With Sportsnet’s new NHL deal, shrinkflation comes for hockey broadcasting

For the past few years, whenever broadcasting companies have surveyed sports fans about the joys and challenges of following their favourite teams in the new media landscape, two major annoyances have consistently landed at the top of the list: The ever-rising cost and worsening complexity of trying to watch the games on TV.

Happily, it seemed as if the industry had started to take notice: Executives acknowledged the growing price sensitivity of consumers and began to talk about a new era of bundling that would make things easier for fans.

LOL. So much for that.

The new NHL season is less than three weeks away. Which means it’s time to get out your spreadsheets: This year, you’re really going to need them.

On Wednesday, Sportsnet issued a press release outlining all of the major changes coming to its coverage of NHL hockey when the new season begins at the end of this month. The headline on its announcement proclaimed the network was lifting the blackouts on 150 games to which it has the regional rights “to deliver more national NHL games than ever for 2026-27.”

Sportsnet to charge extra fee to watch Monday NHL games through TV provider

That was one of the big promises of the blockbuster $11-billion, 12-year deal that Sportsnet’s parent, Rogers Communications Inc., struck with the NHL last year.

But those who were listening closely to the press conference where the company and the league announced that agreement in April, 2025 couldn’t help but notice when Tony Staffieri, the Rogers president and CEO, dodged a question about whether the jump in price for the contract – more than 110 per cent higher than the previous 12-year deal, on an annualized basis – would be passed along to consumers.

That answer – a long-delayed but emphatic yes – is now taking labyrinthine, headache-inducing form in Sportsnet’s broadcast plans for the new season.

Twelve years ago, hockey fans could watch three nights of nationally broadcast NHL games for the price of a basic subscription to Sportsnet. (In fact, they didn’t even need a subscription to watch select weekly games on Saturday night’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast carried on CBC.)

Two years ago, Sportsnet sold off one of those nights to Amazon’s Prime streaming service, which took over the Monday slot, necessitating an extra subscription for hockey completists.

As of this season, if you subscribe to Sportsnet the old-fashioned way – that is, through a cable or IPTV provider such as Cogeco, Bell Fibe, Telus, Shaw, or SaskTel – you’ll get only one regular weekly night of nationally broadcast NHL hockey, on Saturdays. Amazon has now taken over the Wednesday night slot, giving Mondays back to Sportsnet.

But Sportsnet is making its new Monday night games a streaming-only affair. So you’ll need to subscribe to its streaming service, Sportsnet+, to watch.

Shrinkflation, that economic curse that’s rampaged through the supermarket snack aisle, making chip bags and chocolate bars simultaneously smaller and more expensive, has come for sports broadcasting.

Yes, Sportsnet is removing the blackouts for many regional games, which will please a small portion of fans. But everyone else is getting less than what they used to pay for. Sportsnet will be filling its regular channels on Monday nights with chaff: Why would it waste money on shows that could pull an audience away from its crown jewel of NHL programming?

2025: Canada’s fractured sports streaming landscape has even die-hard fans feeling shut-out

Those of us who haven’t yet cut the cable cord – in part because it’s cheaper than subscribing to an ever-more-expensive collection of standalone streaming options – will be served an intentionally degraded service.

Mind you, we do have an option: We could log in to the Sportsnet+ app on our smart TV or digital device (phone, tablet) using our TV subscription credentials and then pay an additional $13 per month directly to Rogers for the Monday night broadcasts. Or, if we’re customers of the Rogers Xfinity IPTV service and we already subscribe to Sportsnet, we would get access to the Monday night games at no extra charge. Sportsnet said Wednesday that it is working with other cable companies to see if they might offer something similar.

The move is going to anger hockey fans, many of whom are still upset over hockey leaving the CBC after a storied 74-year run, but at least it answers the nagging question of how Rogers is going to pay for the new deal.

Those of us subscribing to Sportsnet the old-fashioned way, over cable or IPTV – and there were, according to company filings with the CRTC, still more than five million subscribers in the 2025 broadcast year – were each worth only about $76.45 in annual subscription revenue. (TSN made more per subscriber, on average: about $87.) That’s a pittance compared to the subscription revenue the company earns from those who subscribe directly to the Sportsnet+ service ($270 for the standard package, $345 for premium); it’s clear why the company would want to drive viewers to that more expensive option.

Sportsnet isn’t the only one playing that game. Last month, TSN quietly closed TSN+, its add-on streaming service that, for $8 per month, had given viewers additional options to the network’s main broadcasts: more feeds of golf or tennis tournaments or F1 races, as well as the fan favourite NFL RedZone, the whiparound service that jumps from game to game showing every score, turnover or big play all Sunday long.

But a few weeks ago, football fans noticed that the only way to get RedZone for the new NFL season would be to subscribe to TSN’s Premium streaming service, for $25 per month ($30 per month in Quebec) or $250 per year. If they already get TSN through their TV provider, too bad: There’s no way to add just RedZone.

If that’s upsetting, you can always soothe yourself with a Mars bar or a bag of Tostitos. They may be smaller and more expensive than last year, but at least you can buy them one at a time.