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The NHL gets some baseball (MLBAM x NHL)

4K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  NeilN 
#1 · (Edited)
I brought this up a bit in the NHL Network thread, but now it's confirmed. The NHL's digital properties (including, maybe, Rogers NHL GameCentre Live) are going to be taken over by MLB Advanced Media (which, surprisingly, has done some excellent work for itself, and others, boasting such clients as ESPN and HBO for their streaming operations) under a six-year deal.

Among other things:
  • They will take over all of the NHL's digital properties, including NHL.com, the apps, all team websites, and GameCenter Live.
  • They will distribute GameCenter Live in the U.S. and "certain international markets" (Rogers will still distribute it in Canada for all I know)
  • NHL Network will move its U.S. operations to the facilities of MLB Network, presumably to replace the TSN-based operation that has been dismantled.

I do not know how things will be affected in Canada (Rogers will still probably demand its own login links in the corner). The existing GameCenter Live uses NeuLion technology, but MLBAM's been hitting home runs (pun intended) in the streaming business (they run WatchESPN, HBO Now, and obviously MLB.tv) and statistics.

It's $600 million over six years, and the NHL will also have an equity stake in a spin-off of MLBAM.
 
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#2 ·
It sort of matchers what I was told by a Rogers person. i.e. Rogers received more complaints than kudos last year about their GameCenter Live offerings and were looking for a way out. He suggested to me that there might not be a Rogers Login proc. this coming season and that marketing of the product might revert back to the States as would support (i.e Don't call us, call the NHL support line). That would suit me fine. Rogers this past season was not as reliable for streaming of the games as the NHL itself had been in the previous season and I felt that the scores pages, stats. were not kept as up to date during the games as before. One last bonus. It might mean that my Sony Bluray NHL GCL app might start to work again. I guess we'll have to wait till September to see how it all shakes out.
 
#7 ·
Personally, I could see the GamePlus stuff added to the U.S. version with this (thenagain, they'd also have to find some vertically integrated telecommunications firm to make it exclusive to; "exclusively for Xfinity Internet or TV subscribers!"). At the very least, they could migrate them to the new infrastructure and make some big deal about "Rogers NHL GameCentre Live 2.0" or something.
 
#9 ·
NHL, Major League Baseball Advanced Media unveil details for redesigned platforms | NHL.com - News

MLBAM and the NHL have unveiled that the new NHL.com, and the new GameCenter Live, which will be known as NHL.tv (in line with MLB.tv; will it be Rogers NHL.tv? That would be less of a mouthful) will launch to co-incide with the All-Star Game. The notice at the top also says there will be a new ToS and Privacy Policy as of the 28th, so I guess that's when it's going online?

NHL.tv will have 60fps streaming, apparently, and will probably use the MLB.tv infrastructure. And the NHL website is finally going to look like something out of this decade for once too.
 
#10 ·
That release says nothing about Canada/Rogers. I'll bet that nothing changes here until next season. That in itself isn't a bad thing. Let the Yanks work out the initial bugs (inevitable) before porting it over to the real hockey fans.

About 60 fps. Wouldn't that require more bandwidth/faster speeds? I'm stuck in a slow speed part of the country so that could affect me if it is out of my control.
 
#20 ·
revamped NHL.com is horrendous

I was expecting to be disappointed by the NHL website refresh and indeed I was.

I'm sure it's great if you are on a phone but us dinosaurs with widescreen hd monitors and mice have just suffered a real setback in usability. The old website was way more powerful. I have had it with these lame phone-only designs.
 
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