Amazon has just completed its first season streaming NHL games in Canada when the digital giant wasted no time in unveiling plans for 2025-26 at their annual upfronts in Toronto. Entering the final year of a two-year deal with Rogers Sports & Media, to broadcast games on Monday night, a weekly live look-in show called 'Coast-To-Coast' on Thursday and a docuseries titled 'FACEOFF: Inside The NHL', the digital giant appears poised to build off their opening year.
Ahead of the announcement, I had a chance to chat with Prime Video Canada's Mark Shopiro, to look back on Season 1 and what fans could expect in next season.
WE ARE SO BACK. 🎬
— Sports on Prime Canada (@SportsOnPrimeCA) May 29, 2025
Tkachuks x 2. Flower. Sid. Season 2 of FACEOFF: Inside the NHL is coming, and it will be a movie. pic.twitter.com/sytbhUOoiZ
Among the topics discussed:
- What was learned from Season 1
- Players and executives willingness to let the camera into their world after seeing Season 1
- Amazon's interest in hockey (if any) beyond their deal that expires at the end of 2025-26
THN: What was your general feedback after Season 1 aired?
Shopiro: We were really happy with season one. I think what fans get to see in the broadcast and day-to-day is gameplay on the ice and storylines as they're playing out. But what they don't have as much visibility to or have been historically was what it's like to be a professional athlete, both on and off the ice. And we saw a really, really positive reception in Season 1 around those off-ice moments of getting to see what it's like to be a player in the National Hockey League. And also through the perspective of the player, but also those that are most important to them in their lives, be it their family members or good friends. And really, you know, understanding the players as people and everything that they dedicate to becoming such elite athletes was something that we had, you know, great response on in season one. And I think fans can expect to see more of in season two.
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THN: Did you get more players or anyone after seeing Season 1 being like, 'Hey, I've got to be part of this, and maybe the ask to participate increased? What was that change like between Season 1 and Season 2?
Shopiro: For sure, yeah. I think with Season 1, we had never done it before. The players had never done it, obviously, in the NHL. And as we look forward to season two, people have a flavor of kind of what this was meant to be and how it showcases players. So I think that eased some of the conversations and willingness for players to participate. Obviously, everyone's different, but I think we feel good about a stacked list of players heading into Season 2 and I think that speaks to players' willingness to be involved in the series and be a part of it.
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THN: Brendan Shanahan is involved. We usually don't get executives like that in terms of the list from the previous. How did that come about?
Shopiro: You know, as we think about showcasing the game holistically, the front office is a part of it. And, you know, as you think about showing the game from different angles, that was definitely, you know, a lens that we had thought about as we went into development on the series. And obviously, you know, really happy with everybody that's come forward to be a part of Season 2.
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THN: Looking at all the other stuff that you're going to announce, obviously this is going to be Year 2 of the deal for Amazon and the NHL. What was the general feedback after Season 1 from the Canadian games you guys broadcast?
Shopiro: We were really happy. I think what we were most happy with was the fan reception to the broadcast. We got really good feedback on fans appreciating us going rink to rink, bringing the cities that we were broadcasting from as characters into the games that we were putting on television, bringing people closer to the action with innovations like Home Ice Access, which essentially, you know, let customers from their living room get a peek inside the arena before puck drop, which is, you know, so synonymous with going to a game and getting to experience the feels beforehand. So we feel, you know, first and foremost, really good about the product that we put on the screen. And I think fans recognize that. We're really happy with our viewership and growing with younger audiences, our members spending more time with the broadcast. If you think about entertainment and how people spend their time, sports is such a critical part of that. We view it as a great opportunity to be a part of everybody's Monday nights for three hours every Monday as we broadcast games from Canadian teams.
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THN: It looked like you guys were leveraging some of the technology advantages you guys have. Like I noticed, for example, just being on the home site for Amazon, there was like a little square on top, like before you were even going So even like I guess if you were just a casual shopper on the site, you would see like a little preview of the game kind of going on. Like how much of that was important in terms of the integration of using the leverage of the company, but also just kind of being able to demonstrate what you guys can do differently.
Shopiro: Our first focus was getting the game right. And I think you'll see as the season went on last year and as we start to head into Season 2 as well, it's let's get the game right as we come to one focus. And then where can we innovate and start to bring more value into the broadcast. You mentioned things like we call it like an autoplay feature o Fire TV devices where the game will just start playing versus needing to navigate. There's other pieces of innovation that we got great quality feedback on picture quality and sound quality. So, you know, with compatible devices we filmed in 1080p HDR, I know that's a little technical, but that's a new standard for hockey in Canada and really one that hasn't even been adopted too broadly yet in the U.S. Great 5.1 surround sound, and even things like new camera angles and, you know, innovation like Rapid Recap, which essentially generates like a two-minute reel if you're joining the broadcast in progress on what's happened so far in the game, and then you transition right to live. I know that's a little bit of a laundry list, but that was some of the innovation that we were really excited about, and we feel like fans have really reacted positively to.
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THN: You're in the second year of the deal, which is sublicensed from Rogers, and then Rogers renewed their deal with the NHL. Is there an appetite from Amazon to continue with the game beyond this upcoming season?
Shopiro: I'm not going to speculate on any future deals, but we are really focused right now on Season 2. And it's hard to believe we just wrapped up Season 1 six weeks ago, and we're already full steam ahead for next fall.
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THN: The Coast-to-Coast broadcast that you guys did on Thursdays...What was the general feedback there? Obviously, that was new, but there was a version kind of like that in Canada. What did you like about it? What did you feel could be improved on?
Shopiro: NHL Coast to Coast was a newer format. It had been done, there were variations of the format, but really, you know, starting with the NHL and working on programming the schedule such that we have a great slate of games every Thursday. And, you know, many of the studios show was ran for, you know, five, five and a half hours. Oftentimes, I don't know how Andi Petrillo, who was our host, did it just going for that long. I think as NHL Coast to Coast progressed throughout the season, And we had a rotating analyst that came in, and I feel like that was well-received by audiences. And also just the ability to go from what we said from game to game, goal-to-goal. I hadn't really watched hockey like that before, and I feel like the format was well-received around bouncing between games and, you know, sometimes piping in the audio from the game that you're listening to, sometimes having it be voiced over by the analysts that were in the studio. Tried a bunch of different things in season one and feel like we landed in a good place. As we think about innovation and how we evolve the game in Canada, NHL Coast to Coast was a great example of a new format for which we're trying to bring to Canadians.
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THN: Is there anything new that you guys are going to try that will be obvious for Season 2 that we didn't see in Season 1 of the game broadcasts?
Shopiro: Yeah, we'll see. We're looking back on Season 1 right now as we evaluate how the whole season went and where we feel we can get better. And we can absolutely be better, and we'll continue to look at that. But more to come on that front as we head into Season 2 planning.
THN: Okay, and then outside of maybe even just broadcasts for this year, are there any sort of plans for maybe expanding Amazon and hockey beyond just the broadcast? Like other integrations that could be in the works between Amazon and hockey from a business development side?
Shopiro: Yeah, unfortunately, I won't speak to anything outside of Prime Video, just given that that's my remit to oversee. I would say on the content side, obviously, we have to broadcast. And then as we've spoken about at the start, we've been heavily invested in docu-series. Not only for Faceoff, but, you know, as you think about 'Saving Sakic' or 'All Or Nothing' with the Toronto Maple Leafs, we have a long relationship with the NHL and, you know, feel good about that and the role that Prime Video can play in bringing NHL content to customers.
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