Rogers, NHL accepted another transmission agreement. What will you mean for how do you look at the game?
Rogers will continue to bring hockey to the Canadians for another 12 years, following the announcement of another exclusive agreement between the telecommunications company and the NHL.
The 11 billion dollar agreement announced today offers Rogers the rights to transmit hockey games across the country until 2037-38. The details are similar to the past agreement, which has also crossed 12 years, but cost only $ 5.2 billion and expires at the end of the Hockey 2025-26 season.
This offers the national rights of Rogers on TV, streaming and digital for all regular and playoff games, as well as the Stanley Cup final and all special events. This also extends to coverage in all languages and in all regions.
“For us, this is not just a game, it is our game and we are proud to be the Hockey house for the next 12 years,” said Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, during a press conference on Wednesday.
But what will the new deal mean for hockey fans when they sit to look at the game? Experts say there are some things to look at.
Will the price increase?
When asked if the cost of the agreement of $ 11 billion could be sent to the spectators, Staffieri did not respond directly, but he said that Rogers is focused on the growth of his audience in order to present new revenues. He added that attention would be focused on bringing the best value for customers to the lowest prices.
Richard Deitsch, a sportsman for Athletic, says that Rogers and Sportsnet should be wary of any costs for their services. Hockey Fans are like striker, he says there is still a threshold when it comes to how much they will pay to look at the game, especially given the growing cost of living in other areas of life.
“I think if I were Rogers, I would think very long on what that price would be for hockey,” said Deitsch.
Less blackout on the horizon
The NHL requires that its owners of rights adapt which games are available by region, causing those that are known as Blackout. Montreal Canadiens fans are often unable to look at their team in Alberta, for example. However, since some hockey games are considered national, they are played across the country.
Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports and Media, told journalists on Wednesday that part of the New Deal will allow them to convert some regional games to the national ones. Details are yet to come, but overall this means that more games would be available for the entire country rather than only in specific regions.
Where can I watch hockey?
Although Rogers holds the exclusive rights to transmit NHL games to Canada, the rights of a certain number of other media organizations is licensed. That’s why you see hockey games broadcast on entities such as TSN, TVA and, more recently, Amazon Prime.
The streaming giant made an agreement with Rogers last year that allowed him to transmit in streaming games of the normal season on Monday evening-quellcosa both companies announced as a good way to find a new audience.
The staff of Rogers said that it is a “strong possibility” that will continue their agreement with Amazon in the future.
Dan Berlin, assistant professor of sports media at Toronto Metropolitan University, says that the agreement is in line with the place where the public is moving, that is, far from the traditional cable and on streaming platforms. He says that working with Amazon, who has a “huge and integrated audience” helps only rogers and hockey sport, growing and innovating.
“I think we are just scratching the surface of what could appear that potential agreement or bring Amazon as a partner,” said Berlin.
Sublicensing agreements are also as Hockey Night in Canada – the iconic Saturday night hockey games program that has managed on TV since 1952 – aired on CBC television. The CBC was the initial broadcaster of Hockey Night in Canada, but lost the rights when Rogers signed their first exclusive agreement with the NHL in 2013.
It has never been more complicated, or expensive, to look at the NHL hockey while the multi -year transmission agreement Rogers runs out. To look at each game of fans of the 2024/2025 season they will have to enroll in Sportsnet, TSN, TVA and Amazon Prime.
A continuous agreement for the night of the air hockey in Canada on the CBC has not yet been done. Watson said today that Rogers and CBC are continuing to discuss their agreement.
“We appreciate our partnership with the CBC. And in the next 18 months, we will try to see if there is a continuous collaboration there,” said Watson.
If this agreement were to leave after the next season, when the agreement between Rogers and CBC is set out to runIt would mark the first time that Hockey night in Canada would not be available for free for all Canadians through the CBC from the beginning of the program.
Berlin says that as long as the CBC remains interested in bringing Hockey to Canadians throughout the country, he does not see the institution go away. What could complicate that image is what the loan has the CBC available, says Berlin, indicating the fact that the conservative leader Pierre Poiievre has made a campaign Dysfonding of the CBC.
“My hope is that the (La) relationship continues because … everyone should have the opportunity to be able to watch that institutional match broadcast on Saturday evening,” said Berlin.
What else could change in the long term?
Berlin says that there are enormous growth opportunities in digital and streaming spaces in the next 12 years. He says that it provides that the contents will become more personalized and personalized to the individual fans during the New Deal.
“(IT) may not lend themselves to fans who want to look at an entire transmission, but the diversity of content and the way in which it has the ability to meet the audience where they are, I think it will cross a real profound change,” he said.
Deitsch agrees. He expects to see technological innovations used to make the visualization experience more personal, especially if Rogers ends up increasing prices.
But Cary Kaplan, founder and president of the marketing company Cosmos Sports, states that an exclusive agreement for more than a decade consolidates what calls Rogers’ monopoly on Canadian sports.
With complete rights and an audience that is not likely to give up watching the hockey soon, Kaplan claims to be worried that it could make compliant rogers in terms of the quality of the programming they are putting out.
“If you know you will get your audience, you can do two things. You can say ‘We have a fantastic audience, we go all in,” Kaplan said. “Or you can say” spectators don’t go anywhere “, which is true.”
He says he hopes that Rogers will bring him as an opportunity to innovate-and that the NHL included terms in the agreement that will guarantee a high quality transmission.
