Wednesday Night in Hockey is going to be a strictly Amazon affair after a new deal with Rogers allows them to exclusively broadcast on Prime Video.
Maple Leafs fans will have a new way to watch hockey on Wednesday nights as Rogers and Amazon reached a 12-year partnership that will see Rogers broadcast nationally in Canada on Prime Video.
Rogers President and CEO Tony Staffieri put out a brief comment as part of a joint statement:
Our partnership with Prime Video builds on the strong foundation we have established together and reinforces NHL hockey as the most valuable sports content in Canada.
The partnership also aims to broadcast 'at least' 26 regular season games this year according to the statement.
Maple Leafs fans will have a new way to watch Wednesday Night Hockey
The first broadcast will be taking place on Sept. 30 and will be broadcasted in both French and English.
The Maple Leafs and Islanders play on that date, so Toronto fans are going to need to make sure they have access prior to the season opening up - though it puts Toronto in the spotlight as the first team in the new agreement.
Fans with Sportsnet will need to make sure they also have Prime in order to watch on Wednesday nights and as we touched on previously, the pricing of streaming services are growing steadily and adding in a monthly fee for Prime access pushes the cost to over $50 monthly.
While Maple Leafs games aren't strictly reserved for Wednesday nights (they don't play on Wednesday again until Oct. 28), judging by the NHL's official schedule, every Wednesday has a Canadian team playing.
Prime Video also will carry multiple playoff series as well
Also as part of the partnership, Prime will carry two first-round playoff series and one second-round playoff series per year and promise to try and limit as many blackouts as possible - a touchy subject when it comes to streaming.
Often times, fans who have even premium packages are subject to regional blackouts where they simply can't see the game because they aren't in the region. For example, a Senators game may be blacked out to Toronto viewers because they are outside of the area. It's different than Hockey Night in Canada where that was a nationally broadcasted program without fear of blackouts.
But if Sportsnet promises to limit blackouts and give fans more access to playoff hockey, then that's only good news. While it does cost a bit more overall, the hope is that your exposure to a wider and broader scope of people will in turn lead to fans.
That in turn will hopefully grow the product even more and create more fans which is what the NHL always hopes for when it strives for growth but for now, Maple Leafs fans know where to find Wednesday Night Hockey.
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