Prime Video and Rogers Communications this week introduced a 12-year sublicensing settlement that palms Amazon’s streaming service unique rights to broadcast Wednesday night time Nationwide Hockey League video games in Canada, starting with the 2026-2027 season.

Introduced in Toronto, the settlement expands a partnership that started two seasons in the past underneath a much more restricted association. Prime Video will now completely stream Wednesday night time regular-season nationwide NHL video games in each English and French, beginning on Wednesday, September 30. At the least 26 nationwide regular-season video games are assured yearly. Prime members in Canada will obtain them at no further price past their present subscription.

Unique rights to pick Stanley Cup Playoff collection in Canada are additionally a part of the bundle. Two First Spherical collection and one Second Spherical collection might be included annually, giving Prime Video a recurring postseason presence quite than a one-off association tied to a single collection. It marks a significant growth from the streaming service’s earlier NHL footprint, which had not included postseason exclusivity of this scope, and it places playoff hockey – historically probably the most intently watched programming on Canadian sports activities tv – onto a streaming platform on a assured, annual foundation for greater than a decade.

What modifications and what stays the identical

Restructuring how NHL video games transfer between Canada’s dominant sports activities broadcaster and its streaming challenger, the deal leaves the underlying nationwide rights framework untouched. Rogers continues to carry these rights outright, and Sportsnet – which the corporate describes as Canada’s primary sports activities media model – retains unique English-language rights to greater than 500 nationwide NHL video games per season. Monday and Saturday night time broadcasts fall underneath that complete, as does the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full, apart from the precise collection now sublicensed to Prime Video.

Tony Staffieri, President and CEO of Rogers, framed the association as an extension of an present relationship quite than a brand new one. “Our partnership with Prime Video builds on the robust basis we have now established collectively and reinforces NHL hockey as probably the most invaluable sports activities content material in Canada,” Staffieri stated. He added that Rogers stays dedicated to “connecting extra followers to extra NHL hockey and delivering extra nationwide video games with fewer blackouts on Sportsnet.”

Jay Marine, Head of World Sports activities at Prime Video, characterised the settlement as in step with Amazon’s broader sports activities technique quite than an remoted hockey acquisition. “We’re thrilled to broaden our partnership with the NHL and Rogers on this landmark settlement, which brings much more premium reside sports activities to Prime members in Canada,” Marine stated. He famous that the hockey bundle sits alongside different parts of the Prime membership, stating that “when mixed with our hit unique collection, blockbuster films, and quick, free delivery on thousands and thousands of things, the Prime membership is extra invaluable than ever for Canadian prospects.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman additionally commented on the prolonged timeline, pointing to the streaming service’s observe file over the 2 prior seasons. “Over the previous two years, Prime Video has been a invaluable addition to the NHL’s media lineup in Canada, becoming a member of Rogers in bringing marquee NHL video games to Canadian followers,” Bettman stated. “We’re excited that Prime Video and Rogers are deepening their relationship via this long-term settlement, reflecting our shared dedication to serving English and French-language hockey followers throughout Canada with premium NHL content material for years to return.”

The manufacturing facet stays unsettled

A number of operational particulars stay open, regardless that the rights allocation is now fastened for over a decade. NHL on Primewill proceed delivering what the businesses describe as world-class manufacturing, based on the announcement, supported by an on-air staff offering evaluation and play-by-play protection. Expertise and manufacturing specifics? Not but launched. The businesses point out these particulars will observe individually, at a later date.

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The monetary and structural backdrop

This sublicensing association doesn’t exist in isolation – it sits beneath a a lot bigger transaction. Final yr, Rogers and the NHL introduced a 12-year settlement overlaying the nationwide media rights to NHL video games throughout all platforms in Canada, working from the 2026-27 season via 2037-38. Price roughly 11 billion Canadian {dollars} based on reporting on the time, that overarching deal gave Rogers unique nationwide rights throughout tv, digital, and streaming for all nationwide regular-season video games, all playoff video games, the Stanley Cup Last, and particular occasions in each English and French. Crucially, it additionally preserved Rogers’ choice to sublicense particular packages, the mechanism now being exercised via the Prime Video settlement.

Understanding that construction issues for greedy what at present’s announcement truly represents. Rogers shouldn’t be surrendering rights it holds broadly. As a substitute, it’s exercising a sublicensing possibility that was constructed into the grasp settlement from the outset, one which establishes the framework inside which at present’s Wednesday night time bundle now operates. The prior 12-year nationwide deal itself succeeded an earlier landmark settlement, which ran from the 2014-15 season via 2025-26.

Two years separate this settlement from the place the Amazon-Rogers hockey relationship started. The Canadian NHL broadcast image first included Prime Video via a two-year sub-licensing association overlaying Monday night time video games, branded Prime Monday Night time Hockey and launched with the 2024-25 season. Described on the time because the NHL’s first unique broadcast settlement with a digital-only streaming service in Canada, that earlier deal was comparatively modest in scope: a single night time of the week, no playoff element, and a two-season horizon quite than a multi-decade one. Now, the brand new 12-year settlement replaces it with a considerably longer dedication, shifts the unique night time from Monday to Wednesday, and provides the playoff collection element the unique two-year deal didn’t embody. The shift in night time issues to scheduling, too, since Wednesday sits mid-week, away from the Saturday and Monday broadcasts that anchor Sportsnet’s personal programming calendar.

