The NHL needs a singular streaming app to watch every game of the season

[x Tame Impala]

We're midway through the 2020's now, the technology is there, it's clumsy to have so many games be on so many different networks, there shouldn't be black outs. Games can still be broadcasted through TNT/ESPN for the playoffs, still be broadcasted through team's local networks, but there's no reason to make watching an NHL game at all difficult. I should be able to download the NHL app and pay a monthly/yearly subscription that...

-gives me access to all 82 games from all 32 teams in the regular season
-gives me access to every playoff game
-no blackouts
-not have to worry about which channel the game is on, as I can seamlessly stream the game through the app
-have access to old iconic games throughout the league's history

You can make a tiered-service I'm sure...

-x amount of dollars a month/year just for your team's regular season + playoff games
-y amount of dollars a month for all 32 team's games regular season games
-additional z amount of dollars a month to watch the playoffs

What would you all pay a month/year for this? I think the NHL needs to stop worrying so much about the absolute perfect time to air playoff games and just make it as easy as possible to watch. Admitting ignorance here to a lot of things regarding revenue and broadcasting of course, would this be a good idea?

 

[qcal1427]

We're midway through the 2020's now, the technology is there, it's clumsy to have so many games be on so many different networks, there shouldn't be black outs. Games can still be broadcasted through TNT/ESPN for the playoffs, still be broadcasted through team's local networks, but there's no reason to make watching an NHL game at all difficult. I should be able to download the NHL app and pay a monthly/yearly subscription that...

-gives me access to all 82 games from all 32 teams in the regular season
-gives me access to every playoff game
-no blackouts
-not have to worry about which channel the game is on, as I can seamlessly stream the game through the app
-have access to old iconic games throughout the league's history

You can make a tiered-service I'm sure...

-x amount of dollars a month/year just for your team's regular season + playoff games
-y amount of dollars a month for all 32 team's games regular season games
-additional z amount of dollars a month to watch the playoffs

What would you all pay a month/year for this? I think the NHL needs to stop worrying so much about the absolute perfect time to air playoff games and just make it as easy as possible to watch. Admitting ignorance here to a lot of things regarding revenue and broadcasting of course, would this be a good idea?

This sounds nice but if you still want local networks and TNT/ESPN to do the broadcasts they are going to need to be paid off to do so and the package would be ridiculously expensive. The fundamental problem is that the amount of people who want to watch the entire league rather than just their entire team is IMO a lot smaller than you'd think.

MLS tried this with Apple TV and the results have been ... mixed at best

 

[Jumptheshark]

here is part of the problem. TV rights.

I had NHL streaming service here in the UK and when I wanted to watch a game, it was blacked out because someone owned the right to show another hockey game and blacked out the one I wanted to watch. Until the NHL is able to either go all in on line we are screwed

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Wishful thinking but it's not gonna happen. None of the major pro sports leagues do it, you need multiple services.

Capitalism baby

 

[NVious]

here is part of the problem. TV rights.

I had NHL streaming service here in the UK and when I wanted to watch a game, it was blacked out because someone owned the right to show another hockey game and blacked out the one I wanted to watch. Until the NHL is able to either go all in on line we are screwed

Nobody with access to google is screwed.

 

[Daximus]

The league gets paid massive amounts of money for their TV rights. Rogers just gave the NHL $11 billion for the rights in Canada. TNT/ESPN just paid them $4.5 billion for the US rights. Then you have each team also selling their local rights to local networks for millions annually.

The NHL would have to charge obscene amounts of money to not only have all of that under one roof but also run the entire thing themselves in order for their to be no blackouts and have everything done in the way they want. All for most people to just pirate it anyways.

What we need is a major major player to come along and offer the NHL an absolutely obscene amount of money, Something like $30 billion for worldwide broadcast rights as well as all local rights to all games for all teams from pre-season to post season and sets up a streaming service to do so. Until then we will continue to have blackouts and scattered games. In all honestly it's probably only going to get worse as more and more players get involved. Pretty soon you'll have some games on local, some on national, some on amazon, some on apple a few over here on Hulu and a couple over there on netflix.

 

[stealth1]

The whole streaming thing and the complaints are hilarious to me. Everyone was so quick to ditch cable and embrace streaming. Now that each network has their own streaming this is what you end up with.

 

[jigglysquishy]

Wishful thinking but it's not gonna happen. None of the major pro sports leagues do it, you need multiple services.

Capitalism baby

It was a very real possibility.

Both MLS and WWE did it. If it went well for them other sports leagues would rush to copy. Early signs are that it's not though, so a one-streaming deal isn't happening soon.

 

[koivalev]

I just do sportsnet and the high seas for anything out of market or blacked out. Hard to feel too bad about it.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

They should , I would literally pay them lol.

Until then , google. It is what it is

 

[StrangeVision]

Well yeah, but then how are all the streaming services going to retain customers? Won’t you think about those poor corporations who are ripping us off.

 

[3074326]

The whole streaming thing and the complaints are hilarious to me. Everyone was so quick to ditch cable and embrace streaming. Now that each network has their own streaming this is what you end up with.

