Get the advanced pack for online only streaming of games and blackouts that make no sense!
PapaGuhl
It amazes me sports that reduce their own viewership numbers for short and medium-term profits, but in doing so, destroy long term and future fans access to the sport.
NHL, don’t go the same way as F1 did.
AdamGott
I guess you have it already but I think gambling ads are going to ruin sports broadcasting!
mb25sf
If you only stream, you may have given up trying to find and watch games. It’s musical chairs nightly. Then you think you’ve got it figured out and your game is on NHL network which doesn’t offer direct streaming (need FUBO, etc). It’s become so expensive and insulting.
So they’ve priced us out of live games and made streaming/watching not only expensive, but impossible to figure out.
Survive1014
The moving sideboard ads are freaking obnoxious.
The blackouts are a serious issue which are gonna have to be dealt with very quickly at the current pace of cord-cutting.
And if I have to hear Leah Hextal one more time I am gonna lose it. lol
poiuytrrewwasdg
I cannot believe how hard it is for me to watch Sabres games locally even though I live 90 minutes from the arena. If I don’t have cable or satellite I’m shit out of luck for anything but local games. YouTube TV? Shit out of luck. Sling? Shit out of luck. It’s absurd.
CrazedHedgeHog
Perfecto🤌🤌🤌
TheJuda2112
I don’t feel bad for the NHL, they absolutely hate their fans and hate making the game any more accessible to new fans. Gary you made this bed, sleep in it you old miser
CrazedHedgeHog
Honestly if there was a reliable way to watch all the games I wanted to I’d pay a subscription for it. I think 80% of the games I’ve watched were free sites on the internet with hentai ads thrown in my face every 5 seconds
silenced_soul
I love hockey but I’ve completely checked out and stopped watching all together. Blackouts are the main reason, absolute bullshit. Fuck you NHL.
jkman61494
Who the hell would want to watch a broadcast 48 hours later? This isn’t the 1980s anymore. When I was a kid my grandmother would mail my dad a VHS tape of the Bears game because we could not see them living in New Jersey. So we had to wait about three days.
This was in the 1980s open till 1994 when DIRECTV came out. And the NHL wants us to live like it was 30 years ago?
Gtfo.
interactivemark
Oftentimes when companies grow successful under the leadership of a long serving CEO they start to stagnate. The problem isn’t the CEO per se, it’s just that a fresh perspective and new strategies are required to get past the old way of thinking and reignite growth. I feel that’s where the NHL is today with Bettman. I have no love lost for that guy but the league has grown under his guidance. Except now he’s trying to sustain growth by fussing at the margins. Fracturing broadcast rights to try and maximize fees rather than a coherent TV/streaming strategy. Doubling down on intrusive advertisements (animated board ads, jersey logos, gambling) rather than finding new revenue streams. The owners should force him to retire and find new blood that understands modern sports consumption and marketing. Hockey just being a great game isn’t enough with so much competition for people’s attention.
Onitiger2020
It’s annoying to watch the sport you love with all these gambling ads and commercials. Feel bad for the people that have addictions.
youkmowwhatyouarefor
And this people is why the WHA was launched. Cheap ass owners that fucked the players and the fans in the ass. I’m not saying that would happen again but I had a relative who was drafted and played in both the NHL and WHA and he said the WHA paid much better and it was all about the fans. They would meet the fans after each game and sign autographs and try to build the league. 4 teams eventually merged with the NHL but what a concept. Fan access to the athletes and athletes having to know they have to build the team and league up
abassassasssin
Nothing makes me more annoyed than when i have to watch a national broadcast instead of getting to hear from ken and mickey to the play by play
Dirty_eel
I can’t wait to open espn+ and watch teams that aren’t even in my division
Uffda01
Considering piracy doesn’t count in viewership – they have no idea how many people are actually watching.
Pirating sucks; but otherwise I couldn’t watch at all.
fgiraffe
Who needs fans and viewers? We have gambling ad dollars!!!!
ScoPham
Espn really should j give all of it to TNT or have it transferred to fox
Uffda01
The digital ads don’t bother me so much; although it does add a layer of sterilization for me taking out some of the uniqueness of each arena.
I just want to be able to turn on the TV and turn on a game.
Having to reload my pirate stream every 5 min or so because my xbox web page crashes sucks, but I’m not going to pay cable prices to avoid that.
YOURE_GONNA_HATE_ME
How about shitty scheduling too. This past Sunday, 2 games both starting at 5PM. I would have watched both if, you know, they were on at different times.
Pale_Doctor7209
Don’t forget the invisible boards, puck trackers and player name trackers!
layherdown
Bettman’s Corporate Whore League.
ShankillButcher77
The ads on the boards suck, but they seem to less annoying than early on. The broadcast crews are awful. I can’t stand the spitting chiclets guys and it seems to be the way they are trying to sell the game. Not for me. The product on the ice has been entertaining and that’s what I care about. Having Hulu and being out of market of my home team seems to work well for seeing nearly all the games.
