Rogers and Prime Video strike 12-year NHL rights deal in Canada

Rogers Communications and Amazon.com’s Prime Video signed a 12-year sublicensing agreement on July 28 that put premium NHL content more squarely in streaming’s hands in Canada. Under the deal, Prime Video became the exclusive home for Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada beginning with the 2026-27 season, with broadcasts in English and French.

The agreement sat inside a larger, $11 billion Canadian rights package Rogers and the National Hockey League announced in April 2025. That separate national media-rights deal runs through the 2037-38 season, starts in 2026-27 after the current package ends, and was designed to keep Rogers at the center of NHL distribution in Canada for more than two decades. Rogers said that broader arrangement would deliver more national games and fewer blackouts for hockey fans.

For Canadian viewers, the new Prime Video pact means Wednesday nights will move to a paid streaming platform, with Sportsnet continuing to sit inside Rogers’ NHL portfolio. Rogers’ own description of the agreement said Prime Video became the long-term home of regular-season Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada and select early-round Stanley Cup playoff series in both official languages. CBC also said the package included select Stanley Cup playoff series and marked another shift away from free-to-air television access for NHL hockey in Canada.

The deal shows how live sports rights are now being split across legacy broadcasters and digital platforms rather than anchored to one television feed. Prime Video gains appointment viewing that can help hold subscribers, while Rogers keeps control of the most valuable domestic hockey property and extends its leverage over a schedule that remains a national draw. The structure also gives advertisers another route into hockey audiences through streaming inventory that is easier to target and measure than traditional TV.

The 12-year term matters as much as the platform split. It gives Rogers and Prime Video a long runway to redesign how NHL games are packaged, distributed and sold, while forcing Canadian fans to navigate a rights map that is becoming more fragmented. With Wednesday-night games, early-round playoff series and the main national package now spread across Rogers and Prime Video, hockey’s economics in Canada are being redrawn around streaming as a core bidder, not an add-on.