I love arguments like this. Why did people ditch cable? They wanted to pick which channels they had access to because cable bills were getting very expensive due to channels they didn’t want. Why would you be ok sticking with something that continues to rise in price because of things that you don’t want?

You’re acting like consumers are the ones who made it this way. No, it’s this way for the same reason, which is greed. Keep blaming consumers! I’m sure it’ll pay off eventually.

Everyone embraced streaming because it was significantly cheaper. When it became the dominant form of media, the same thing happened that happened with cable. Increased prices for things people don’t want.

I’d actually give them money if they offered a consumer-friendly way to watch. But they don’t, so I will just watch for free instead.

 

[stealth1]

I love arguments like this. Why did people ditch cable? They wanted to pick which channels they had access to because cable bills were getting very expensive due to channels they didn’t want. Why would you be ok sticking with something that continues to rise in price because of things that you don’t want?

You’re acting like consumers are the ones who made it this way. No, it’s this way for the same reason, which is greed. Keep blaming consumers! I’m sure it’ll pay off eventually.

I’d actually give them money if they offered a consumer-friendly way to watch. But they don’t, so I will just watch for free instead.

Don't worry cause streaming is heading in that same direction. While it is greed at the same time these Networks were going to make sure they got there money regardless.

At one point multiple companies were going to work together and make one streaming service for most sports. Unfortunately FUBO filed a lawsuit against it.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Nobody with access to google is screwed.

We are not suppose to talk about certain sites

 

[MOGlLNY]

ESPN+ probably airs 98% of games for $15 a month.

 

[RussianBum86]

It should be nhl center ice app, but it isnt.

 

[thebeernerd]

The Jetsons and Star Trek lied to us, or at the very least they neglected to consider that technological progress will only go so far as the people who create and manufacture technology will allow it.

Do we have the ability to have all NHL games on one app? Undoubtedly. Will it ever happen? No way, the league and companies that do business with it all need to extract their rents.

 

[Djp]

The whole streaming thing and the complaints are hilarious to me. Everyone was so quick to ditch cable and embrace streaming. Now that each network has their own streaming this is what you end up with.

I agree

I love arguments like this. Why did people ditch cable? They wanted to pick which channels they had access to because cable bills were getting very expensive due to channels they didn’t want. Why would you be ok sticking with something that continues to rise in price because of things that you don’t want?

Yes, it would be nice if I was able to sign up for just the channels I wanted and ditched all the others. Paid a per channel subscription fee similar to paying for hbo/ movie channel

You’re acting like consumers are the ones who made it this way. No, it’s this way for the same reason, which is greed. Keep blaming consumers! I’m sure it’ll pay off eventually.

Everyone embraced streaming because it was significantly cheaper. When it became the dominant form of media, the same thing happened that happened with cable. Increased prices for things people don’t want.

With smart phones being the norm and people can watch videos, naturally it progressed to watching long videos/ TV

I’d actually give them money if they offered a consumer-friendly way to watch. But they don’t, so I will just watch for free instead.

Streaming offers were cheap to get customer buy in....

Will streaming be cheaper in the future? No

You have large providers that if you pay to restore what you have on cable will cost the same as cable

Now you have the same issue years ago.....not everywhere can support streaming services in small town/ rural areas
This where satellite companies excelled because cable focused on urban/ suburban

Then you will have consolifator streaming companies like YouTube thsg will bring in all the stations...just like what cable has done

A similar thing with gen Zers is also with the death of newspapers. They wanted stuff for free and not pay.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Why would the NHL want to do this? They make way more money having all of these smaller deals with individual providers. The fan experience is not an objective for them.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

NHL made a very deliberate choice to split its broadcast rights up, presumably to get more casual fans and get paid more for its rights. NHL doesn't want to be a cult sport, and every broadcast is an advertisement for its other revenue channels (notably tickets and merchandise)

 

[hangman005]

Living in NZ, our option was ESPN+ which was awful.... it was so bad I paid for a VPN and then Knight Time + on top of that. We can now also get ESPN+ now through Disney+ which is somehow a better experience, but it'll likely come down to the exchange rate if I reup with Knighttime +

 

[FlyguyOX]

ESPN+ covers 95% of the games for me.

 

[Summer Rose]

Bit of a repeat of what I posted on the business board, but since I'm primarily interested in Utah, it seems reasonable for most games... except when we're nationally televised (which luckily didn't happen often this season). ESPN+ covered let's say 73 games. 2 of them were captured by the local market since they were against Tampa Bay, and Gainesville is in their market area (but I went to the one in Tampa in person anyway). That left 7 national games. Worth an an arm and a leg for something like YouTube TV just for 7 games? Hell no.

 

[Voight]

Majority of fans down care to watch every team in the league. They'll commit time to their favourite team and then maybe a few games here and there but thats it.

 

[dabeechman]

The fact that I paid for a streaming service last year and STILL had to pirate games that I wanted to watch, makes me now want to just skip the subscription and just pirate the games for free.

How does that work for you Gary?