Around the League - 2023/24

[GeoRox89]

Rogers losing money on that NHL deal and trying to cut bait as much as possible is amazing. Anything that hurts RoBellus is a win in my books (that Shaw deal never should’ve gotten past the competition bureau)

 

[S E P H]

RIP Bob Cole, he was legendary!

Rogers losing money on that NHL deal and trying to cut bait as much as possible is amazing. Anything that hurts RoBellus is a win in my books (that Shaw deal never should’ve gotten past the competition bureau)

That's a bad sign for the NHL's growth and could significantly impact the salary cap. That seemed like a crazy deal at the time for sure, and there is a good chance the next deal is not close to this one, which again could have negatives.

 

[GeoRox89]

RIP Bob Cole, he was legendary!


That's a bad sign for the NHL's growth and could significantly impact the salary cap. That seemed like a crazy deal at the time for sure, and there is a good chance the next deal is not close to this one, which again could have negatives.

It’s definitely not a good sign for the NHLs growth. A lot of Canadians are fed up with the big 3 teleco’s and the obnoxious prices we pay compared to a similar country like Australia. Anything that hits those 3 is a positive for me regardless of NHL impacts especially given how toothless the competition bureau and CRTC have been about them

 

[S E P H]

It’s definitely not a good sign for the NHLs growth. A lot of Canadians are fed up with the big 3 teleco’s and the obnoxious prices we pay compared to a similar country like Australia. Anything that hits those 3 is a positive for me regardless of NHL impacts especially given how toothless the competition bureau and CRTC have been about them

But isn't that Canada's fault to begin with to keep the jobs strictly in Canada? I mean, I understand the logic in it, but that reduces a lot of growth, technology, and competition that brings improvement. I heard from all my Canadian buddies that technology is straight-up rubbish with ridiculously bad reception everywhere. Whatever the case is, it isn't better in non-Canada either, you pretty much have major conglomerates in America like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cox, and others that are buying everyone up like Facebook did, but at least there are more options out there than in Canada.

 

[Avsfan1921]

So we’re saying that those that pay for Sportsnet+ will not have access to those games without a prime subscription? If that’s correct that is absolutely pathetic, and I have a prime subscription.

 

[Chiarelli]

It’s definitely not a good sign for the NHLs growth. A lot of Canadians are fed up with the big 3 teleco’s and the obnoxious prices we pay compared to a similar country like Australia. Anything that hits those 3 is a positive for me regardless of NHL impacts especially given how toothless the competition bureau and CRTC have been about them

You guys pay for TV?!


I refuse to pay for anything I can get for free. This includes sex, tv, and stationery items.

And yea I know that first one never is really free

 

[GeoRox89]

You guys pay for TV?!

TV? The only people I know who pay for regular TV are like 70+. It’s the RoBellus prices for internet and phone that are mental (stop just adding extra data and introduce cheaper plans) and phone in particular are dumb compared to Australia which has similar infrastructure concerns

 

[LOFIN]

TV? The only people I know who pay for regular TV are like 70+. It’s the RoBellus prices for internet and phone that are mental (stop just adding extra data and introduce cheaper plans) and phone in particular are dumb compared to Australia which has similar infrastructure concerns

I've heard that the phone bills are pretty hefty in North America, and you have data plans? Not having unlimited data is just completely alien to me.

 

[GeoRox89]

I've heard that the phone bills are pretty hefty in North America, and you have data plans? Not having unlimited data is just completely alien to me.

It’s wild. It cost me around 1/3 of what I was paying (in Canada) for a prepaid plan for a month when I was in Australia. You can’t even use the discount carriers if you need to reliably have service outside major areas. Even with the big 3, I used to have to go for a walk to get a clear signal at my old place because the coverage was so bad (and if there was a power outage your data died with it). It wasn’t even a rural area it just wasn’t right in town

Edit: Point is Rogers and also SN suck. SN+ was a huge downgrade from NHL Live. How 2 years later we still can’t pick the broadcast or have anything resembling functionality is absurd

 

[henchman21]

RIP Bob Cole, he was legendary!


