Welcome Canada to a decline of hockey relevance. If English cricket has taught us anything, it is not going to be pretty.
And Sportsnet will be there to oversee all of it. That’s their legacy.
That takes their TV rights up to ninety-six years, extending the longest contract in the history of sports television - continuous or otherwise.
The champions are back on linear television again, finally, in some form. And English fans will continue to watch it in droves.
Not even putting some games on their CityTV and Omni networks. Trying to make people pay for their cable and streaming services by using NHL as a carrot.
CBC did admit at the time that the sublicensing deal was sort of a easing off from FTA hockey coverage - they knew that there would be a day when HNIC would not be a thing.
Canadian TV is a bit of a shit show at the moment, and this isn’t helping it.
While HNIC won’t be connected to the NHL anymore, CBC has indicated that they plan to continue using the brand in “some fresh new ways” - perhaps with the other hockey rights they have such as the PWHL and the Winter Olympics.
In other Canadian NHL TV rights news, Rogers has announced that they’ve sublicensed the rights to at least 26 Wednesday night regular season NHL games as well as three Stanley Cup Playoff series each season (two in the first round and one in the second round) to Prime Video.
When it comes to the playoff series Prime Video will show, they will have 4th & 5th pick in the first round and 3rd pick in the second round after Sportsnet makes their selections.
beIN Sports have lost LaLiga rights in France. DAZN and Disney+ will co-take over for the next 3 seasons, broadcasting all 1,140 matches together.
Here is an English-language article on the changeover of La Liga broadcast rights in France.
Warner Bros. Discovery adds European Athletics Championships to HBO Max sports line-up
Under a new non-exclusive agreement with the European Broadcasting Union, every event from the championships will stream live and on demand on HBO Max, alongside television coverage on Eurosport 1 across Europe (excluding the Nordics and Poland) and TNT Sports 3 in the UK and Ireland.
Coverage runs from 10-16 August and marks the first time every event from the championships will be available on HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery will also deploy interactive features including Multiview, allowing viewers to watch up to four live events simultaneously, and Key Moments, which lets users jump directly to decisive moments in races and field events.
Meanwhile elsewhere…