The lack of in-market streaming for live games

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 1:23 PM EST

This is something that the Senators - and most of the NHL - are failing miserably at. While out of market fans have the option of Gamecentre Live (though not exactly cheap), in market NHL fans have no legal source for most of the games other than increasingly expensive cable or satellite subscriptions. The only exceptions are the Maple Leafs and the Canucks, who both offer packages for online viewing of the majority of their games for fans in their broadcast regions.

Toronto fans in the Leafs broadcast region can purchase a subscription that gives them access to 51 games online from LeafsTV, Sportsnet and TSN. Vancouver fans in the Canucks broadcast region can purchase all 57 SportsNet games online through the Canucks website.

And what's really scary is that relative to most of the league, Ottawa fans have it good. All of the Canadian teams do, thanks to CBC. All Hockey Night in Canada games are are available free online to anyone in Canada. That at least gets us 19 games this year.

I couldn't find a US team that had so much as a single in-market game legally available online outside of Gamecenter Live or services tied to having a cable or satellite account.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Silver Seven community, and does not necessarily reflect the beliefs or opinions of the site managers, editors, or Sports Blogs Nation, Inc.

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You're absolutely right

There should be an option for people in Ottawa who don’t have any sort of cable/satellite set up to watch games legally, and just pay for hockey. It’s really ridiculous, to be quite honest.

Co-manager, Silver Seven

by DarrenM on Jan 11, 2012 2:27 PM EST reply actions

I have trouble figuring out why more teams don't do it

At least the Canadian teams, where Sportsnet and TSN have both shown a willingness to negotiate the online rights.

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 2:52 PM EST up reply actions

I would pay money for a subscription to watch only Ottawa games online.

I don’t care about other teams, so Gamecenter is too damn expensive. Plus blackouts mean I can’t watch a lot of them. Completely agree.

by The Tif on Jan 11, 2012 3:21 PM EST up reply actions

The Leafs and 'Nucks fans pay $40 a season for their online streaming packages

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 3:29 PM EST up reply actions

$40 is resonable though $25 would have been better...

but then I want to trade Knopoka for Perry..I truly believe paying less is better, except I keep getting what I pay for in free streaming, I get to find out we score here and see it 30 seconds later.

by whatsinaname on Jan 11, 2012 3:55 PM EST up reply actions

I would be okay with that.

I can access all my content using GlobalTV.com, CBC.ca etc. The ONLY reason I would want cable is to watch sports. $40 a season would be fine for that.

by The Tif on Jan 11, 2012 5:03 PM EST up reply actions

Are those online streaming packages available only in-market?

Or can out-of-towners buy them too? I’m just wondering because I have to think that if out-of-towners were allowed, it would start to cut into Centre Ice.

(Related: I would love to see whether the NHL has any market research on what would make them more money – only offering the full version of Centre Ice like they do now, or offering the full version AND team-specific versions. There has to be a price-point on the team-specific ones where it would become more lucrative for the league to offer both. If I could get just the Sens games for half of what I pay for the league-wide package, I would buy the Sens package.)

by dzuunmod on Jan 11, 2012 5:21 PM EST up reply actions

Meant to say:

“…it would start to cut into the money the league makes on Centre Ice.”

by dzuunmod on Jan 11, 2012 5:24 PM EST up reply actions

Only in their broadcast regions

by B_T on Jan 12, 2012 10:22 AM EST up reply actions

I agree

This is especially true in Ottawa, where a larger than normal section of their fanbase is young (possibly university students) and don’t have a TV or tv package.

I love soft players (especially Europeans) that play on the perimeter. Enigmas are awesome. Grit and heart-and-soul are red flags.

Erik Karlsson is better than your favourite player.
Twitter: @sens_adnan

by Adnan on Jan 11, 2012 2:37 PM EST reply actions

(I am basing the younger fans part on older fans more likely to be Leafs/Habs fans.)

I love soft players (especially Europeans) that play on the perimeter. Enigmas are awesome. Grit and heart-and-soul are red flags.

Erik Karlsson is better than your favourite player.
Twitter: @sens_adnan

by Adnan on Jan 11, 2012 2:37 PM EST up reply actions

That part's probably right

But the university students tend to be more Leafs and Habs fans than Sens fans, because they’re all from Toronto or Montreal.

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 2:44 PM EST up reply actions

Come on now, no one travels all the way to Ottawa just to go to University of Ottawa. ;)

* hides*

I love soft players (especially Europeans) that play on the perimeter. Enigmas are awesome. Grit and heart-and-soul are red flags.

