An $11 billion agreement between Rogers and the NHL for television rights in Canada

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images

According to information reported by Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico, Rogers has agreed with the NHL on the terms of a new 12-year contract for television rights in Canada.

The total amount of the agreement would be $11 billion CAD, or $7.7 billion USD.

This amount is more than double what Rogers paid in the last 12-year agreement, which was signed in 2013.

This agreement will start at the end of the current one, which is in effect until the end of the 2025-26 season.

It only remains for the NHL owners to approve this agreement in the coming days.

This is good news for the NHL, which will have more money in its pockets. It’s also good news for general managers and players, who will certainly benefit from good increases in the salary cap due to increased revenue.

What we still don’t know is what this means for French-language television rights in Canada.

My colleague Maxime Truman has some theories that could be logical.

We should note that Sportsnet (Rogers) will retain the rights to NHL games, but those for games in French will be sold to RDS and/or TVA Sports (or maybe Amazon).

Truman believes it wouldn’t be crazy to see RDS retain the French regional rights to the Canadiens, but with fewer games than in the last agreement. He predicts a total of 50 games for RDS instead of the current 60.

As for TVA Sports, we have no idea what will happen. It would be surprising to see them continue at the same pace of games while paying double the price for the new agreement.

Maybe Amazon will enter the French-language scene. We know they already have the Canadian rights for Monday night games, but the broadcast is in English. Could a new French-language branch be considered at Amazon?

There are many questions to be asked, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer for answers.

Overtime

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