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Pros and Cons of New NHL/MLB Partnership |
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The NHL and MLB have come together for a ground breaking partnership.
Major League Baseball Advanced Media will take over the NHL‘s web operations, apps, streaming video and more in 2016, multiple sources told WEEI.com Monday. The partnership, which is expected to be announced on Tuesday, will also involve Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) taking over the NHL Network.
In addition to running MLB.com and all 30 MLB team sites, MLBAM runs the websites for Minor League Baseball, the YES Network and SportsNet New York. It also provides the backend infrastructure for WatchESPN, the WWE Network, CBS Sports’ March Madness and HBO Now, among others.
Let's start with the good news. The NHL needed to do something like this. Their streaming product is second rate to the point where a lot of people would rather donate to certain illegal websites to get a better product. For users who like to follow the game action while being active on Twitter having a 2 minute + delay on the stream makes this an impossibility.
Outsourcing their streaming media and mobile applications to a company responsible for the more successful streaming products on the internet is a great step.
On the television side the NHL Network has always had immense potential, but it too has been a second rate operation for much of its existence. Instead of broadcasting pertinent live events the channel loves to run NHL on the Fly for hours on end or re-broadcasts of prior games. The NHL Network is in need of more original programming and Major League Baseball does a way better job of that with their own MLB Network.
There are some potential downfalls of this new deal and let me stress potential because nothing has been officially announced yet
The news of the partnership was initially met with some concern that the partnership could put an end to the growing community of in-game animated GIFs on social media (which could cost some people their part-time gigs) and YouTube videos, but MLB’s strict policy on footage is theirs, rather than MLBAM’s. Because the NHL owns the rights, they would make the decision on whether such content could continue to be posted.
This would eliminate the great work that people like Stephanie Vail or better known to her Twitter followers at
@myregularface. Stephanie produces a lion's share of the great hockey gifs that fans have come to enjoy over the past few seasons. If the NHL adopts the same rights policy that MLB currently has she will no longer be able to deliver this great service to fans.
The NHL shouldn't change policy. They should be encouraging any exposure they can get considering where they sit in the American sports landscape.
Also Hockeybuzz poster BulliesPhan87 makes a great point
I'd like to be excited about another company running the gamecenter service, but local and national blackouts still make it a non-option for the cable cutter.
Until this changes fans will still entertain other means of acquiring the NHL product, legal or not.
Hopefully the NHL takes the best of both worlds which would be utilizing the incredible technological advances while still giving their fans some wiggle room on the sharing of gifs and Youtube videos.
Thanks for reading!
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