Streaming exclusives fragment Canada’s shared hockey experience
On 6 November 2026, Canadians who follow the NHL found a growing number of games available only on paid streaming platforms, as matches this season were split between services run by Rogers and Amazon, reducing opportunities for collective viewing.
The shift was visible in recent Edmonton games: the Oilers lost to the Detroit Red Wings on 26 October but captain Connor McDavid recorded an assist, part of a run in which, just 16 games into the year, he had 31 assists — the fastest anyone has ever reached that mark in any NHL season. That night many fans in Edmonton, including patrons at a local bar, could not watch because it was one of nine Oilers games this season accessible only via Sportsnet+, a subscription service priced at $12.99 per month and owned by Rogers Communications Inc., which also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two nights later the Oilers’ meeting with the Calgary Flames was available only to Amazon Prime subscribers, and McDavid added two assists in that contest.
Broader broadcast changes underlie those blackouts. In June the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said it would stop airing Saturday night games — Hockey Night in Canada — for the first time since 1952 after Rogers, which had sublicensed rights to the CBC following its 2013, $5.2bn Canadian rights contract, proceeded alone on a 12-year, $11bn rights renewal that started in October. At the time of the split Sportsnet said: "Watching hockey on Saturday night is a time-honoured tradition for Canadians, and Sportsnet is privileged to continue delivering that tradition."
Public reaction to the new arrangements is captured in an Angus Reid poll released last week: 78% of Canadians say "it’s bad that more games require additional subscriptions," 63% say they pay too much for Sportsnet+, and roughly a third (33%) say Amazon Prime is too expensive. The survey found 79% believe it has become too expensive overall to follow their favourite NHL team, and 74% described Hockey Night in Canada’s end as a "major loss for Canadian hockey and its traditions." It also recorded that 90% of respondents view hockey as "an important or defining part of Canadian identity," compared with 88% a decade earlier.
The report also noted generational differences in consumption: younger Canadians were more likely to agree that highlights and clips on social media are often enough to keep up with sports. The article observed that culture is increasingly consumed asynchronously and within personalised information environments rather than through shared live broadcasts.
The piece traced the historical role of national broadcasts in creating shared moments, noting Foster Hewitt's late-1930s broadcasts that carried Maple Leafs games from Halifax to Victoria and recalling how, in 1972, children paused the school day to watch Paul Henderson score in the Summit Series. It recalled earlier advocacy for a public broadcaster in 1932, quoting the founder of the Canadian Radio League, Graham Spry: "The question is, the State or the United States."
The article argued those communal experiences have been diminished by the shift to paid streaming, noting McDavid's unprecedented assist pace as an example of a sporting achievement that increasingly plays out in fragmentary, paywalled streams rather than on collective platforms where fans can gather to watch together.
Rogers' decision to press ahead with its 12-year, $11bn rights renewal that started in October means the current broadcast framework will continue under that contract, leaving the new subscription-based access model in place for the foreseeable future.