality I know it won’t happen, but we can dream. Rogers handling of their NHL rights has been a disaster. Canucks fans never used to have to pay to watch Canucks playoff games.
Imagine a world where anybody no matter where they are get to watch the Stanley cup finals in an ad-supported way, while the subscribers of the season watch it ad-free.