Amazon's Prime Video will be the exclusive in-market streamer for six NHL clubs beginning with the 2026-27 season: the Carolina Hurricanes, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues. [1] The Minnesota Wild put a price on the shelf. Fans in the local territory can buy a monthly subscription for $19.99 or an annual one for $99.99, available to Amazon customers. [1] [2] Local hockey is now a Prime SKU.
League copy sold ease. David Proper, the NHL's chief media officer, said fans "want an easy way to find and follow their favorite teams," and that the deal gives clubs "flexibility to meet that demand as the market evolves," delivering a "premium, accessible regional viewing experience." [1] Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships at Prime Video, said the company had "firmly established Prime Video as a primary destination for sports." [1] Mitch Helgerson, the Wild's chief revenue officer, called it "a seamless way to watch every local Minnesota Wild broadcast this season." [2]
The packages cover regular-season games, pregame and postgame shows, and additional team programming. Each club will set its own pricing. [1] Carolina, the defending Stanley Cup champion, is on the list with Anaheim, Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota, and St. Louis. [1] Prime Video will stream all of the Wild's non-nationally televised regular-season games and first-round Stanley Cup playoff games in territory. [2] Out-of-market fans stay on NHL Center Ice and NHL Power Play on the ESPN app. [2] Wild+, the team's own multimedia network, still launches this season on cable, satellite, and over-the-air television. As the official television home, Wild+ will produce every regular-season game not taken for exclusive national distribution by ABC, ESPN, ESPN+/Hulu, or TNT. [2] The Prime add-on does not kill the team channel. It sits on top of it. More subscription details are due before opening night at watch.wild.com. [2]
Prime already distributes regional coverage from the Seattle Kraken, MSG Networks, Chicago Sports Network, NESN, SNY, YES, Marquee, and NBC Sports regional networks in Boston, Philadelphia, and the Bay Area. [1] Six more NHL markets join that stack under a multi-year league agreement. Proper called it a way for clubs to reach fans "as the market evolves." [1] Sports Video Group noted that teams and leagues keep adding direct-to-consumer options alongside — and, in some markets, in place of — traditional regional-sports-network models. [1] The market that evolved is the death of the old cable bundle. The replacement is not a public utility. It is a shopping account. A Wild fan who already pays Amazon now pays again for the games the team used to put on a local cable box. Twelve months at $19.99 is $239.88. The annual $99.99 is the discount for paying up front. It is still a second ticket on a Prime login.
National windows remain with the league's broadcast partners. Local windows are what Amazon bought. Exclusive in-territory streaming means a fan inside the Wild map who wants every non-national game on a phone or living-room stick now needs to be an Amazon customer, then buy the extra SKU. [2] Cable, satellite, and over-the-air Wild+ still exist. Channel locations come later. [2] The stream is the new default the league is selling as easy. Proper's "flexibility" is the clubs' flexibility to charge. Neiman's "more ways to connect" is another app. The six club names on Wednesday's press release are the inventory. Minnesota posted the subscription price first. The rest of that local map will soon follow the same SKU logic in their own home territories.
The copy will keep saying accessible. The remote on the boards is the product. Six clubs sold the local window to the same company that already owns a growing map of regional sports. Helgerson praised "innovation, accessibility, and exceptional viewing experience." [2] Neiman said Prime wanted to "broaden the reach and accessibility of their live games." [1] Reach, here, means a login. The price in Minnesota is the one number on the table. The other five clubs will post theirs. Until they do, $19.99 a month is the posted rate for what used to be the home team's channel.
-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos