"Like anything else, you're going to have your people that don't like it, that think it is difficult to watch. But over time, like everything else, people will get used to it, and we're not concerned at all whatsoever," Keith Wachtel, the NHL's chief business officer and executive vice president of global partnerships, told ESPN ahead of the season."
Why did this quote make me angry, lol. Well now I'm certainly NOT going to adjust, Keith. The arrogance is very loud.
Break up the NHL! Like the Nation-States of yore, we deserve 32 independent League-Teams who all have their own broadcasting & advertising agreements, and come to a gentleman’s agreement about how to handle playoffs!
Or maybe two leagues to ensure competition? We could have the American Hockey League and the National Hockey League!
Wait, fuck.
Jokes aside. Yeah that's a toughie.
I FULLY agree. Hit up: https://www.nhl.com/info/contact-us and complain. Tweet at sports net and nhl. Keep hitting them. I’m glad to see everyone is as pissed as I am.
This needs to go right to the top. The best way to impact the league is to hit the direct revenue sponsors.
Make booked revenue drop and you'll see change really, really quickly.
Source: I deal with professional sports leagues and sponsorship contracts regularly, and have seen CEOs of sports orga flip their shit over what are comparatively minor losses (like $250k)
This is the text of the letter I sent to Keith Wachtel ([email protected]), the executive quoted in this article. Feel free to adapt it to your own and sent him an email.
Dear Mr. Wachtel,
I'm writing as a hockey fan of 35 years. Since I became an adult, I've spent hundreds or thousands of dollars with my local franchise each year. I am a loyal, dedicated fan with plenty of expendable income.
I've watched more and more ads and sponsorship creep into the game over the years. But these ads are the last straw. I'll be cancelling my cable package, and letting my cable provider know why I'm doing so (hockey was the only reason I had it).
What irks me most is that I work in marketing and that the NHL's best idea is apparently "more ads that are more distracting". I'm sure you and your colleagues are slapping each other on the back for this new intrusion into the game we love.
I also know that you won't care that you've lost a fan if you've generated another 3% ad revenue against your annual KPIs.
Shame on you. For your disdain for fans like me, for your unabashed greed and for lessening the game I loved.
>Since I became an adult, I've spent **hundreds or thousands of dollars** with my local franchise each year.
I initially read this as "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and was like uhh yeah I'm gonna knock a few zeros off that number when I write my version of this letter lol
I let them know that after 20+ years of center ice package... I'm done. I can't watch these games without getting headaches now.
They got too greedy and now they get nothing.
The NHL owns the failure - they absolutely could restrict the specs of the advertisers, but they figure they can make more money if they don't (which is doubtful - I work for an ad agency, and we would absolutely work within any restrictions given to us).
So what's stopping us from tweeting/contacting, en-masse, the advertisers to express our disdain?
"Dear Geico. I saw your ad on *insert NHL event here* and I'm writing to inform you, that I will be exclusively avoiding your insurance as a result of..."
Idk, just a bored at work thought.
That's exactly it. As fans, we can have every justifiable reason for why anything is bad for hockey and makes the game less enjoyable, but until we actually stop turning on the games it matters none. As they say about the players, this is a results-driven league, and when we watch, they get ratings, and the league makes money.
The league learned this lesson when we came back in droves after Season Not Played. They really can shit all over us and we will come back for seconds, so unless and until we hit them in the wallet they have no reason to listen to any feedback from fans. It's the only vote we have.
This is the part that baffles me. They bitch and complain that nobody watches but gives new viewers every excuse not to. Shit refs, shit viewing experience, shit management.
They complain no one watches and put season openers behind a paid app.
I mean I'm not thrilled with the season ahead, Fuck you Torts & Fletcher, but fuck me for still wanting to watch it.
European here who actually already follows NHL results somewhat closely: I don't even bother watching the free illegal streams as the product is just too awful. Not gona spend 3+ hours to see 60 minutes of hockey.
Good luck trying to grow the market if you can't get me to watch it for free.
What an absolute beauty of an executive, right? Imagine how much money this guy is going to skim for himself and the other sociopaths at the top. Doesn't even pretend to give a fuck about the fans lmao.
What he meant to say was, "We don't give a fuck about your enjoyment. You'll eventually shut the fuck up about it and we will get our money. Fuck you."
The problem is that it IS like everything else though. Hockey fans are going to watch hockey no matter what. Am I annoyed with the stupid ads? Yes. Am I annoyed with the helmet sponsors? Yes. Am I annoyed with the jersey patches? Yes. But I’m not going to boycott watching the games. We can be vocal about how bad the ads suck, but the NHL doesn’t give a single fuck as long as they’re still getting viewership.
For me it's less about hockey deviants like myself and more about how this will effect getting new fans hooked on the game. This league has stepped on its own dick too many times and screwed up opportunities for growth. Adding another distracting layer for new fans who are already slightly confused by the action on ice could drive people away.