TheYepe
Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions
KeyConscious9220
Blackouts and broadcasts being trash are the main issue
OlTommyBombadil
I’ll pirate until I feel like the NHL is catering to fans. Right now they’re catering towards advertisers. The fans are an afterthought.
Restricting content while not marketing the sport.. great plan. Making the focus of the broadcast be advertisements instead of the game.. great plan.
No coincidence that I’m more excited for the NBA than the NHL for the first time in my life. I’ve been a hockey fanatic my whole life and this is the first time I’ve wavered. Get your shit together Gary.
HymanisMyMan
I’m happy with my iptv service. Every game, multiple broadcasts, all organized in an nhl section for me. They never lag and buffer like sportsnet now, and the customer service is better. Why a corporation can’t figure it out is beyond me.
skruiss
Ads moving on the boards.
Blackouts is #1.
wjpd236
Jack Edwards yelling about obesity and muffins
CIA_official_
nah dawg they got broadcaster rosters???
CyiasX1
They’ve done that blackout garbage in the US for at least 12 years. Yes the flyers suck but I live in upstate NY and its hard to get games up here when they dont suck let alone now. Compound that with issues in Canada, those hideous ads on jerseys, the digi boards and these terrible bias announcers, its just too much. I love watching this sport, I really do and I have been a fan since 99, however Im done buying the NHL package, and if they dont stop screwing up these tv deals well, I’ll be done with the sport. At least theres the NFL 🤷♂️
GokuSharp
Being a recovering addict for drinking or gambling would make it impossible to watch I’d imagine. Can’t we have commercials for like…skates and shit? Blackouts are absolutely brutal though.
Roadblox
You sir have hit the nail on the head!
ArchRift
I feel like while most of these individually are non issues combined they add up and then u add the real big issues which is the blackouts you end up with a huge decrease in viewership.
Charlie298
Gary Bettman: “I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t see that.”
HotHits630
Leafsnet is the worst thing to happen to hockey in Canada. Don’t even get me started on the gambling shit and virtual arena ads.
Grizz709
So, last year I paid for « NHL.TV ». I live in Saskatchewan. If I wanted to watch the Jets, I was blacked out. If I wanted to watch the Oilers, I was blacked out. If I wanted to watch the Flames, I was blacked out.
SK doesn’t have a fucking NHL team, so why am I blacked out of 3 teams?! I « actually » know why, but there’s not fucking reason it should be this way.
I pay for Sportsnet, and I’m STILL blacked out from the Jets games.
Fucking clown shoes. I agree with all the reasons above, but without a doubt, the blackouts are the worst. But, even paying for Sportsnet, it’s WORSE. THEY DON’T GIVE YOU THE OPTION FOR WHICH FEED YOU WANT TO WATCH. Holy shit! Like they removed features and gave us LESS OPTIONS.
Does it make any wonder people aren’t paying for it? You can get a superior product for free! I won’t being paying for it next year, I’ll tell ya, unless they can figure this shit out.
JerseyDevilGMen
It’s a shame because the skill level has never been greater and scoring is up.
39 Comments
Get the advanced pack for online only streaming of games and blackouts that make no sense!
It amazes me sports that reduce their own viewership numbers for short and medium-term profits, but in doing so, destroy long term and future fans access to the sport.
NHL, don’t go the same way as F1 did.
I guess you have it already but I think gambling ads are going to ruin sports broadcasting!
If you only stream, you may have given up trying to find and watch games. It’s musical chairs nightly. Then you think you’ve got it figured out and your game is on NHL network which doesn’t offer direct streaming (need FUBO, etc). It’s become so expensive and insulting.
So they’ve priced us out of live games and made streaming/watching not only expensive, but impossible to figure out.
The moving sideboard ads are freaking obnoxious.
The blackouts are a serious issue which are gonna have to be dealt with very quickly at the current pace of cord-cutting.
And if I have to hear Leah Hextal one more time I am gonna lose it. lol
I cannot believe how hard it is for me to watch Sabres games locally even though I live 90 minutes from the arena. If I don’t have cable or satellite I’m shit out of luck for anything but local games. YouTube TV? Shit out of luck. Sling? Shit out of luck. It’s absurd.
Perfecto🤌🤌🤌
I don’t feel bad for the NHL, they absolutely hate their fans and hate making the game any more accessible to new fans. Gary you made this bed, sleep in it you old miser
Honestly if there was a reliable way to watch all the games I wanted to I’d pay a subscription for it. I think 80% of the games I’ve watched were free sites on the internet with hentai ads thrown in my face every 5 seconds
I love hockey but I’ve completely checked out and stopped watching all together. Blackouts are the main reason, absolute bullshit. Fuck you NHL.
Who the hell would want to watch a broadcast 48 hours later? This isn’t the 1980s anymore. When I was a kid my grandmother would mail my dad a VHS tape of the Bears game because we could not see them living in New Jersey. So we had to wait about three days.
This was in the 1980s open till 1994 when DIRECTV came out. And the NHL wants us to live like it was 30 years ago?
Gtfo.
