Following success with Stars and Ducks, Victory+ diving deeper into free hockey streaming

One of the more fascinating stories in hockey this season has been how people consume the games.

The Victory+ experiment has been working.

Now it’s going to start expanding in the hockey world.

After working with the Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars throughout this season for their in-market streaming, Victory+ announced this week that it had worked out a deal to carry the Western Hockey League, starting with the playoffs, and for all of the 2025-26 season.

The WHL games will be free for viewers, won’t be geo-locked, and represent a residual side effect of how well things have gone for A Parent Media Company (APMC), Victory+’s parent company, diving into hockey with the Stars and Ducks.

After splitting ways with traditional regional sports networks (RSN), both the Ducks and Dallas have had viewership skyrocket. The Ducks have had viewership quadruple, while the Stars had more than 165,000 viewers tune in recently for the Saturday, March 8 game against the Edmonton Oilers.

That number, according to Stars sources, is “unheard of” for local viewership and it rivals viewership that some nationally-televised games have drawn on both TNT and ESPN.

For something that started out as a bold experiment, it’s turning into a viable business decision for both the NHL teams and APMC.

“They were frustrated with Bally's,” said Neil Gruninger, the President & CEO of APMC. “They told me the number that they were making, and I'm like, well, let's just, let's just do an economic model on viewers, right? … If we went free (streaming), and then discuss what we can make per per fan, per user watching the game. And so we've, we've been able to really build out, you know, the economics to make sense for both parties.”

Neither side is giving out the exact financial number, which is typical here, but both the Stars and Ducks have seen revenue increase this season which they attribute at least partially to Victory+.

The teams and Victory+ make money directly on advertisement, something APMC has been upscaling and been able to sell further with the booming streaming numbers. It’s also a more direct form of advertising through streaming and APMC has worked with the teams to utilize viewer data.

“Teams can see their reach, but they also see the data behind it,” Gruninger said. “We shared our data with the clubs and that’s a really important strategy, because do you know who’s actually watching your games? In the past, and with TV, it was more of a black hole … we are no better connecting each of the teams with the actual ecosystem of their viewers.”

For example, 40 percent of Stars viewers on Victory+ are between 18 and 25 according to Stars president Brad Alberts.

That’s a demographic that does two things for a team.

1. It builds long-term fandom, which in theory can be passed on through families as those fans grow.

2. It’s a current demographic that tends to have more disposable income, meaning Victory+ viewership can help with merchandise and jersey sales, for example.

That information is one of the reasons the WHL is now joining the Victory+ platform.

Stars owner Tom Gaglardi also owns the Kamloops Blazers in the WHL, the Stars owner connected APMC with the WHL and commissioner Dan Near to work out a deal for the WHL.

We’ve known other NHL teams have been closely watching how Victory+ has worked for the Stars and Ducks, but the WHL could be the gateway to some league-wide reform in streaming.

Right now in the hockey streaming space there are several options, but they are practically universally paid services. FloHockey, for example, runs the AHL and ECHL programs with a service that costs $29.99 per month or annual plan that costs $150.

CHL TV, which used to host the WHL games and still hosts the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, cost $274.99 this season for access to all regular season and playoff games.

If the WHL’s deal with Victory+ can lead to more eyeballs and at least similar financial returns, it’s feasible the OHL and QMJHL could someday be part of Victory+’s offerings as well.

Gruninger said he’d love to work with all of the CHL leagues, and right now he’s focused on helping the WHL elevate it’s overall platform — not just with game streaming, but additional content that could also highlight players and personalities in the WHL.

In the long-term, a robust junior hockey offering and a handful of NHL clubs could turn Victory+ into one of the bigger players in hockey streaming.

Gruninger said Victory+ has aspirations right now to take on another “four to five” NHL teams, which runs side-by-side with other sports growths.

In DFW, for example, the Texas Rangers will have their games streamed this season Victory+, albeit not completely for free, but rather a $100 season pass.

Which brings up the fair and natural question, if it costs $100 to watch the Rangers this season, should their be any concern of a subscription price point for Stars, Ducks, or WHL fans at some point?

Not according to Gruninger.

“The volume of users and the revenues we’re seeing based on the scaling of it, it doesn’t make sense to do a subscription for hockey, both sides are doing well as businesses,” Gruninger said. “I personally feel that one day I hope baseball, MLB, will be free. But they have a different deal associated with it … baby steps for them, but we are building this ecosystem out.”

One thing Gruninger did say was that any subscription in the hockey space would have to come with an enhanced viewing option beyond the free product. For example, Gruninger said the games would be free, but potentially additional camera angles or isolation cameras on one player could be built into an enhanced experience.

But, again, Gruninger said that’s not in the immediate plan right now. And said multiple times, that for Victory+, in the hockey space, free streaming is growing business model.

Gruninger also said there are other hockey things in the work at this point, but those developments aren’t well, developed, enough to share more at this point on other potential properties joining Victory+.