Rogers Communications President and CEO Tony Staffieri speaks at a press conference in Toronto on April 2.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T has confirmed it signed an $11-billion deal to broadcast NHL games in Canada, saying it expects the agreement will immediately drive profitability for its media division.
The communications and entertainment company said the new 12-year deal will include more live national games than ever before and fewer regional blackouts. The deal, which begins with the 2026-27 season, includes the national rights across all platforms, rights to playoff games and out-of-market rights for regional games.
The agreement also allows for the possibility of sublicensing national French-language rights and a single-night exclusive national package. Previously, TVA Inc., an affiliate of Quebecor Inc., snagged the French rights, and last year Rogers signed a two-year deal with Amazon.com Inc., allowing it to air Monday night games. CBC continues to air the marquee matchups on Saturday nights under the 72-year-old Hockey Night in Canada brand.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Rogers chief executive officer Tony Staffieri said there is a “strong possibility” that Rogers would renew its deal with Amazon. Meanwhile, Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports & Media, said Rogers values its partnership with the CBC and would look to see whether there is the opportunity for a continued partnership.
Rogers also held out hope for fans that some – though not all – of the headaches from the NHL’s regional blackout regime could be coming to an end with the new deal.
The majority of NHL games in Canada are broadcast by regional carriers. So, fans of the Vancouver Canucks, for example, have to live in either British Columbia or Yukon, which is the region serviced by Sportsnet Pacific, or buy an out-of-market package if they want to watch the 46 games each season that aren’t carried by Sportsnet’s national service.
Ms. Watson said the new deal would enable Sportsnet to convert some of its regional rights, which cover Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and some Toronto Maple Leafs matches, into national broadcasts, as well as “a few extra games from the Winnipeg Jets and the Ottawa Senators,” whose regional rights are held by Bell Media’s TSN.
But she could not commit to a specific number of games, saying that decision would be made each season “based on matchups.”
The new contract is worth more than double the $5.2-billion Rogers agreed to pay in 2013. Investors and analysts have questioned how much value Rogers gets out of the contract. Rogers will pay escalating annual payments to the NHL over the 12-year term. The company said the agreement is expected to be accretive to Rogers shareholders and continue to drive profitability for Rogers Sports & Media from the outset.
When asked why the company had agreed to pay twice the price as the previous deal, Mr. Staffieri said that live sports content continues to appreciate in value. In the U.S., too, NHL rights increased more than 200 per cent between 2011 to 2021.
Mr. Staffieri sidestepped a question about whether the company would pass on the added costs to consumers, instead referencing the company’s subscriber growth. He said that Rogers’ Sportsnet prime-time audience has grown approximately 50 per cent since 2014, and that Sportsnet+ subscriptions have tripled during that time.
“With that kind of growth, what you see is revenue growing at a very steady and healthy pace in terms of advertising revenue, subscription revenue, and in the deal we have now sublicensing revenue,” Mr. Staffieri said. “The economics that we foresee for the next 12 years are going to be solid. And so this is something that is going to work financially.”
Filings with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission show that the amount that the company earns from Sportsnet per subscriber annually has nearly tripled over the last decade – from $34 prior to the beginning of the last NHL contract, to $92 in 2023. At the same time, rights-acquisition costs for Canadian sports programming more than quadrupled, from $84-million to $349-million, squeezing profits.
Sports assets are valuable, but also costly. In 2024, revenue from the company’s media division was $2.4-billion, however its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was just $84-million. This represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 3.4 per cent from media, as opposed to a 66-per-cent and 57-per-cent margin on its much more profitable wireless and cable businesses, respectively.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman denied that the tensions between Canada and the U.S. created by President Donald Trump’s tariffs – and the backlash against U.S. brands such as Amazon – had played a role in prompting the league to sign a deal with a single Canadian company. In the run-up to the negotiations, there was widespread industry speculation that the league might sell some of its games directly to American streamers.
“I’m hoping we’re focused on a moment in time and that these two great historical allies can get past where they are,” he said. He did acknowledge, however, that he is concerned that the potential of a weakening economy and eroding Canadian dollar could hurt Canadian teams, since they pay players in U.S. dollars.
Mr. Staffieri said he, too, was more focused on the impact that tariffs will have on the broader Canadian economy. Still, he said, “that’s an issue in the moment. This is a deal for the next 12 years.”
In a note to investors Wednesday morning, Royal Bank of Canada analyst Drew McReynolds said the deal represents a key piece of the puzzle, as the company works toward an eventual crystallization of those assets. The onus will be on Rogers to profitably monetize the rights, but he noted that the agreement is “unlikely to be overly material” within the context of the telco’s approximately $10-billion in consolidated EBITDA.
Resilient sports ratings, an expanding offering, growth in sports betting and continued sublicensing of rights would support the company’s efforts to monetize, he added.