Oftentimes when companies grow successful under the leadership of a long serving CEO they start to stagnate. The problem isn’t the CEO per se, it’s just that a fresh perspective and new strategies are required to get past the old way of thinking and reignite growth. I feel that’s where the NHL is today with Bettman. I have no love lost for that guy but the league has grown under his guidance. Except now he’s trying to sustain growth by fussing at the margins. Fracturing broadcast rights to try and maximize fees rather than a coherent TV/streaming strategy. Doubling down on intrusive advertisements (animated board ads, jersey logos, gambling) rather than finding new revenue streams. The owners should force him to retire and find new blood that understands modern sports consumption and marketing. Hockey just being a great game isn’t enough with so much competition for people’s attention.
It’s annoying to watch the sport you love with all these gambling ads and commercials. Feel bad for the people that have addictions.
And this people is why the WHA was launched. Cheap ass owners that fucked the players and the fans in the ass. I’m not saying that would happen again but I had a relative who was drafted and played in both the NHL and WHA and he said the WHA paid much better and it was all about the fans. They would meet the fans after each game and sign autographs and try to build the league. 4 teams eventually merged with the NHL but what a concept. Fan access to the athletes and athletes having to know they have to build the team and league up
Nothing makes me more annoyed than when i have to watch a national broadcast instead of getting to hear from ken and mickey to the play by play
I can’t wait to open espn+ and watch teams that aren’t even in my division
Considering piracy doesn’t count in viewership – they have no idea how many people are actually watching.
Pirating sucks; but otherwise I couldn’t watch at all.
Who needs fans and viewers? We have gambling ad dollars!!!!
Espn really should j give all of it to TNT or have it transferred to fox
The digital ads don’t bother me so much; although it does add a layer of sterilization for me taking out some of the uniqueness of each arena.
I just want to be able to turn on the TV and turn on a game.
Having to reload my pirate stream every 5 min or so because my xbox web page crashes sucks, but I’m not going to pay cable prices to avoid that.
How about shitty scheduling too. This past Sunday, 2 games both starting at 5PM. I would have watched both if, you know, they were on at different times.
Don’t forget the invisible boards, puck trackers and player name trackers!
Bettman’s Corporate Whore League.
The ads on the boards suck, but they seem to less annoying than early on. The broadcast crews are awful. I can’t stand the spitting chiclets guys and it seems to be the way they are trying to sell the game. Not for me. The product on the ice has been entertaining and that’s what I care about. Having Hulu and being out of market of my home team seems to work well for seeing nearly all the games.
Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions
Blackouts and broadcasts being trash are the main issue
I’ll pirate until I feel like the NHL is catering to fans. Right now they’re catering towards advertisers. The fans are an afterthought.
Restricting content while not marketing the sport.. great plan. Making the focus of the broadcast be advertisements instead of the game.. great plan.
No coincidence that I’m more excited for the NBA than the NHL for the first time in my life. I’ve been a hockey fanatic my whole life and this is the first time I’ve wavered. Get your shit together Gary.
I’m happy with my iptv service. Every game, multiple broadcasts, all organized in an nhl section for me. They never lag and buffer like sportsnet now, and the customer service is better. Why a corporation can’t figure it out is beyond me.
Ads moving on the boards.
Blackouts is #1.
Jack Edwards yelling about obesity and muffins
nah dawg they got broadcaster rosters???
They’ve done that blackout garbage in the US for at least 12 years. Yes the flyers suck but I live in upstate NY and its hard to get games up here when they dont suck let alone now. Compound that with issues in Canada, those hideous ads on jerseys, the digi boards and these terrible bias announcers, its just too much. I love watching this sport, I really do and I have been a fan since 99, however Im done buying the NHL package, and if they dont stop screwing up these tv deals well, I’ll be done with the sport. At least theres the NFL 🤷♂️
Being a recovering addict for drinking or gambling would make it impossible to watch I’d imagine. Can’t we have commercials for like…skates and shit? Blackouts are absolutely brutal though.
You sir have hit the nail on the head!
I feel like while most of these individually are non issues combined they add up and then u add the real big issues which is the blackouts you end up with a huge decrease in viewership.
Gary Bettman: “I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t see that.”
Leafsnet is the worst thing to happen to hockey in Canada. Don’t even get me started on the gambling shit and virtual arena ads.
So, last year I paid for « NHL.TV ». I live in Saskatchewan. If I wanted to watch the Jets, I was blacked out. If I wanted to watch the Oilers, I was blacked out. If I wanted to watch the Flames, I was blacked out.
SK doesn’t have a fucking NHL team, so why am I blacked out of 3 teams?! I « actually » know why, but there’s not fucking reason it should be this way.
I pay for Sportsnet, and I’m STILL blacked out from the Jets games.
Fucking clown shoes. I agree with all the reasons above, but without a doubt, the blackouts are the worst. But, even paying for Sportsnet, it’s WORSE. THEY DON’T GIVE YOU THE OPTION FOR WHICH FEED YOU WANT TO WATCH. Holy shit! Like they removed features and gave us LESS OPTIONS.
Does it make any wonder people aren’t paying for it? You can get a superior product for free! I won’t being paying for it next year, I’ll tell ya, unless they can figure this shit out.
It’s a shame because the skill level has never been greater and scoring is up.