How does the Canadian NHL broadcast panorama now divide between the 2 corporations? The numbers inform the story. Sportsnet’s allocation of over 500 nationwide video games per season dwarfs the 26-game minimal assured to Prime Video, a niche reflecting Rogers’ place because the anchor rightsholder quite than an equal associate within the association. Prime Video’s playoff allocation – two First Spherical collection and one Second Spherical collection yearly – equally represents only a fraction of the total bracket. Sportsnet retains the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, together with the Last.

Notably, the 12-year length aligns exactly with the time period of the broader nationwide rights settlement between Rogers and the NHL, each working via the 2037-38 season. That is no coincidence. Matching the sublicensing time period to the grasp settlement removes a possible level of renegotiation partway via the underlying deal. Each Rogers and Amazon achieve, because of this, a steady and multi-decade planning horizon for programming, manufacturing, and promoting gross sales tied to Wednesday night time hockey.

Why this issues past hockey broadcasting

This settlement extends a sample that has turn into more and more seen throughout the linked tv promoting panorama, for these monitoring how streaming platforms construct promoting companies round reside sports activities. Amazon has been vocal about positioning reside sports activities as inseparable from its broader promoting technique, treating it as excess of a standalone content material acquisition. Alan Moss, Amazon Advertisements’ Vice President of World Promoting Gross sales, made this express earlier this yr. He described how live sports, Prime Video, retail media signals, and AI-driven campaign tools now function as a single full-funnel advertising business quite than as separate traces of enterprise. Beneath that framing, hockey rights acquisitions like this one turn into promoting infrastructure, not simply content material spend.

Measurement knowledge all through 2026 has mirrored that positioning. Nielsen figures overlaying Could 2026 confirmed Prime Video reaching a platform-best 4.5 percent share of total US television viewing as streaming overall captured 48.6 percent of watch-time. Dwell sports activities programming drove a lot of that achieve, together with a run of NBA Playoff video games, quite than scripted leisure carrying the load. Internationally, the identical Amazon sports activities infrastructure prolonged its attain in June 2026, when Prime Video carried the NBA Finals exclusively to more than 17 countries, the culminating occasion of the platform’s first full season underneath its 11-year NBA broadcasting settlement.

Consolidation strikes elsewhere echo the identical logic. Fox Company’s settlement in June 2026 to acquire Roku for approximately 22 billion dollars mixed reside sports activities and information programming with a number one streaming distribution platform – pairing premium reside content material with scaled attain, a lot as Rogers pairs the NHL’s broadest nationwide Canadian rights with a sublicensing associate. Slightly than holding all stock in-house, Rogers continues handy particular packages to a streaming associate whose promoting ambitions continue to grow.

Context for advertisers and rights holders

A case research emerges right here in how legacy broadcasters and streaming platforms divide premium reside sports activities stock quite than compete for it outright. Rogers retains the majority of NHL programming and the related promoting stock that comes with over 500 annual video games. On the identical time, it carves out an outlined, contractually steady slice for a associate whose promoting enterprise more and more will depend on reside sports activities to reveal attain and engagement to entrepreneurs. Assured Wednesday night time exclusivity throughout a 12-year time period offers Prime Video one thing invaluable: the sort of programming certainty that helps long-term promoting gross sales commitments, upfront negotiations, and artistic planning tied to a hard and fast night time of the week, quite than a rotating or short-term association.

Promoting charges? Sponsorship packages? Measurement partnerships particular to the Wednesday night time NHL bundle? Neither firm has detailed any of it but. These business particulars sometimes observe rights bulletins by weeks or months, notably when manufacturing and expertise preparations – explicitly left open in at present’s announcement – stay unresolved.

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Timeline

Abstract

Who: Rogers Communications, Prime Video, and the Nationwide Hockey League, together with Canadian hockey followers and Prime members who will entry the brand new programming.

What: A 12-year sublicensing settlement granting Prime Video unique rights to broadcast Wednesday night time regular-season NHL video games and choose Stanley Cup Playoff collection in Canada, in English and French, whereas Rogers’ Sportsnet retains the majority of nationwide NHL programming.

When: Introduced at present, July 28, 2026, with the brand new association starting with the 2026-2027 NHL season and the primary Wednesday broadcast scheduled for September 30, 2026. The settlement runs via the 2037-38 season.

The place: Canada, overlaying each English and French-language broadcasts nationally, constructing on a broadcast construction established via Rogers’ unique 2013 rights take care of the NHL.

Why: The settlement extends Amazon’s increasing reside sports activities and promoting technique in Canada whereas permitting Rogers to take care of its place because the NHL’s main nationwide rightsholder, illustrating how legacy broadcasters and streaming platforms are more and more dividing premium reside sports activities stock via structured, long-term sublicensing preparations quite than competing for unique rights outright.


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