That's a bad sign for the NHL's growth and could significantly impact the salary cap. That seemed like a crazy deal at the time for sure, and there is a good chance the next deal is not close to this one, which again could have negatives.

TV revenue as a whole is likely to decline for the NHL upon the renewals. The Canadian and international deals are not likely to stay where they are. The RSNs are really struggling. Now the US National TV deals are going incredibly well. Both ESPN and TNT are very happy. I would expect those to go up upon renewal in 2028.

The NHL is watching MLB and how they are handling local rights. I would say there is a good possibility that the NHL has teams renounce and hand over their local rights to the NHL and the NHL provides all the production for a package that gets rid of blackouts and primarily goes to streaming. The teams that own their networks are the ones who will probably try to hold that back, but that is really where the end game is. Hopefully in 2028.

 

[Ceremony]

Is it a good time to point out that NHL TV this year cost me 103 USD and I can stream every game, live or otherwise, whenever I want?

 

[missionAvs]

Is it a good time to point out that NHL TV this year cost me 103 USD and I can stream every game, live or otherwise, whenever I want?

Tell me more please. I would happily pay that amount if it meant 100% of the games all the time.

 

[henchman21]

Is it a good time to point out that NHL TV this year cost me 103 USD and I can stream every game, live or otherwise, whenever I want?

15 a month in the US gives people all Disney +, Hulu, and ESPN + (which includes all non-blacked out NHL games). For Americans, it is a killer deal. The downside is ESPN is probably the most aggressive streaming platform with VPNs... so you have to be really on top of it to keep it working.

 

[Murzu]

I've heard that the phone bills are pretty hefty in North America, and you have data plans? Not having unlimited data is just completely alien to me.

Travelling here it's definitely wild. You have to check how much data you get per plan AND what are the rules for mobile hotspot. And the prices are high if you aim for unlimited everything.

In Finland you pay 30$/month and get unlimited calls, sms/mms, 5G data with 300M DL speed with no throttling/limits after certain amounts of data used. Every operator allows mobile hotspot without ANY restrictions. Simple and easy.

 

[Chiarelli]

I was offered a killer deal of $80/month to be able to watch on my phone just this week.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

15 a month in the US gives people all Disney +, Hulu, and ESPN + (which includes all non-blacked out NHL games). For Americans, it is a killer deal. The downside is ESPN is probably the most aggressive streaming platform with VPNs... so you have to be really on top of it to keep it working.

I wished that ESPN+ kept games around a bit longer. Seems like you get a day or two to watch but then it's gone for good. Not that big of a deal in the long run though although there is usually a game or two a season that would be fun to revisit.

 

[henchman21]

I've heard that the phone bills are pretty hefty in North America, and you have data plans? Not having unlimited data is just completely alien to me.

There is a wide range in the US. You can get super cheap coverage that is ~25-30 for unlimited, but you're limited in the areas it works in. If you live and are only in super populated areas, they can work quite well. If you are more remote, or spend time in remote areas (which is most any area west of the Mississippi)... you need the better coverage that other providers have and ~60-100 is not unusual. Additionally most people roll in their phones to the plan and pay off over 24-36 months.

 

[LOFIN]

Additionally most people roll in their phones to the plan and pay off over 24-36 months.

That's not unusual over here either, in fact I'm doing the same ATM.

 

[henchman21]

I wished that ESPN+ kept games around a bit longer. Seems like you get a day or two to watch but then it's gone for good. Not that big of a deal in the long run though although there is usually a game or two a season that would be fun to revisit.

I thought it was 3 weeks, but IIRC the system is completely clunky to actually find games.

 

[Ceremony]

Tell me more please. I would happily pay that amount if it meant 100% of the games all the time.

