Breaking down the NHL and Rogers’ massive new TV deal
A Monday report revealed that the NHL has reached a new Canadian television rights agreement with Rogers Communications worth upwards of USD $7.7 billion over 12 years.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen discussed how the deal could impact hockey-related revenue and how fans consume content in the future.
Frank Seravalli: There is big money coming the NHL’s direction. There was a report from Sportico on Monday breaking news that the NHL has signed a 12-year Canadian rights TV deal with Rogers Sportsnet for CAD $11-plus billion, which comes out to US $7.7 billion. The NHL is more than doubling its rights fee in Canada from both an annual perspective and a total dollars perspective. I think the most interesting part about this new deal with Rogers is that we’ve seen no indication from anyone yet that it’s exclusive, meaning that there could still be a sliver or slice out there depending on what Rogers didn’t get in their package. That could open up the door for Amazon Prime to continue with their rights package. They cut off a piece from Rogers this year. Rogers brought Amazon to the table for Monday Night Hockey and Thursday Night Coast-to-Coast, which I am lucky enough to be a part of. This is a pretty significant addition to the NHL’s coffers moving forward in terms of hockey-related revenue.
Colby Cohen: I love it. I’m all for growing revenue and paying the players more. I don’t watch a lot of Rogers. I do get some of it on ESPN+, especially if it’s an Edmonton Oilers game. I love watching those guys. I think their broadcast is absolutely as good as it could be. It’s all a good thing. I’d love to see more Amazon. I’d like to see Netflix get involved. I like when you have different networks with different flavors. ESPN brings you one type of broadcast. TNT brings you a different type of broadcast. I like how it’s a little bit spread out and there are some personality differences within these different companies. I think it’s good for hockey, good for fans, and again, more money, so sign me up.
Frank Seravalli: Good for hockey, good for fans. What’s mindblowing about it is, ‘How will we be consuming hockey in 2038 by the time that this latest deal expires?’ We’ve already seen the switch to streaming, digital, people want to watch games on their phone. What will be the next device? What will be the next iteration of this? It’s amazing to try to wrap your head around that in this one comprehensive agreement for the NHL. But, they get the job done with Rogers, pending approval by the Board of Governors.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: