National Hockey League Embraces TV Placeshifting 169
Egadfly writes "The 'placeshifting' technology that allows digitally recorded shows to be watched in several locations is growing increasingly popular. One particular reason for this popularity is because it enables sports fans to view locally blacked-out games over the Internet. The National Hockey League (NHL) has announced that it will actively support placeshifting by signing an agreement with SlingBox-maker Sling Media. The agreement will allow the company's "Clip+Sling" technologyto share both live and recorded NHL programming over the Internet. Significantly, this has happened only days after Major League Baseball (MLB) launched a public denunciation of placeshifting, accusing SlingBox owners of violating the law by sending television content over the Internet and accusing Sling Media itself of violating contracts with cable and satellite TV companies."
I think they're just happy... (Score:4, Insightful)
Plus, given the strike, and the fact that NHL hasn't enjoyed the same American fan-backing other sports have, I'm pretty sure they're just happy someone's watching.
The NHL's better off than you think (Score:2)
Most commentators (particularly sports-radio hosts) associate national TV ratings with the overall health of a sports league, and in
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I do agree that Hartford would probably make the most attractive expansion option [blogspot.com], given the size of the market and the hockey fan base.
So, I can sling a video of an NHL game anywhere... (Score:1, Troll)
Re:So, I can sling a video of an NHL game anywhere (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what? It COMPLETELY SUCKED. You know why? Because ANY IDIOT can see a black object against a bright white surface.
Not to mention, it was completely invasive. Contrast it with the yellow line shown during football games. Out of the way and easily ignored.
Hockey's problem in America isn't that Americans can't see the puck. Americans so the puck just fine during the NHL resurgence back in the 90s. Hockey's problem is that Americans won't return to any sport after a lockout unless the players have salaries greater than the GNP of some small nations (baseball).
Re:So, I can sling a video of an NHL game anywhere (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed, plus, it's pretty damn easy to *infer* where the puck is from the actions of the players onscreen.
Though I gotta say, I got an HDTV a few months ago, and hockey in HD is friggin awesome.
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Having watched hockey since I was 8, this is natural for me. For hockey-n00bs (like my wife), they need to be taught to do this.
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I'm pretty sure that hockey's problem is that it just isn't that popular in America outside of a few small pockets. The lockout was just the nail in the coffin. Hockey had a brief surge of popularity in t
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Re:So, I can sling a video of an NHL game anywhere (Score:1)
Center Ice? (Score:1)
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Personally, I'll stick with my Center Ice pkg and TiVo all the games I want to watch. Or, if it does show up on Xbox Live, use that instead. Sling doesn't appeal to me because you can only watch live programming... no time-delay... just time "shift".
NHL on versus (Score:1, Informative)
http://sportsbiznews.blogspot.com/2007/05/nhl-spor ts-league-that-sports-fans-cant.html [blogspot.com]
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Even worse for hockey fans (Score:2)
If it weren't for my dish, I couldn't have seen the majority of the games during the season since only 2-5 games were on a week. Once the playoffs rolled around, I got to see them all, again, thanks to my dish.
And as far as "ratings" go, do they tally me and the people who come over to watch the games? Nope, I don't have their magic box. Now, why is it that Family Guy was canceled again? Oh yeah, low ratings. So few viewers that it set records when it hit DVD and ca
Re:Even worse for hockey fans (Score:5, Funny)
As a Flyers fan (Score:2)
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1. New Hampshire was the most vulnerable #1 seed (out of four regionals)
2. New Hampshire would lose in the first round (to the #4 seed in their regional)
3. There won't be any upsets in the first round
I know it was just the tournament selection show for college hockey, but the least they could have done was get a couple guys that weren't on crack.
Noone watches anyways (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Noone watches anyways (Score:4, Insightful)
Any fan of hockey will tell you that there's no way teams like Anahiem, LA, San Jose, Nashville, Florida, and several others that I'm probably missing deserve to be in the league.
People in those towns don't care (remember how many Flames fans there were in Tampa Bay for that series?), and people around the league don't care about those towns.
Call me a troll or whatever, but if you're wondering why viewership has gone down in the NHL, the two big reasons are too many crap teams from cities who don't care about hockey, and the instigator rule, which encourages dirty play.
Again, mod me troll for this, I don't care... many (all?) of my hockey friends will tell you the exact same thing.
You're absolutely correct. (Score:5, Informative)
New Jersey can't sell out playoff games, so it's not a uniquely southern issue. If the on-ice product is so boring you have to advertise the competition coming to town, you have a problem.
