DetDannyWilliams
08-09-2015, 01:10 PM
NHL fans should be thrilled by the news in recent days that the league is partnering with MLB Advanced Media. Baseball is the leader in streaming and in Web products among the major sports. Hockey’s Web offerings are pedestrian at best. The MLB Network is a blueprint of how to keep your sport on the minds of your fans for 365 days a year, a far cry from the embarrassingly low level of production and programming of the NHL Network.
Think of how you consume baseball. Just like hockey, you have your national television packages and your regional networks. And many of us have the Extra Innings package on cable or satellite (Memo to Rob Manfred: You still need to fix the absurd and archaic blackout rules).
I would like to see the NHL include mobile streaming as part of its Center Ice package, just like MLB does with Extra Innings. You no longer pay extra to get games on mobile devices in baseball; the NHL has not included its often-clunky GameCenter Live when you subscribe to the TV package.
But go mobile now: MLB.TV is just flat-out super on your laptop or iPad. Full HD. Both teams’ broadcasts. Integration of box scores. Highlights from earlier innings. Same for the MLB At Bat app on your iPhone. You can see all the key plays of any game shortly after they happen.
In hockey, the NHL app is lifeless at times. Highlights on team websites too often lag during games. And a 15-second clip often runs after a 30-second ad. It’s frustrating beyond belief. You can’t follow a game on GameCenter Live and social media at the same time because the video lags well behind real-time.
The deal will have MLB taking over NHL.com and all the teams’ individual websites. It will have MLB running the NHL Network and the possibilities there are endless. “Quick Pitch” and “MLB Tonight” are must-see shows every day on MLB Network. On the hockey side, “NHL Live,” “NHL on the Fly” and “NHL Tonight” are shows you have to see but the production levels are outright amateurish and not close to the level of the solid on-air talent the NHL Network has.
And the NHL Network basically goes dark for the summer after free agency ends. Just reruns of old games with no live programming whatsoever. In 2015, that’s simply embarrassing. You would think that will quickly change with the network moving to MLB Network headquarters in Secaucus, N.J.
As for fans in arenas, I can see something like the MLB.com Ballpark app coming to life for NHL fans, giving them better access to arena info, concessions, merchandise. The possibilities are endless.
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/inside-baseball/nhl-decides-its-digital-future-is-with-mlb-20150808
I'm subscribed to the MLB Extra Innings package on Directv to watch the Braves and when I have to travel for business I can watch the Braves games on my tablet, all I have to do is go to MLB.TV and hit the Directv link to log into my Directv account and I can watch the game with no problems.
Think of how you consume baseball. Just like hockey, you have your national television packages and your regional networks. And many of us have the Extra Innings package on cable or satellite (Memo to Rob Manfred: You still need to fix the absurd and archaic blackout rules).
I would like to see the NHL include mobile streaming as part of its Center Ice package, just like MLB does with Extra Innings. You no longer pay extra to get games on mobile devices in baseball; the NHL has not included its often-clunky GameCenter Live when you subscribe to the TV package.
But go mobile now: MLB.TV is just flat-out super on your laptop or iPad. Full HD. Both teams’ broadcasts. Integration of box scores. Highlights from earlier innings. Same for the MLB At Bat app on your iPhone. You can see all the key plays of any game shortly after they happen.
In hockey, the NHL app is lifeless at times. Highlights on team websites too often lag during games. And a 15-second clip often runs after a 30-second ad. It’s frustrating beyond belief. You can’t follow a game on GameCenter Live and social media at the same time because the video lags well behind real-time.
The deal will have MLB taking over NHL.com and all the teams’ individual websites. It will have MLB running the NHL Network and the possibilities there are endless. “Quick Pitch” and “MLB Tonight” are must-see shows every day on MLB Network. On the hockey side, “NHL Live,” “NHL on the Fly” and “NHL Tonight” are shows you have to see but the production levels are outright amateurish and not close to the level of the solid on-air talent the NHL Network has.
And the NHL Network basically goes dark for the summer after free agency ends. Just reruns of old games with no live programming whatsoever. In 2015, that’s simply embarrassing. You would think that will quickly change with the network moving to MLB Network headquarters in Secaucus, N.J.
As for fans in arenas, I can see something like the MLB.com Ballpark app coming to life for NHL fans, giving them better access to arena info, concessions, merchandise. The possibilities are endless.
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/inside-baseball/nhl-decides-its-digital-future-is-with-mlb-20150808
I'm subscribed to the MLB Extra Innings package on Directv to watch the Braves and when I have to travel for business I can watch the Braves games on my tablet, all I have to do is go to MLB.TV and hit the Directv link to log into my Directv account and I can watch the game with no problems.