Fans jeer as Rogers’ Sportsnet boosts price of streaming services

Rogers Communications Inc.'s Sportsnet is increasing the prices for services on the Sportsnet+ platform on Sept. 9 and many fans are upset. A sports marketing professor says they have a right to be. Voicing their complaints online, some have said they are cancelling the service and claim the quality of the broadcasts is bad. The jump in prices will not affect the over the air content on basic Sportsnet cable channels. The standard monthly package, which includes all Toronto Blue Jays content plus all national and in-market hockey broadcasts, is jumping by 20 per cent from $24.99 per month to $29.99. The standard annual package price, which includes the same content as the monthly rate, is increasing by 25 per cent from $199.99 to $249.99. Premium monthly packages, featuring all the standard content plus around 1,000 extra NHL games, jump 23 per cent from $34.99 to $42.99. The premium annual package increases by 30 per cent from $249.99 to $324.99. “Sportsnet+ is the most comprehensive live sports streaming experience in Canada,” a Sportsnet spokesman wrote The Wire Report. “This update reflects that great value for sports fans looking for the best sports content in the country, while remaining competitively priced with other options in the market.” Shocked consumers disagree. Fans flocked to X and Reddit to denounce the moves, sometimes employing language bluer than the Toronto Blue Jays’ and Toronto Maple Leafs’ uniforms. “Dear @Sportsnet I’m writing this to tell you we’re breaking up. It is 1000 per cent your fault,” Mike Gervais wrote on X. “A 30 per cent price increase to watch #NHL @DetroitRedWings games. $330/year is absolutely criminal. If your service was good I’d consider staying, but it’s glitchy as hell & no Roku app.” “Jumping on the bandwagon of die hard hockey fans who @Sportsnet is attempting to fleece,” a dissatisfied customer named Corrine wrote on X. “It’s a subpar glitchy service and I can’t believe they feel any increase is warranted.” “Who else got the Sportsnet+ email regarding the INSANE price increase for next season?!,” KB III asked. “249.99 annually up to 324.99?! And blackouts still occur?!?! Sadly I’ll have to cancel, that’s absurd.” “Losing 1000’s of customers will cost you more money than you’re gonna make with this hike,” Joseph David warned. “Sportsnet plus was already super flawed and not worth the original $180 and now it’s almost double? Shame on you @Sportsnet.” Rogers is now the majority owner of most major sports teams in the Toronto area. It recently signed an extension of its hockey broadcasting rights with the NHL. Michael Naraine is a professor of sports marketing at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. He says he is both “not surprised” and “super surprised” at the Sportsnet moves. Not surprised because the company needs to pay for the broadcasting rights; super surprised because he did not believe Rogers would extend the contract. “They need to pass that cost on to the consumer because if they don’t pass that cost on to the consumer then they bear it and if they bear it that potentially drives down profits and that decreases shareholder wealth,” he explains. He is not surprised that there is a backlash to the price increases. “From a consumer perspective, it feels like the service is not commensurate with the price point that it was currently at and now you’ve inflated it...and that doesn’t seem right,” Naraine states. The professor thinks it would have made more sense for Sportsnet to introduce the large price hike to customers migrating from another carrier while implementing smaller increases to Rogers clients. While fans are decrying the Sportsnet move and threatening cancellation, Naraine is less sure about how much of an economic hit the conglomerate will actually face. “People are fickle and irrational. Consumers and businesses are irrational,” he says. “But there at the top of the food chain or the pyramid are sports fans. Sports fans and consumers are the most irrational out of everyone.” He cites the example of people who will pay $200 for a sports jersey that probably wholesales for $25 or $30. That rarely happens for other enterprises. “No one’s doing that for Ford or Honda or Nestle,” he opines. “No one wears a Nestle t-shirt down the street.” Naraine expects four results from the uproar. Some will quit the service cold turkey. Some fans will complain but pay the increased rates. Others will use the grey market. They will cancel the service but go to the local bar to watch games. They may also engage in password sharing and splitting the higher costs of the Sportsnet+ streaming. Lastly they may enter the black market and sign up with internet pirates who make signals available illegally. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to drive down a major urban centre in this country whether it’s Ottawa, Toronto, or Vancouver and see on a lamppost ‘Get internet TV for $10 a month.’,” he notes. “There are many people who sign up for that service.” The professor thinks the company should devote its efforts to driving customers back to its platforms. “Rogers is not going to make money off its sports and media division,” he states. “They’re going to make their money off of the internet so why not circle the square and drive consumers back to that piece.” The price increases go into effect in September, just as the Jays hope to be in the playoff hunt and before the NHL season begins. Editor’s note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect how much the price has increased. ppark@thewirereport.ca

Fans jeer as Rogers’ Sportsnet boosts price of streaming services

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By Paul Park
| July 17, 2025

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