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.
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.
Disappointing but if it does mean better technical service with fewer service issues I'll be (somewhat) happy. Thank you boardghost for the update. I rarely waste time reading the shills at sites like TSN, Sportsnet, CBC Sports etc.
If the Canadian side of GameCentre Live isn't changing, I'll be looking at using a VPN to signup to the US or an international version (especially with the team-based option coming in outside Canada) or just going with HockeyStreams.com.
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.
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.
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.
@Viper550: My concern exactly. I want to be able to adjust the quality if it turns out there is a problem. Too many of the "GO" apps assume everyone has the highest speed internet service and don't let the user adjust the quality level. It makes the use of streaming for me very difficult.
I'd be surprised if they don't, there are a ton of Americans without very high speed Internet. One of the upsides of working with MLBAM is that they've already had to solve these problems.
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.
Anyone know if that talked about 2.99 NHL Premium Package is going to be available in Canada, Rogers GCL site doesn't have it listed from what I can see.
$%^&^%$#!!! GCL on the new NHL.com does not work! GCL on app (iOS and Android alike) does not cast with Chromecast! On portable device, no timeslide so viewer can not rewind. As always, Rogers takes something that is working and then fvcks it to the ground.
Was anyone actually able to watch a game tonight on their mobile device?
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