Ducks to broadcast every game for free

[000x000]

Sounds like someone in the org finally came to the realization that streaming is the future and Bally is pretty much obsolete at this point. I also think it's nice they're offering games OTA on 13.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Victory+ is an American only pay to stream service?

I bet the product is already superior to Sportsnet.

 

[Jeune Poulet]

More and more people are pirating hockey games. No one's heart is bleeding for multimillionaires who mumble "t's juss' a biziness, y'know" about every fifth sentence of every interview they give.

The sports industry is constantly adjusting, just like the music industry has to.

Teams might as well generate some goodwill, feed the games to the fans through official channels and control the marketing message, make some money off the weaker minded consumers and gambling addicts out there.

You'll see more teams and more leagues doing similar things, and monetize in different ways. The money is still gonna flow.

 

[LevelingSolo]

It's the thought that counts

A small act of kindness like this goes a long way

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Bad thing: Ducks have the Worst announcers in the NHL

Good thing: you might get to hear the Best announcers in the NHL when they play the Sharks

Bad thing: Ducks kinda suck

Good thing: Ducks can very fun/intriguing at times

Very intelligent, mature, necessary and totally unbiased take.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Mighty.

 

[Chileiceman]

To be clear people, this will only be for the Ducks region. You'd have to use some kind of VPN to access the free streams if you live elsewhere.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Wait you guys are paying to watch hockey?

 

[NVious]

Wait you guys are paying to watch hockey?

You disgust me

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

The Panthers are doing the same.

Florida Panthers, Scripps Sports partner on multi-year agreement to air National Hockey League team’s games | Florida Panthers

The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have signed a multi-year agreement with Scripps Sports to locally broadcast Panthers hockey free for residents of Miami/Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Are the Ducks no longer on Ballys?

 

[ThatGuy22]

People think the ducks are doing this out of some sort of goodness of their heart.

Reality is they can't get the regional sports fees they used to due to shifting market factors and think the best deal they can get is ad share revenue from free options.

 

[Avs2022]

I’m a cynic, whats the catch?

Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

It's the only way to get people in Orange County to watch a Ducks game.

 

[Intangir]

You disgust me

Theoretically, it is possible, although very, very, very inefficient, to make a car out of 3d printing and some other heavy machinery that would receive downloaded files and make the parts of the car for you.

You'd need the materials, the thousands of parts all planned-out into separate files for your professional-grade tools to do their job, and then the know-how to get all of those disparate parts into a single coherent car, mostly getting rid of excess material, polishing, making sure everything runs smoothly, and more.

But yeah, if someone was willing to spend all that money and effort, it would actually be possible to "download a car" in a broader sense.

And that's now, in 2024.

Who's to say in 2080 or whatever, that downloading plans from models that you like and then getting them built out of "nano-polymers" or something at a local factory won't become the norm?

Maybe then downloading your car would actually be the norm, not the exception.

Aside from that I bid thee good day. I had fun contemplating the ridiculous notion of a downloaded car.

Oh, and I actually applaud the Ducks for making their games more easily-watchable. It helps build/retain a fanbase and is overall good for the sport.

Profits might have never been higher for the NHL, but I genuinely think the league as a whole had more pull and sway amongst the general populace when the games were more widely available, 'least in Canada.

 

[Quack Shot]

Interesting....

Ducks fans , do you guys have ANY insight in to how/why this happened?

I am curious if the Ducks were being proactive or if we can expect to see a lot more of this

Probably once Bally’s fiasco started.

Ducks started the Ducks Stream last year and took their radio coverage over to a free 24/7 streaming/podcasts service. This is probably the next marketing step in addition to the new logo/jerseys. Everything is getting ramped up to when the Ducks will be good and the construction around the arena is done. The owners are spending a crap ton on this.

 

[CanadienShark]

it's 'free' but 70% of the air time is devoted to sports betting ads

"We interrupt this sustained pressure in the offensive zone to bring you an important message from our betting sponsors."

 

[Trojans86]

Interesting....

Ducks fans , do you guys have ANY insight in to how/why this happened?

I am curious if the Ducks were being proactive or if we can expect to see a lot more of this

Pretty sure because the suck so bad and the socal market is not kind to poorly performing teams. Build up the fan base while these kids are developing.

 

[BlackAdam]

 

[njdevils1982]

i'm so pumped to sail the high seas for the two devils games vs the sharks...

along with every single other game all season.

 

[Oddbob]

Still too much to hear Brian Hayward do colour. One of the homerest homers in all the homerverse!

 

[JAK]

Ah, the freemium model that many video games do.

Watch the NHL games, and make money on merchandise!

With the new Ducks branding, it would be a good move to expose themselves to as many eyeballs as possible, get new and old fans excited, and sell merchandise.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

I’m a cynic, whats the catch?

Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

The catch is there’s ads. That should be it. And you’re watching a Ducks game.

I get the cynicism though, sad what they’ve done to us. Infinitely better technology, better availability when I was still watchin a f***in Zenith.

 

[duckpuck]

People think the ducks are doing this out of some sort of goodness of their heart.

Reality is they can't get the regional sports fees they used to due to shifting market factors and think the best deal they can get is ad share revenue from free options.

This is close to the correct answer. With Diamond/Ballys in bankruptcy and Amazon pulling out of providing future funding, Diamond/Bally's will not be in a position to pay the rights fee and/or fund the broadcasts (at least in the short run). However, there will not be long term clarity as to what happens to the ducks broadcast rights in the bankruptcy courts any time soon. The court will need to decide that and there will assuredly be litigation.

So this left the ducks in need of a short term/stop gap solution. The only short term option is a "free" deal where the broadcasting network/streamer is only given one year of rights and probably has some sort of profit sharing arrangement with the ducks. In the next year or two, the ducks (and lots of other MLB/NHL teams) are hoping the bankruptcy will sort itself out in a way that allows them to enter into a new rights deal. It is also possible that Diamond/Ballys will reorganize/recapitalize and retain the rights. Or they could be sold/transferred to another part or even terminated. TBD

 

[Harvey Birdman]

You disgust me

If I could. I would.

 

[Bender66]

Jim Lites (chairman of stars) is on board of APMC (parent company of victory+), i'm guessing he has sizeable investment in this company, which is probably why Stars decided to go with this tiny company that does kids streaming with monetization via ads instead of a more established streamer