There was a major broadcasting deal this week for Canadian National Hockey League games. The rights holder is deepening their partnership with Amazon. Beginning this fall, and for a 12 year period, Wednesday night hockey games for Canadian fanbases will be streamed on Amazon's Prime Video service. The deal is a sublicensing agreement with Rogers Sportsnet, the owner of the Canadian broadcasting rights for the same time period. That deal was signed back in 2025.
There are more specifics, most significantly a share of the Stanley Cup Playoff broadcasting rights, but in essence this agreement means that Edmonton Oilers fans that don't have an Amazon Prime subscription will have to find a way to watch the games on Wednesdays.
These deals are complex
Twelve years is a long time. Children starting grade school this fall will be ready for post secondary when the deal expires in 2037-38. That's a positive of the deal, because, once fans get used to finding Wednesday games on their streaming service, they won't have to worry about that changing for the next decade. For Oiler fans, Monday games were found on Prime for the past two seasons. This Wednesday announcement looks to replace that expired agreement between Rogers and Amazon.
For the Playoffs, Amazon will get to select certain series in Rounds 1 and 2 for streaming. Which series won't be known until the schedule is set, then there is a draft style agreement, where Amazon gets to select the 4th and 5th of the eight first round series, and the third of the four second round ones.
There are also specifics on the regular season games. A minimum of 26 national games will find their way to Prime Video in each season. A quick look at the Oilers' schedule shows 11 games on Wednesdays over the course of the season, so unless the minimum is exceeded, some detective work may be needed to determine where an individual game is going to play. The regular season agreement includes both English and French language broadcasts but, notably, the playoff portion does not include French.
Financial terms of the agreement aren't currently available, but Roger's 2025 deal landed the NHL $11 billion dollars. The streaming deal represents 4-6% of the total Canadian regular season games, so rough math would put that at around $500 million. That doesn't account for playoff games though, arguably the most financially valuable portion of the deal. All this means for the average fan is, make sure you've got a strong internet connection.
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