New Stats Emerge, Proving Gary Bettman Lied About Amazon Prime vs Traditional TV
On Monday, the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, certainly scared many people who depend on traditional television.
He outright stated, live from Montreal, that the world is moving away from cable television, that Amazon reaches more people than traditional television, and he seemed ready to turn his back on Pierre Karl Péladeau and TVA Sports for the next TV contract.
However, as Maxime Truman points out, the numbers clearly show that the NHL commissioner was wrong.
Amazon did not reach more people than traditional television for the game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins
Maxime Truman managed to get his hands on some very interesting data.
Average per minute: 220,000.
That's 3 times less than on RDS (and 3 times less than what Sportsnet usually gets).
Only 25% of people have Amazon Prime, compared to more than 50% for RDS, TVA Sports, and/or Sportsnet.
So, Gary Bettman was wrong when he said that the NHL was reaching more people on Amazon than on traditional TV.
One day, this might (maybe) be true, but not today.
In short, the NHL needs to keep traditional TV in the short and medium term.
As he mentions, it's actually three times less than what Sportsnet typically does. That says a lot.
Could this change? Absolutely, but for now, Gary Bettman has no solid data to back up such claims.
Personally, I believe Amazon Prime Video still has a long way to go before it can "match" what RDS, TVA Sports and Sportsnet are currently doing.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this will turn out. I'm eager to see the final picture in 2026-2027, but Bettman seems determined to continue the experiment with Amazon Prime Video.
We'll conclude with a very relevant message that Marc Denis (RDS) shared before Monday's game between the Penguins and the Canadiens.
We truly hope for a positive outcome.
Whether it's Pierre Karl Péladeau and TVA Sports or the excellent team at RDS, I really wish for some form of status quo in the coming years, because they're doing a great job.
| POLL | ||
Where would you like to watch Montreal Canadiens games in 2 years? | ||
| TVA Sports / RDS / Sportsnet / TSN | 524 | 81.1 % |
| Amazon Prime Video | 122 | 18.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
