February 1st marked the official launch of MLB Advanced Media’s (MLBAM) overhaul of the National Hockey League’s website and applications. MLBAM president and CEO Bob Bowman and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman presented the digital platforms created by the partnership between MLBAM and the NHL at the NHL All Star Weekend in Nashville, the weekend prior to the launch. “These platforms are going to give us the ability to provide more and more content to the hockey fans, and it’s also going to make it more user friendly. We couldn’t be more excited and, perhaps more importantly, more pleased with the start this relationship has gotten off to,” Bettman said.
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Rebranded as NHL.TV from NHL GameCenter Live, the quality of the stream has been updated from 30 frames per second to 60 frames per second. Bowman explained the improved quality of streams in a realistic perspective. “It’s more investment, but it’s the kind of quality you’d expect if you were going to throw it up on the big screen and compare it to HD.” This feature appeals to cord-cutting fans looking for an experience to compare to watching it via cable on an HDTV. Also, it reduces latency which is crucial when dealing with a game of this speed.
Still included in the NHL’s leading streaming service are the options to watch the home and away feeds (plus French feeds for certain games), as well as alternate multi-camera options. Six-camera mosaic layouts are available so fans can enjoy multiple games simultaneously. Other elements MLBAM maintained from NHL GameCenter are the standard game recaps, extended highlights (formally referred to as condensed games), classic games (which previously was called the NHL Vault), and full game archives from the current season.
Another aspect MLBAM included in NHL.TV is the “Free Game of the Week” which gives fans the opportunity to try NHL.TV prior to purchasing. These games are subject to in-market blackouts (just as all NHL.TV streams are).
Additionally, the NHL and BAM Tech created “NHL Premium”— a streaming service that delivers fans the last five minutes and (potentially) overtime for all (out of market) games. The $2.99 monthly service includes push notifications to inform the user that the last five minutes of the game are approaching. The last five minutes of each game are the typically the most definitive and often the most exciting moments. So in an effort to create a service like NFL Red Zone—a service that focuses on the most important moments of each game—that appeals to all football fans, the NHL has released NHL Premium.
Along with redesigning NHL.com, BAM Tech renovated the smartphone and tablet platform. In fact, the iOS 9 iPad application supports a picture-in-picture box that can remain on the screen while operating other applications––utilizing iOS 9’s multitasking capabilities. The upgraded mobile platform design appeals to fans by offering the full game story of every game, rather than only giving fragmented details like the preceding application did. Now, the overall appearance of the application is simpler and more fan-friendly.
In Canada, NHL.TV is still referred to as NHL GameCentre Live, but has benefited from the many upgrades of NHL.TV. Rogers Communications, the Canadian telecommunications and media company that owns the NHL broadcasting rights in Canada, signed a five-year agreement with MLBAM to further improve the NHL’s digital properties for Canadian fans.
Unfortunately, on NHL.TV’s premiere night as the official streaming service there were quite a few technical difficulties and NHL fans reacted—except the reactions were less about their preference for the updates to NHL’s digital properties, but their actual inability to watch games on the renovated services. “I don’t want to trivialize it: There’s nothing worse than a fan who wants to watch a live game and can’t. You hate to have the fans be frustrated. But it’s from those kinds of events you get better,” Bowman said regarding the issues of the service’s first night.
Bowman attributed the issues to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) of BAM Tech—“We had a glitch last night. The game states changed, the config went down, and by the time you re-launch another CDN, it takes 20-30 minutes to re-launch that thing.”
Bowman acknowledge the adversities NHL.TV faced, “Transitions are tough, no matter when you do them. Doing them midseason is a high-wire act. It takes a lot of cooperation and a lot of faith.”
Implementing these changes midseason is a risk, but it does give MLBAM the opportunity to resolve as many issues as possible prior to the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Furthermore, it provides the opportunity for BAM Tech and the NHL to review in the off-season to ensure future success for next year—which not only will be NHL.TV’s first complete season, but will be highlighted by the return of the World Cup of Hockey. Perhaps the NHL believed having issues similar to the ones seen in NHL.TV’s launch during an event as significant as the World Cup of Hockey could be disastrous for both MLBAM and the NHL.
Fortunately, there have not been any major issues since the launch, but NHL.TV is still dealing with minor residual glitches. Fans have expressed their concerns over the reoccurring issues, such as video quality and the overall appearance of NHL.com. Many of fans’ issues are about the new design of NHL.com, with many sentiments focusing on how complicated the interface became––even though the intentions were to simplify it.
Although there were a variety of issues with each of the renovated NHL applications, BAM Tech and the NHL are actively looking to resolve all concerns. MLBAM does have an impressive history thus far, which should give fans assurance about the renovated NHL digital properties. Glitches should be expected at the onset of a product as in-depth as NHL.TV, especially when the NHL and MLBAM’s partnership is only in its infancy— the focus should be on how BAM Tech works to reconciles these issues. Subsequently, MLBAM intends on reassessing their data delivery for the NHL’s digital properties in the off season. Major League Baseball will release their own renovated streaming service (MLB.TV) through MLBAM, which will include many of the similar elements to NHL.TV.