The biggest problem with those teams is that they were the markets that were easy to expand to. Which meant more teams with the same number of quality players. So the league is diluted and bums are allowed to skate with future legends. Some of those bums attack other players because they aren't all that great at an NHL level without it. Scott Stevens, I'm looking at you.
I love what Don Cherry said during Game 4. People who believe that Americans won't watch hockey because it's too violent are crazy. Americans watch football, and ultimate fighting and Nascar. They don't watch them for incredible skills, they watch for the hits. Unlike football, ultimate fighting and Nascar, hockey has hits AND skill. Anybody who believes differently has probably never put on a pair of ice skates.
One last thing, I have no doubt that one reason that fewer Americans watched was because a Canadian team was in the finals. Everybody I talked to about the games were in two camps. The ones cheering on Anaheim weren't watching the games and just hated Canada. The ones watching each game intently were cheering for Ottawa.
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Everything's got to be huge, on huge primetime TVs and in huge stadiums in huge cities for them. And for some stupid reason they think that a city with a population of 500,000 where 1% care about hockey is a better market than a city with 100
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Re:You're absolutely correct. (Score:4, Informative)
25 Boston
26 New Jersey
27 Washington
28 NY Islanders
29 Chicago
30 St. Louis
Tampa Bay was #3 with an average of 19,876. Hockey just doesn't televise well in standard def, its not because of not being able to see the puck, its because you can't see the play develop and the action off the puck
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Damn straight! When actually at games, I find I am not looking the same place the main camera is (or would be) a good portion of the time. I'm not watching the forward on the breakaway when he's still at the blue line -- I'm watching the goalie. I'm not watching the scrum along the boards, I'm watching the guys setting up camp in fr
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I stand corrected on the attendence numbers. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure my northern bias is in play when I watch the game and yell "Look at all those empty seats! Stupid hockey in the south!"
And I bought my HDTV for hockey. If you can't be at a game to watch the play develop, HD is the next best thing. Standard definition games are fine when the Canadians are running the cameras. They generally pull far enough back that you can see the play develop. But the jackasses at the game in the front few rows kno
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I disagree. First, football has plenty of skill, hence there are players who play "skill positions." The NFL has become more popular as the rules have changed to emphasize offensive skills (eg protect the QB).
The problem IMHO is that hockey has lost much of it's skill. It was popular in the 80's, early 9
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Not to bash the southern teams too badly, but they don't fill the buildings, they don't watch the local broadcasts, etc.
Not to bash you too badly, but you don't know WTF you are talking about. LA and Anaheim have great fans. LA had 91.1% and Anaheim had 95.5%
One last thing, I have no doubt that one reason that fewer Americans watched was because a Canadian team was in the finals. Everybody I talked to about the games were in two camps. The ones cheering on Anaheim weren't watching the games and just hated Canada. The ones watching each game intently were cheering for Ottawa.
Again, WTF.... I watched every game I could. Damn NHL started games while I was at work. And I loved it that the Ducks beat the crap out of that weak arsed Ottawa team. It was like they should not even have been there. The Detroit series was much more compelling.
Lets see, the last three Cup winners are all from southern regions. The last three second place team
Scott Stevens was an embarassment. (Score:2)
Pronger's a bum. And I still think Stevens is worse.
Re:Noone watches anyways (Score:5, Insightful)
They scheduled several Saturday playoff games at 2 in the afternoon, killing CBC's nighttime ratings twice (they lost all their night viewers, and even most Canadian hockey fans would prefer to be out on a warm and sunny afternoon after months of chilly weather). And why 2pm? Because of NBC, probably because they already had Saturday night commitments. In Game 5 of the Eastern finals, the game went into overtime. NBC ended their broadcast after the 3rd period, and so didn't air the goal that eliminated Buffalo and sent the Ottawa Senators to their first Stanley Cup series since they were resurrected as a team in 1992. That's the commitment the NHL gets from NBC.
Don Cherry called it a few nights ago, when he was guest commentator on the NBC broadcast. He lambasted Americans trying to turn NHL hockey into "family" sport. That the fighting made it a less "serious" sport. He rightfully pointed out the hypocrisy in this as parents let their kids watch UFC and take them to WWE matches. He made pointed reference to NASCAR too, though I didn't understand the connection.
Now, I'm not saying fights in hockey are exactly a GOOD thing, nor am I saying UFC and WWE (expecially WWE) are taken seriously either. But it's clear that violence in the latter sells a hell of a lot more than a fast-paced hockey game in the US. The NHL should never have expanded south as much as it did--it drove up player salaries and other costs until communities that actually cared about the game saw their home teams move to where they're not appreciated.
