CBC News - In Canada, it’s never been more complicated — or expensive — to watch NHL hockey

[Lunatik]

Living in Alberta it's never been easier.

Flames... Sportsnet, unless it's Monday then Sportsnet or Amazon
Oilers... Sportsnet, unless it's Monday then Sportsnet or Amazon
Every other team... Sportsnet, unless it's Monday then Sportsnet or Amazon

BC is just as simple...

Canucks... Sportsnet, unless it's Monday then Sportsnet or Amazon
Every other team... Sportsnet, unless it's Monday then Sportsnet or Amazon

As stupidly frustrating as it is, can't help but wonder this is having a particularly negative impact on the next generation of fans.

Hard to fall i love with the sport if you can't easily watch it

When I was a kid, my options to watch the Flames were a weekly game on regular TV, sometimes on HNIC... we were lucky to get more than 1 game a week.

 

[Lunatik]

My bad, didn't see that part of the title.

VPN seems like the most simplistic route then for Canadians, no?

It's really not that hard in Canada.

SN+ Prem gets you everything on SN and not televised on your region, except the Prime games on Monday. If it's on TV regionally and your local team isn't on SN, it's on TSN.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Hard to fall i love with the sport if you can't easily watch it

It's literally never been as easy as it is today. Just own a laptop/pc, a internet connection, a hdmi cable and a TV and you can watch whatever games you want, and you don't even need the two last things if you don't want to.

 

[GordonGraham]

Like most people here i already have tsn sportsnet rds and tva on my cable and i would have them NHL or not

Will never get Prime those games are still airing on tva/rds anyway

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Imagine paying to watch hockey lmfao

 

[Fantomas]

Imagine paying to watch hockey lmfao

The last time I paid to watch hockey was hockeystreams. Some people here will know what I'm talking about.

It had everything, worked beautifully, but wasn't exactly sanctioned by the NHL and so it had to go. Of course having something convenient and functional wasn't acceptable. It's not allowed.

 

[Anglesmith]

I think this is worse for the Eastern teams. I get SN+ premium and can watch every Flames game legally on all devices and on the go from out of market for far less than I used to pay for cable.

This year I think there might be one game on Prime, which I have anyway.

It's actually never been easier for me.

Ironic that the article itself is major east coast bias, but this is actually something in our favour for once.

 

[JianYang]

As stupidly frustrating as it is, can't help but wonder this is having a particularly negative impact on the next generation of fans.

Hard to fall i love with the sport if you can't easily watch it

I was a casual observer of the whitecaps in MLS. Meaning if I was looking for something to watch in the moment and it happened to be on, I'd watch it.

Now I've all but forgotten about them since the switch to Apple TV.

 

[JianYang]

Before rogers got the rights. I was able to get all 82 Habs games on rds for 5 bucks a month, despite being an out of market fan.

I miss those days.

 

[Cup or Bust]

I stick with the *cough* alternative ways to watch games as I do not pay for any cable services

 

[Lunatik]

I think this is worse for the Eastern teams. I get SN+ premium and can watch every Flames game legally on all devices and on the go from out of market for far less than I used to pay for cable.

This year I think there might be one game on Prime, which I have anyway.

It's actually never been easier for me.

Ironic that the article itself is major east coast bias, but this is actually something in our favour for once.

We have 5 on Prime actually.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Watching hockey is easier and cheaper than its ever been in any period of human history, its literally free on the internet. You can watch every single streamed hockey game live in the entire world from juniors to NHL to international to european league to KHL lol

 

[Anglesmith]

We have 5 on Prime actually.

Neat!

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

My bad, didn't see that part of the title.

VPN seems like the most simplistic route then for Canadians, no?

ESPN+ does not have all the games. It doesn’t have the NHL Network games and I dont think it has the TNT or MAX games. Also some games can be blacked out like if you live in San Diego and your team plays the Ducks or the Kings, those games will be on Bally not ESPN+.

 

[WatchfulElm]

I read people talking about piracy, but where's your moral sense, guys?

I mean, you should all know that the moral thing to do is to spend the hard earned money you make by working extra hours on your low paying job not on your kids future and education, or to afford the rising cost of food, transport and housing, but on badly managed media conglomerates who keep firing their journalists and shrinking their newsroom to give more space to sensationalist opinions and garbage reality shows, on a sports league that is openly promoting gambling and violence, on billionaire team owners who make you pay $32 for a tasteless beer and a bad hot dog so they can afford spending 4 months per year in their private villa on a tropical island, and on millionaire players who are less educated than you and who live their best life in their mansion along their top model girlfriends while stacking a fortune in their bank account on Cayman Island so they can send their future kids to the best universities in the US that you can only afford to visit once as a tourist if you're lucky enough to earn a few days of vacations after you've spent half of your paycheck on multiple cable and streaming services to enjoy the only entertainment that helps you escape from your busy life.

I mean, obviously, piracy is bad.

 

[Jay26]

A lot of things are going to shit in this country, but I digress...

The market will always have the final say. Most people aren't desperate. If it's going to be this expensive and complicated to watch your team play every game then people are slowly just going to give it up. Rogers can't take their customers for granted but we know they will. Most companies don't nowadays and that's why the level of service and product in general everywhere is appalling right now.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

The last time I paid to watch hockey was hockeystreams. Some people here will know what I'm talking about.

It had everything, worked beautifully, but wasn't exactly sanctioned by the NHL and so it had to go. Of course having something convenient and functional wasn't acceptable. It's not allowed.

I loved that site. They even threw in live coverage of events like the draft or trade deadline. Best $130 (or whatever it was) I ever spent.