Erik Karlsson is better than your favourite player.
Twitter: @sens_adnan

by Adnan on Jan 11, 2012 3:13 PM EST up reply actions

You're right.

They come to Carleton

Mark Ingram-OROY
Cam Jordan-DROY
New Orleans Saints-2012 Super Bowl Champs
TOP IS GAWD!

by Alex Swift on Jan 11, 2012 3:15 PM EST up reply actions

Where the K stands for Kwality!

/has a degree from Carleton
//THERE’S A HOLE IN THE CITY, AND IT’S NAME IS OTTAWA U sing with me!

by The Tif on Jan 11, 2012 3:22 PM EST up reply actions

Ah, I remember doing laps of the U of O campus in a bus, singing that out the windows during Frosh Week

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 3:23 PM EST up reply actions

WATERLOO FOREVER

Water Water Water!
Loo Loo Loo!

Wait a minute…

I love soft players (especially Europeans) that play on the perimeter. Enigmas are awesome. Grit and heart-and-soul are red flags.

Erik Karlsson is better than your favourite player.
Twitter: @sens_adnan

by Adnan on Jan 11, 2012 4:05 PM EST up reply actions

Leafs fans.... everywhere....

I almost ended up dating one, until I found out she was a Leafs fan*.

U of O is covered in Habs fans.

*not the actual reason

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 3:22 PM EST up reply actions

I went to Hogsback High too.

by whatsinaname on Jan 11, 2012 3:56 PM EST up reply actions

Also, more and more younger fans don't get cable because it's so damn pricey.

And older grad students (like me!)

by The Tif on Jan 11, 2012 3:22 PM EST up reply actions

It's one of the few things keeping me from ditching satellite

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 3:31 PM EST up reply actions

I ditched my satellite and save $1500 a year

by whatsinaname on Jan 11, 2012 3:58 PM EST up reply actions

Yeouch

Not paying nearly that much

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 4:15 PM EST up reply actions

Even basic cable is $40 a month.

That’s almost $500 a year. That’ll buy me a fancy new DSLR lens!

by The Tif on Jan 11, 2012 5:03 PM EST up reply actions

$1500 for tons of everything

by whatsinaname on Jan 11, 2012 6:27 PM EST up reply actions

And Rogers is upping the price on it by a little over $2 on Mar 1

Which is what started the discussion that lead to this fan post.

by B_T on Jan 12, 2012 10:30 AM EST up reply actions

I may be wrong (I am not a lawyer),

but is watching copyrighted material illegal in canada, or is it simply illegal to be the provider/distributor of the content?

That being said, the nice part about a legal way would be higher quality streams (which isnt always the case with more nefarious solutions). I agree though that between the blackouts, the price, and the fact that I only want to watch sens games, centre ice is not appealing.

by alfie4PM on Jan 11, 2012 3:54 PM EST reply actions

or gamecenter or whatever its called.

by alfie4PM on Jan 11, 2012 3:54 PM EST up reply actions

IIRC, it's "making available" that is illegal here

So a server-client stream is illegal for the person providing the stream, but not the person receiving it it. If it’s any kind of P2P architecture (and such things do exist), it would be illegal for all involved.

They might be able to get someone for “making an illegal copy” thanks to caching, but that’d be a bit of a stretch to say the least.

Not sure if the new copyright law changes any of this.

by B_T on Jan 11, 2012 4:20 PM EST up reply actions

www.hockeystreams.com

It’s legal in the Netherlands, where they are based, but you can stream it from anywhere in the world. It only costs about $60 for the season and they have a back catalogue of every game, so if you miss it, you can watch it whenever you want.

by Barnsley Pal on Jan 11, 2012 4:46 PM EST reply actions

Last year I was thinking of shelling out for the MLB online streaming package. Drop $100, see all the Blue Jays games. I didn’t have cable and since MLB did such a good job of policing online streams I found it quite often impossible to actually watch the Jays, whereas I never had the same issues watching NHL, NFL or EPL. I paid $10 for the iPad app which had a free month trial of the service at the start of the year to see what I’d be getting. I discovered that I could watch every baseball game I wanted, assuming it wasn’t a Blue Jays game. Since I live in their broadcast area, I therefore was geo-blocked from accessing the the games because viably I should be able to watch the games on local cable, of which I didn’t subscribe to.

It seems so crazy that sports leagues haven’t figured out that not every person wants packages that include every game possible. I would drop $50 for a high quality, official, reliable Sens feed. But given all the stupid deals with broadcasters in many cases they don’t want that to happen.

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by modsuperstar on Jan 11, 2012 7:51 PM EST reply actions