Raptors Insider: Cue the outrage. Two games will be exclusive to Prime Video in a Canadian first - Toronto Star

Raptors fans will be forced to go to a streaming site instead of turning to Sportsnet or TSN to watch the games.

Raptors star Scottie Barnes dunks on the Chicago Bulls in their season opener at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto last week. Raptors fans won’t be able to see him in action on TSN or Sportsnet for two games this season thanks to aN NBA deal with Prime.

It was inevitable, given how the world of sports broadcasting is changing, and it’s finally caught up with the Raptors.

For the first time in team history, two of the team’s games this season won’t be available on what used to be traditional carriers. Fans will be forced to go to a streaming site as the only way to see the games.

The Prime streaming service, which pays $1.8 billion (U.S.) a year for rights to show NBA games, has exclusive rights to a Raptors game in late November and another in early January.

That’s no Sportsnet, no TSN. It’s a first in the storied history of Raptors broadcasters that goes back to The Real VR. No CBC, no CTV. Nothing that fans have come to expect.

It was coming, even if it might surprise fans. When Prime struck its deal with the NBA in 2025, a deal that’s worth $19.8 billion over 11 years, it was granted exclusivity for about 65 to 67 games each season. Because of a unique clause in the original contract, the Raptors were exempt in the first year of the agreement and had their usual broadcast rights to simulcast the Prime games on Sportsnet or TSN. But that exemption no longer exists.

It means a Nov. 20 game in Detroit  will solely be available on Prime. And a Jan. 7 game at home against Minnesota — the first of three home games in four nights that will culminate in the retirement of Kyle Lowry’s No. 7 jersey on Jan. 10 — is the second one scheduled. Lowry joined the NBA on Prime broadcast as an analyst this season.

The move really follows what has been happening lately in other sports on TV here in this new world of fractured rightsholders. There were half a dozen Blue Jays games last season that were solely available on Apple TV+, some Maple Leafs fans were in an uproar this season when 13 Monday night games were shifted to Sportsnet+, the streaming services pay oodles of money for exclusive rights and who can blame them for asserting them.

(The other main streaming service, Peacock, doesn’t have the same deal. Toronto’s two games scheduled there — Jan. 25 at Boston, March 15 at Philadelphia — will be broadcast by Sportsnet)

But that Prime deal that’s caught up to Raptors fans across Canada is just another step down a path few couldn’t have anticipated even a decade ago. And it’s a long, long way from the time some of us remember: CBC and CTV used to both broadcast the Grey Cup and announcers from each network did half a game each. That’s the good old days.

The Raptors might not be overjoyed about leading the NBA in fouling a week into the season but no one’s too concerned about it, either.

First, it’s early in the season, all the “points of emphasis” that were drilled into officials’ minds all summer are still in effect and it’s made some refs whistle-happy. Illegal screens are more diligently called, the new idea of offensive players being called for extending their forearms to create separation and get shooting space will ease. It always has changed, it always will change and what’s a foul tonight won’t likely be a foul some night in the middle of January.

Second, the Raptors are already thinking about the playoffs and how they’ll be ready for them. The post-season is tougher, it’s more physical and it’s far better to be used to playing that way than to all of a sudden have to ramp it up on late April, May and maybe into June.

It’s unlikely Toronto will continue to average a league-high 27.5 personal fouls a game (tied for 29th with Brooklyn going into Thursday night games) but fouls do take away from the pace and the flow of a game. Since the Raptors thrive in transition, a game that moves like sludge doesn’t play to their strengths so cutting down on the fouls a little bit would be nice.

Darko Rajakovic is always hoping for someone to take advantage of an opportunity and force the coach to keep running him out night after night, if even in short stints.

Trayce Jackson-Davis opened a few eyes this week doing just that.

Pressed into unusually early service when both Jakob Poeltl and Collin Murray-Boyles got into first-quarter foul trouble against Orlando, Jackson-Davis answered the call with a solid effort: 11 rebounds, two blocked shots, two assists and six points in 20 minutes.

Now, it wasn’t against all-world competition — Nikola Vucevic, Wendell Carter Jr., and Colin Castleton aren’t making any all-star teams any time soon — but, still, Jackson-Davis looked good.

Is it enough to earn him regular minutes? Maybe not if Rajakovic stays with a 10-man rotation when everyone’s healthy. But Jackson-Davis certainly got the staff’s attention with his athleticism and effort, and it might force the coach to re-think who plays how much.

“Everything is on the table,” Rajakovic said. “Obviously, I love to have as many players as possible to be ready to help us and to step on the floor.

“It’s just finding … both right minutes and the right rotations to maximize that.”

We’ll be putting together Ye Olde Mailbag on Friday afternoon and first thing Saturday morning before a mid-day flight to Los Angeles so sending the questions to askdoug@thestar.ca would be a good idea.

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Doug Smith is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on BlueSky: @smithraptorsbeat.bsky.social.