It's official, Sportsnet lands exclusive national NHL rights in Canada for 12 years

It's official, according to TSN insider Darren Dreger, the NHL Board has unanimously approved a 12 year, $11 billion (CAD) deal that grants Sportsnet the exclusive national broadcasting rights for NHL games in Canada.

Sportsnet, of course, has had exclusive rights for the past decade. Dreger reports however that the broadcasting giant can sub-license at least one game a week to another broadcaster.

It's important to note that this deal is only for national broadcasting rights so the regional rights that are so often affected by regional blackouts are still up for grabs. This means Habs, Sens, Jets and Leafs games could conceivably still be broadcasted on TSN as they have been in recent seasons.

Read below for our earlier report on this developing story, published by Hockey Feed staff writer Jonathan Larrivee as news broke of the deal this past weekend.

The National Hockey League has reportedly struck an enormous new rights deal for fans North of the border.

According to a breaking news report from Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams over at Sportico, the NHL and their current Canadian television partner Rogers have come to an agreement on a new deal that will see the NHL remain at Rogers for the next 12 years. While the partners will remain the same, the cost for Rogers to retain the rights has gone up considerably.

According to the report, Rogers has agreed to pay the NHL a whopping $7.7 billion USD over the course of that new deal, an amount that represents more than double both the total and year over year cost of the previous deal.

The deal has not as of yet been officially announced and that is due to the fact that NHL owners must still vote to approve the deal in the coming days, although it is believed that both the NHL's media and executive committees have recommended that the owners approve the deal. As a result an official announcement is expected to come in the next few days, after the vote has been finalized.

While the announcement may come soon, this new deal will not take effect until the 2026-2027 National Hockey League regular season, so any changes that may come as a result of that new deal are still a ways off in the future as far as hockey fans in Canada are concerned.

Rogers had an exclusive window in which they could negotiate a deal with the NHL that opened earlier this year and it would seem that they were very intent on keeping the NHL rights after sending shockwaves through the Canadian media landscape when they acquired the rights back in 2013.

Are you happy to see the NHL stay at Rogers for 12 more years or would you have prefered to see a new partner step into the mix? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.