Yes, I'm bitter we lost the Stanley Cup--yet again--to a US team, in another city where a mere kilometre away from the arena passers-by didn't even know the final game of the championship was being played out.
And in relation to this rant, I just realized the absolute irony of my Slashdot ID.
NASCAR (Score:2)
There are no rules against violence in NASCAR: it's just presumed that self-preservation and trying to win the race would discourage
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Vegas and pro hockey. Yeah, there's a winning combination. Apparently a big reason for lack of any pro sports teams [wikipedia.org] is a conflict of interest with sports gambling, obviously allowed in Vegas. The last thing the NHL needs to get itself into is a scandal... OTOH, these days, what better way to make people take an organization seriously...
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If you're coming to Vegas, the Casinos want you gambling. Period. They could give a rats ass about anything else. Everything is geared around getting you in the door. Any pro sports team that comes to Vegas will want a sweetheart arena deal. The biggest money in town is in the Casino business, and they're damn sure not going to build an arena for something that doesn't put gamblers directly into their casinos. Period.
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The Wings made a good run this year, yet even they didn't sell out playoff games, and this is a team that had sold out ever game (regular season AND playoffs) since December of '96. Possible causes? Detroit fans are spoiled, the Wings have the longest playoff streak of any pro team. Fans are tired of seeing them play the same teams over and over again. The Pistons and (especially) the Tigers are also doing well as of late, and tickets for those teams are significantly cheaper
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Second, I live in the Bay Area, the 4th largest media market in the country. The Shark Tank (AKA HP Pavillion, the, I hate to admit it, most brilliant corporate name for a stadium ever) sells out consistently, and though it's not as large as lots of places... There's a bunch of us that l
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You're an idiot. (Score:2)
Have you paid attention to how well these teams you listed are actually doing, or are you just grouping the Sharks in there because it's a California city you've never heard of? San Jose (along with Dallas) has become one of the more successful areas the NHL expanded to in the 1990s, both business and support wise. The city of San Jose along with the rest of the Bay Area has practically embraced the team, especially since they moved to the Sharks Tank 14 years ago, and HP Pavillion is regularly a
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I've been shaking my head a lot about the moderation around here lately... I don't really care for my own karma's sake, but I do really care about the signal to noise ratio.
But I suppose it makes sence, post a topic about hockey, talk about how Americans don't really get h
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And besides the shitty audio, if a game doesn't finish within regulation, NBC's bound to cut to a rerun of Friends or some shit.
The solution to bad ratings (Score:2)
Let's face it, hockey fights rule, and it'
its about damn time... (Score:4, Insightful)
Unlike MLB, which wants you to only watch their content on their terms. Screw that!
TV on Demand (Score:2)
Or, I'd be motivated to buy an AppleTV. I think most iTunes tv content isn't HD yet.
I'm not so sure about buying a Slingbox.
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Preakness (Score:5, Interesting)
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It always reminded me of the cookies [kraftfoods.com]
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I agree that NBC should not have pre-empted the end of a hockey game for the Preakness "pre-game." I disapprove of hours of "pre-game" for a three-minute race.
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Check out Joost (Score:3, Interesting)
It'll be entertaining to see when this takes off (It's not a matter of if, the beta is that good.) how loud the networks start screaming when these guys not only eat their lunch, but drink all their beer too.
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This just goes to show ... (Score:2)
NHL likely to follow new tech (Score:2, Interesting)
Not a bad move (Score:5, Insightful)
FYI NBC does not pay the NHL for rights to broadcast games nationally. Even if hockey draws poorly, it's essentially free to the network. NBC is well aware of how Hockey draws in the US, but knows that they will always make money on any game they show. Some of their Saturday games this year did outdraw the competing NBA games.
As for the deal with slingbox, it's not really desperation. The NHL just landed a fat deal to stay on CBC in Canada (THANK GOD) that dwarfs any of the money Poker and UFC are getting. This on top of the waaaaaaaaay overpriced deal that Comcast (owners of Versus) coughed up in an attempt to legitimize their network (and to give a middle finger to ESPN). Being the red headed stepchild of pro-sports gives Hockey a chance to reach out. Hockey needs to keep it's ratings where they are. They can't afford to alienate even a small percentage of their remaining fan base and if they can find an edge, any edge, to pull an extra 50 or 100k pairs of eyes, they'll do it. Maybe enough folks will latch on to the idea to make the big sports change their tune.