What You Get

What You Get

nhltv.nhl.com

NHL.TV will stream all games from the 2023-24 regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs. Please visit the Support Center to learn about blackout and other restrictions that may apply. NHL.TV is only available in certain countries and blackouts are always enforced based on the IP address from which you are accessing the stream.

I have always used a VPN and I've never had any problems. When games were shown in the UK I would set the VPN to Portugal and it worked fine, but now I don't think they're shown here or shown in a way in which blackouts would apply so I don't have that problem.

I've posted this in the NHL TV thread on the main board at the start of this season, but I'm 90% confident this same system would work if you were North American and you paid for this and tried it. I wouldn't recommend it because I'm not certain and I don't know how a refund would work, but I don't really see why it wouldn't. I also don't know why this isn't publicised more by the NHL because my subscription didn't auto-renew this year (I started in the 16-17 season and have used it since) and I had to go hunting. That wasn't fun.

15 a month in the US gives people all Disney +, Hulu, and ESPN + (which includes all non-blacked out NHL games). For Americans, it is a killer deal. The downside is ESPN is probably the most aggressive streaming platform with VPNs... so you have to be really on top of it to keep it working.

NHL TV is the only streaming service I use, and the only thing I'd be interested in. If I had to use three platforms to see every game I wanted to (assuming I couldn't watch live which is the main benefit of NHL TV for me anyway) I would either use streams or some other way of watching games after the fact, assuming I could avoid spoilers. This is also not factoring in an ideal world where I live in Colorado and need to deal with the TV bullshit there with Altitude and the TV companies.

I don't pay that much attention to news from streaming services in general (although I see Amazon now has some NHL games) but I have seen news lately that one of them (Disney, I think) is considering a switch to "channels" that just show one type of thing... you know, like the cable TV that streaming killed off through convenience. I don't think the system works.

I'm going off slightly on a tangent here but occasionally I think about a comment I saw... somewhere. Might have been twitter. Something along the lines of "it's crazy how we managed to produce exactly one generation that understands how to use the internet." There's no chance I'd ever sign up to a paid streaming service in general, but I understand the initial sense of convenience. If I can pay ~10 money a month to watch every film or TV show I could want, great. We're now at a point where there's about half a dozen of those all costing the same but all now showing some of what you want. So you might need several subscriptions at ~10 money a month. Yet people younger than I am will actually pay all of those rather than just go back to illicit means. I don't get it.

Anyway, I watch the NHL through a service which is extremely reasonably priced and convenient. Considering what it offers, considering I only watch Avalanche games and considering it's actually gone down in price the past few years (it's at the very least not gone up with inflation like everything else has), it could probably cost 50% more than it does now and I'd still consider it worthwhile value. Maybe the NHL should try that for everyone.

 

[ABasin]

Does NHL TV streaming black out games that are broadcast by the local regional carrier?, i.e. Altitude?

 

[CharlesPuck]

ESPN+ also gets your pga tour live coverage. Best way to watch golf without all the commercials

 

[Ceremony]

Does NHL TV streaming black out games that are broadcast by the local regional carrier?, i.e. Altitude?

Yes, for 24 hours. But a VPN can (presumably) get around that.

 

[avalanche_country]

I cancelled my cable like 6 months ago and went with YouTube tv. Saved my $100 a month.

Only thing I miss is I had every Avs game from the 2022 playoff run on my TiVo

 

[expatriatedtexan]

ESPN+ also gets your pga tour live coverage. Best way to watch golf without all the commercials

I also got into MMA/UFC because it's on ESPN+. Even the big events get on put on for viewing a couple weeks after the PPV events.

Although, I truly respect the athletes, I still can't help but feel some mixed emotions about being a fan when we know enough about repeated head blows to know that receiving them regularly can lead to debilitating and sometimes deadly outcomes. Anyone else feel that way about MMA or boxing?