The future of NHL broadcasting

[RichMan]

So Amazon just bought the rights from Rogers. 

Will this affect HNC? Will games only be on demand or through Prime?

It's bad enough that I don't get to watch the games in my native French tongue thanks to private sports channels. I hope HNC will still be a thing.

[insertnamehere]

I want cameras on the officials helmets that enable a live VR experience. 

[creasecollector]

I beleive it's only for Monday night games, so HNC should live on.

[keeperton]

I just want to be able to buy a streaming package to watch whatever games I want that's also reasonably priced.

I do this with WHL games just fine, but there's not too many cooks in that kitchen trying to nickel-and-dime every single individual like with major professional sports.

[MTH]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:54 PM, keeperton said:

I just want to be able to buy a streaming package to watch whatever games I want that's also reasonably priced.

I do this with WHL games just fine, but there's not too many cooks in that kitchen trying to nickel-and-dime every single individual like with major professional sports.

The past few years I have lost interest in pro sports for the most part. It's odd - I like them. I loved being into all of them. But it's not interesting to me anymore. I often wonder why? What's wrong? Why can't I get back into them again? I miss it.

You're line about too many cooks trying to nickel and dime is likely it. Games are so expensive, then full of ads, fan gear is off the wall expensive too. Watching a game is worse than nascar now. Ads moving around the ice and walls. Ads in the corner of the screen. Kill me.

Even the broadcasts are so Truman Show now. Announcers are phony voiced soul less robots that all sound the same. The false importance of every game is just white noise to me. Some games are simply ass and have no value. Yet they act like they're some type of big game all the time. Then the big games don't stand out like they should.

What channel is pro darts on? I'm going to get into that. 

[coopaloop1234]

36 minutes ago, MTH said:

The past few years I have lost interest in pro sports for the most part. It's odd - I like them. I loved being into all of them. But it's not interesting to me anymore. I often wonder why? What's wrong? Why can't I get back into them again? I miss it.

You're line about too many cooks trying to nickel and dime is likely it. Games are so expensive, then full of ads, fan gear is off the wall expensive too. Watching a game is worse than nascar now. Ads moving around the ice and walls. Ads in the corner of the screen. Kill me.

Even the broadcasts are so Truman Show now. Announcers are phony voiced soul less robots that all sound the same. The false importance of every game is just white noise to me. Some games are simply ass and have no value. Yet they act like they're some type of big game all the time. Then the big games don't stand out like they should.

What channel is pro darts on? I'm going to get into that. 

Once Sportsnet took over from CBC is about in line to when I stopped truly watching the NHL. For most of the reasons above. 

Plus they fired Old man Cherry due to some vocal twitter losers. 

The appeasement to the advertising gods is the true catalyst to the issues that plague broadcasting sports. 

[DL42]

nhl should give the exisiting networks NON exclusive rights and sell the full season streaming inclding playoffs on its websites or streaming like netflix espn+ and what not with unlimited playbacks, (know on espn+ on recent game playbacks and popular old games)

 

[keeperton]

4 hours ago, MTH said:

The past few years I have lost interest in pro sports for the most part. It's odd - I like them. I loved being into all of them. But it's not interesting to me anymore. I often wonder why? What's wrong? Why can't I get back into them again? I miss it.

You're line about too many cooks trying to nickel and dime is likely it. Games are so expensive, then full of ads, fan gear is off the wall expensive too. Watching a game is worse than nascar now. Ads moving around the ice and walls. Ads in the corner of the screen. Kill me.

Even the broadcasts are so Truman Show now. Announcers are phony voiced soul less robots that all sound the same. The false importance of every game is just white noise to me. Some games are simply ass and have no value. Yet they act like they're some type of big game all the time. Then the big games don't stand out like they should.

What channel is pro darts on? I'm going to get into that. 

Some teams, when I watch their bootlegged broadcasts, have rather good broadcasting teams that are only on their local broadcast that is never nationally televised.

I can't help but constantly think, "oh FUCK OFF" every time there's an advertisement for a betting phone application or any of the analysts/personalities talk about the odds during the game. Talk about cool statlines, cool stories, anything else. I watch a lot of esports stuff too, which is also ripe with betting sponsorships, and enjoy the broadcasts that's mostly just two people hanging out that are passionate about the game and also being realistic about it ("oh yeah, it's been over for about 15 minutes but they're really making the other team/player work for it").

I never thought I'd yearn for a bunch of beer ads to come back, but here we are.

3 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Plus they fired Old man Cherry due to some vocal twitter losers. 

The appeasement to the advertising gods is the true catalyst to the issues that plague broadcasting sports. 

Pretty sure it's more complicated than that. What value was he adding at that point in his career anymore? Did you really need an octogenarian talking about team x needed a couple of good Ontarian farm boys on their roster or that a game needed more scraps in it? I loathe the machismo of hockey at times, it's weird, dude.

I've been pretty "terminally online" for quite a few years. Enough to see tons of services become a thing, be loved, then experience their enshittification because "it has to make money somehow." Almost always it's advertisements, then advertisers start cracking down on what material they're willing to have their names attached to, then the service starts cracking down on more-and-more. Meanwhile trying to use Youtube on my phone (sans adblock services) is miserable and some of the ads are baffling/disgusting (like seeing those videos of people popping giant pimples, but as an ad. What the hell?). It's like watching television in its dying gasps, like trying to go on a newspaper's website to read news; they're miserable experiences as a user/consumer.

[coopaloop1234]

16 minutes ago, keeperton said:

I can't help but constantly think, "oh FUCK OFF" every time there's an advertisement for a betting phone application or any of the analysts/personalities talk about the odds during the game. Talk about cool statlines, cool stories, anything else.