Canada vs. US TV ratings (Score:3, Informative)
Great Move By the Struggling NHL (Score:2, Informative)
I have a HD-DVR cable box, so i can control my dvr and cable box all from my slingbox. Being on the road 4 out of 5 days a week, slingbox has been a lifesaver. And being a fan of the NHL, i can actually enjoy my center ice package using the slingbox.
NHL players have also embraced this technology. The NJ Devils were given Slingboxes as a Christmas present. I
They did themselves in (Score:2, Informative)
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Hockey world in a nutshell (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Garry Bettman is evil and only panders to US needs.
3. Winnipeg and Quebec deserve their teams back.
4. Don Cherry is fair and balanced in his views especially when it comes to european players.
5. If your team loses there must be something wrong with the referees (universal)
6. If you're seeing a blackhawks homegame on tv in Chicago you're on drugs.
7. If the other stanley cup finalist has an european captain they will lose.
8. If you don't speak french and play for the Canadiens you're shit out of luck when it comes to the media. Mon dieu.
9. Russians stop playing after they get a big contract.
10. Pronger debunks newtonian physics and comes up with his own. Don Cherry praises him for it since he's a good canadian boy with a heart of gold.
There's probably even more which I forgot as usual but in general when hockey fans start arguing about the sports logic is the 1st casualty and truth the 2nd but it's like that with most sports. Slingbox deal is a step in the right direction but what I'd really like them to come up with is a streaming service where one could just watch the games you want for a modest fee but I really doubt this will happen anytime soon.
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That's, in part, why I wanted to see Detroit play Ottawa in the Finals this year. Two teams with Euro!Captains, how could they both lose?
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7a. If the year ends in a 7, either Detroit or a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately the Ducks ruined that streak
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I'm hoping the NFL accepts this tech. It'd be nice to get around local TV blackouts without having to rig ticket sales.
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Re:Um yeah....about that (Score:5, Insightful)
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Agreed. The Cardinals get way too much coverage here. As if it weren't already hard times for Blues fans. Sheesh!
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Q: Why do Canadians do it doggie-style?
A: So they can both watch Hockey Night in Canada [wikipedia.org].
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What local TV blackouts?
We haven't had one here in WI.
Maybe it's something to do with there being a waitlist for season tickets of 57000+ people. (An average of 30+ years waiting for tickets)
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Being a Vikings fan, I will add this: Yes, it's because you're in Wisconsin.
The only fanbase I've ever seen that was as similarly blindly and rabidly supportive of their football team are the Bronco fans. The Bronco fans are more annoying, though, because at least the Packer fans can stand the cold :P
That's funny. (Score:2)
But, doesn't your team play in a dome? Kind of easy to pick on a team's fans that "don't like the cold" when you get a heated balloon to watch the game inside.
Nonetheless, I do agree, my fellow Broncos fans are kind of silly.
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Ok, gotcha. (Score:2)
Not that going to a Vikings game at 30 below doesn't suck. But inside, it's nice.
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Obviously you've never been to a Raiders game. At least the Bronco fans have a good team to blindly root for.
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Or to put it another way: I've seen local games on TV that had a lot of empty seats in the stands.
XFL NHL (Score:1)
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Game 3 equals NBC's lowest rating ever for prime-time program
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2007/news/s
The NHL is on life support.
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Seriously though, hockey is a great exhilerating sport to watch live. You don't even have to know anything about it. It's a ballet of finely controlled aggression. It's John Woo on ice with sticks instead of guns. On tv, you have to know the game. The puck is so small and fast, the reactions are lighting quick the game is extremely hard to produce, and the experience of watching the game changes. You the viewer have to infer the possibilities of what you can't
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I don't know how live viewership is doing in other states really, but if in MN the NHL is in no way on life-support for live viewership. Of course, that may just be good news for the XCEL center, not the NHL. Come to think of it I wonder what the NHL's reven
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I agree. When people have asked, I've always described hockey equivalently to something like pizza - even if it's not the greatest in the world, it's still better than no pizza!
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And you're right; it's a personal preference thing. I prefer to watch it at home, after it has been PVRed, if only because then I can do all the fast forwarding through commercials and rewinding that I could ever want. A lot of times, the first time I witness something in a super fast paced game like hockey, I'm screaming "HOLY SHIT, HE JUST FOULED HIM WTF, WTF RE
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You'd need a padlock to make an Englishman watch an entire baseball game, ditto for an American trying to watch cricket.
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