Major Changes Coming to Oilers Broadcasts After Next Season, Says Insider
Tonight's Edmonton Oilers game is the first in decades to not be aired on television, and one insider is expecting the NHL and the Oilers to move further away from TV entirely.
The Oilers home game tonight against the New Jersey Devils will only be aired on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service, after they purchased the rights for Monday night games from Sportsnet this season. Oilers analyst and former TSN host Paul Almeida has said it's a sign of more change to come for Edmonton and the rest of the NHL.
Commissioner Gary Bettman basically confirmed that the league would be switching towards streaming in the next few years earlier this season when NHL on Prime debuted. There's simply much more viewers on streaming, and with declining TV ratings, the move seems guaranteed.
Sportsnet and the Oilers announced last summer a continuation of their broadcasting deal to keep regional games for the next 11 years. However, Sportsnet's deal with the NHL for national games ends after the 2025-26 season, and after then there could be a significant shift towards streaming.
Although it's annoying for fans to switch over to another service to watch hockey, Prime Video and any other competition could actually make some improvements to NHL broadcasting. If all games could be easily accessible on one streaming service, that would be huge for growth of the NHL and ease for fans.
Amazon has actually delivered a great experience so far this year in other games, so Oilers fans should give them a shot before writing them off. Some real cool improvements are the arena scenes pre-game, and the re-vamped intermission panels from Sportsnet. We'll see after tonight how the Oilers feel about the NHL moving to streaming!
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