The increase of betting ads everywhere is awful. It's become so front and center that it's completely over taken any conversation. 

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I never thought I'd yearn for a bunch of beer ads to come back, but here we are.

At least beer is healthy for you. Unlike gambling. 

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Pretty sure it's more complicated than that. What value was he adding at that point in his career anymore? Did you really need an octogenarian talking about team x needed a couple of good Ontarian farm boys on their roster or that a game needed more scraps in it? 

Yes and no. You're not incorrect, but at the same time it was such a mainstay forever and unceremoniously axing the guy because of some backlash online was such a piss poor way to go about it. Especially since he was correct. (I'll die on this hill lol). 

Sportsnet firing Cherry was 100% to do with appeasement to curating a program that is advertisement friendly in order to boost revenue. Which coincides with me not watching most programs anymore. Was it the final straw? Nah. But it sure was a symptom of why I had been moving away anyways. 

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I loathe the machismo of hockey at times, it's weird, dud

Different strokes. I enjoy the more hard nosed aspect of the sport and it's something a truly miss from today's game. A big reason why I like watching Major Junior is because the kids are generally more aggressive over the adult pros. 

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 It's like watching television in its dying gasps, like trying to go on a newspaper's website to read news; they're miserable experiences as a user/consumer.

You share the same disdain to the new internet as I do. I'm sure there's a reason people like us still flock to more traditional message boards like these instead of trying to have proper discussions on reddit/twitter/facebook/instagram. 

Oh well. Time for me to go yell at some clouds about the passage of time. 

[keeperton]

4 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Different strokes. I enjoy the more hard nosed aspect of the sport and it's something a truly miss from today's game. A big reason why I like watching Major Junior is because the kids are generally more aggressive over the adult pros. 

I'm never going to be a fan of watching teenagers experience a bunch of head trauma.

[Puckstopper]

On 11/15/2024 at 11:15 PM, keeperton said:

I'm never going to be a fan of watching teenagers experience a bunch of head trauma.

Yeah, but you can have big hits without targeting the head the way it happened in years past.   Your argument is reductive, in that it implies it isn't possible to keep hitting in the game and reduce head injuries.   In my experience, trying to eliminate hitting entirely still doesn't eliminate big collisions in a fast moving sport like hockey.   To the contrary, it means that people aren't prepared when they do occur, and aren't protecting themselves.   

I used to ref games, and many of the worst outcomes I saw were in low level beer league where a couple players were moving at a speed beyond what they could control and came together.   There was (usually) no intent, just trying to win a race or make a play and  not paying attention to their surroundings.   As you moved up levels, players who'd played organized hockey in their teenage years had better awareness, knew to look around, and understood better how to brace themselves and absorb impact.  

[keeperton]

6 hours ago, Puckstopper said:

Yeah, but you can have big hits without targeting the head the way it happened in years past.   Your argument is reductive, in that it implies it isn't possible to keep hitting in the game and reduce head injuries.   In my experience, trying to eliminate hitting entirely still doesn't eliminate big collisions in a fast moving sport like hockey.   To the contrary, it means that people aren't prepared when they do occur, and aren't protecting themselves.   

I used to ref games, and many of the worst outcomes I saw were in low level beer league where a couple players were moving at a speed beyond what they could control and came together.   There was (usually) no intent, just trying to win a race or make a play and  not paying attention to their surroundings.   As you moved up levels, players who'd played organized hockey in their teenage years had better awareness, knew to look around, and understood better how to brace themselves and absorb impact.  

My statement didn't have enough context/information: I've been to a lot of WHL games. There was, and still are, a lot of fights in Major Junior (anecdotally, I haven't seen hard data and I don't know how easily I could scrape that and put it together, but I'd guess it's a lot more than the NHL). It's how I understand minor-pro hockey to be (from what I've read about the AHL and ECHL, it's much the same).

[Scythe]

Hopefully they’ll never get Netflix involved. Netsux rather. 

[coopaloop1234]

On 11/15/2024 at 8:15 PM, keeperton said:

I'm never going to be a fan of watching teenagers experience a bunch of head trauma.

I don't think anyone stable does, I was mostly just referring to how the kids usually play a harder game through body checking over just fights. 

NHL bores the crap out of me during the regular season as they're mostly going through the motions. It's such a stale product to watch until playoffs. 

[keeperton]

17 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

I don't think anyone stable does, I was mostly just referring to how the kids usually play a harder game through body checking over just fights. 

NHL bores the crap out of me during the regular season as they're mostly going through the motions. It's such a stale product to watch until playoffs. 

I can agree that I like more grit in the game, especially in my beer league games. Hard-but-clean play is a lot of fun.

[Fullright]

It's all gone to hell in Chicago. No Blackhawks since Comcast dropped the local sportsnet channel. To get them, you have to put an antenna on the smart tv and even then it might not work. Also, the rinky dink company that picked up the Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks just released an app. $20 bucks a month for one team, $30 bucks a month for all 3 teams. So now even worse than the Dollar Bill Wirtz days when he blacked out home games in that now no games at all.

So stuck with NHL Network when they have a game or TNT on Wednesday nights where the best part of the show is whether Bissonnette is going to ham it up. 

[MTH]

Pro air guitar was on ESPN the other day.

[CPage]

15 hours ago, MTH said:

Pro air guitar was on ESPN the other day.

Next stop: 2028 Olympic Games!

[RichMan]

I'm a Prime subscriber and STILL, I gotta pay more to watch a game off Sportnet or TSN?! Come on!

The only free stuff on Prime is this weak round table talk that has no structure and when they break to game clips it's all over and zero commentary and sometimes they flip between games like someone bored got a hold of the remote.

Total junk!