Amazon Prime Video announced its Canadian NHL broadcast schedule on Thursday, with 27 Wednesday night games that will be exclusive to the streaming platform in both French and English, following its sublicensing of those rights from Rogers.
The broadcasts will include the following Canadiens games in both French and English:
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. at Washington Capitals
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m. at New Jersey Devils
Wednesday, Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m. vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 7:30 p.m. vs. Boston Bruins
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m. vs. New Jersey Devils
Wednesday, March 10, 7:30 p.m. vs. Boston Bruins
Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. vs. Ottawa Senators
The Canadiens play three other Wednesday games during the regular season, but those are all late games and fall outside the national broadcast window (Nov. 25 at Colorado, Feb. 3 at Seattle, Feb. 24 at Los Angeles). Those games will be on RDS.
Because Amazon has acquired the exclusive rights to these games in both languages, Canadian viewers will not have a legal alternative if they want to watch them live. Neither RDS nor TVA Sports will carry them in French.
Amazon said it will continue to offer the games as part of the standard Prime Video package, without requiring additional costs beyond the Amazon Prime subscription.
With seven of the 27 games featuring Montreal, the Canadiens will see the most action on Amazon of any NHL team. The Toronto Maple Leafs are second with six games, Edmonton Oilers five, Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets four, and Vancouver Canucks two. All 27 games feature at least one Canadian team, and four feature two.
Shortly after Amazon published its schedule, Quebecor, the NHL and Rogers announced TVA Sports would renew its French-language national rights deal for another 12 years. Its deal expands to 32 Canadiens games per season, including the season opener, Saturday night games, six Monday night games, and three games on other nights.
RDS has renewed its regional broadcast deal with the Canadiens, but for only 45 of the 84 regular-season games.
In English, Sportsnet remains the national broadcaster and TSN will broadcast regional games. Schedules for those networks have not yet been announced.
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