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Hockey fans in Winnipeg say they’re fed up with having to pay for additional subscriptions to watch their favourite teams play.
“People are struggling as it is, and now you’re having to get subscriptions for two games in a month to add on to the cost,” said Nik Lynam, a hockey podcaster who focuses on the Winnipeg Jets.
“I was even at a bar … the other day, and they didn’t have the game on because they couldn’t get access to it.”
The Winnipeg Jets play 50 games this season as part of a regional broadcast package on TSN. Another 21 are on Sportsnet, which requires a subscription or cable package to view.
New this year, the Jets play nine games that are exclusively broadcast on the Sportsnet+ add-on service. Plans start at $34.99 per month, but there is a TV provider add-on option that starts at $12.99 a month, plus tax.
Rogers or Shaw TV customers get Sportsnet+ at no additional cost, as long as they have Sportsnet in their channels package.
Additionally, four other Jets games this season can only be seen on Amazon Prime Video, where a subscription starts at $9.99 a month.
Hockey fans in Winnipeg who want to watch their favourite teams on TV say it’s getting too expensive because multiple subscriptions are needed.
“It’s very frustrating,” Lynam said. “Especially with some of the premium subscriptions right now. We’re talking about, like, a Monday night game twice a month, and it’s being treated like a pay-per-view when it’s … a regular-season hockey game.”
That frustration is shared by hockey fans across Canada, a poll suggests.
In the recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute, 78 per cent of Canadian hockey fans said it was bad that more games require additional subscriptions. Seventy per cent of respondents said professional sports are spread across too many channels and platforms, with the price of those platforms factoring into part of the problem.
“It’s definitely becoming more and more inaccessible,” said Belle Thornton, a Winnipeg hockey fan.
“It’s already more inaccessible for kids in general to play sports, let alone hockey, because it’s so expensive to get into, but especially watching it. I know a lot of people that now have turned to illegal streaming sites to watch games.”
Another Winnipeg hockey fan, Allan Constant, said multiple subscriptions shouldn’t be required to watch your favourite team play.
“It’s a pain in the butt,” he said. “We really want to watch hockey. I’m a Canadian. I’ve played hockey my whole life. If I want to watch my hockey team play, I don’t want to pay for two or three subscriptions.”
The Angus Reid poll also found 74 per cent of hockey fans thought the end of the NHL version of Hockey Night in Canada on CBC is a major loss.
Allan Constant, a Winnipeg hockey fan, says it’s a ‘pain in the butt’ to have to pay for multiple streaming services to watch all of your favourite team’s games. (CBC)
The Angus Reid survey was conducted online between Oct. 19-22, with a randomized sample of 1,806 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum.
The Angus Reid Institute said that for comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.
Meanwhile, another broadcast change for sports fans in Canada is on the horizon, as the Canadian Football League gets set to hand off Saturday night games to streaming service DAZN in 2027.
John Hodge of the CFL news website 3DownNation expects there will be an adjustment period.
“The Canadian football league has had its games exclusively broadcast on TSN for 20 years,” he said. “So, I do think it’s going to throw fans for a bit of a loop when suddenly there’s a second place to watch games.”