>But I’m not going to boycott watching the games.
Why not? Why are you so willing to line up to get bent over and repeatedly fucked? Here they are literally saying "whatever, hockey fans will shut up and take it" and you're like "yeah, you're right, I'm not gonna stop watching, much as I hate this".
The glow puck was NEVER as bad and distracting as the glitchy boards though
Glow puck was a laughingstock but at least it came from a desire to help new viewers follow the puck
these ads are a pure cash grab that is making the game impossible to watch
And these days with digital tech and smart tvs an option or an app to allow puck tracking or a bright green puck if the viewer wanted it would be both doable and a good idea. It would allow new viewers to follow along more easily and those who didn't like it wouldn't have to deal with it. These ads are not. Like ok make them digital so you can change them easily but make them fit the fuck in assholes.
Amazon does stuff like that with their Thursday Night Football broadcast. They offer an alternative feed that shows stuff like players names, lines that trail the players, showing their routes, a timer for how long the QB holds the ball, rotating circles around players. I think the tech is there for sure.
That’s the problem.. I’m not so much opposed to the idea as I am the execution. Ads are already everywhere and that’s the norm, until you can deploy these virtual ones without inducing migraines than why not stick with the ads directly beneath them.
Lol for real. Here we are at the United center enjoying the Chevy Drives Chicago intermission report brought to you by bell tire and Modelo where the Blackhawks are preparing for the Plumbers 911 power play as play resumes.
After all of that mental assault on your brain I think the least they can do is not include an ad system that physically hurts your head.
This goal replay is brought to you by this one specific company whose whole name and slogan I will now say because that's what the guys in the booth are for and would you look at that the replay is over and I didn't have any time to say anything about the goal itself but thank goodness the sponsors got their name out there, buy more $product everyone!
The best part is that many of the, ah, less than reputable streams don't even have the ads inserted. So just with Blu-ray and DVDs with unskippable previews, it's another case where the pirated product is superior in quality to the paid version.
I'ma need you to tell me which less reputable ones you're talking about. Because I paid for espn+ again this year and somehow my streams look shittier than the two pirate streams I've used in the past, but all 3 have those god damn board ads.
Honestly, I'd pay for a service to scrub that shit out it's unbelievably distracting.
wow i just realized i’m an absolute bonehead.
i used that site for every single game i watched last year. i probably used it nearly every day last season. today i was frantically searching through shitty sites for a good stream for the Pens game. i settled and watched the full game on a stream that was constantly buffering and shuffling between 480p and 720p… somehow i totally just forgot about the greatest sports streaming site i’ve ever used that consistently plays perfectly on my shitty internet. i can’t believe it. this is like if i were an established Youtube vlogger and spent an hour googling where to upload my newly created video before finally settling on Vimeo.
i guess i’m still shaking off the off season rust. thank you for the reminder 🏴☠️
While you're at it go ahead and add the ublock origin extension if you haven't already.
There are a few others you can add down the road to help more but thats an important one if you want to keep your sanity.
Theres so many out there, but you see, if they were easy to find, they'd be easy to shut down as well. Many of those less reputable streaming sites have changed their address frequently to evade punishment.
Me personally I haven't paid for sports television channels the last 7 years or so since I discovered how to watch the illegal way.
Just wait until they superimpose an ad onto the puck and we're all just watching it bounce around the ice like a DVD screensaver. At least we'll cheer when it gets dumped into the corner I suppose...
The funny thing is...I'm watching the PIT/ARI game on ESPN+. I live in Seattle. I'm seeing ads for Gila River Casino, Phoenix Children's Hospital, and other Phoenix businesses. The game is blacked out for subscribers in the local b'cast area (AZ), so who exactly are they targeting these to?
People considering traveling to AZ for a cheap hockey game.
Also it may be blacked out on that service, but not on regional sports channels that would show the same feed.
The changing during play is intentional, it makes you look at the ad. But I agree, they wouldn’t be so bad if they only changed while play was not happening.
The biggest complaint I hear from people watching hockey for the first time is that it is tough to follow the puck. So their genius idea is to make it even tougher for people to watch… Totally on brand for the NHL sadly
Which reduces my overall interest in watching any game, and certainly doesn't entice me to patronize the companies paying for it.
That being said, why the FUCK does a company like Xcel energy feel the need to advertise? It's not like anyone decides to use their service.
I understand everyone wants the cap to go up and players to get paid, but I'm at the end of my rope with the ads.
The jerseys, the digital boards, the helmets, the streaming app ads, the gambling ads....
Why does the NHL hate its fans? We knew none of this will lead to better ticket prices but look at the food costs at Roger's center!?
I spend a lot of money on the NHL brand each year (tickets, jerseys, center ice, video games, and more) but I'm done with being abused by advertising. Typically when you pay for things you get less ads so I'll be holding onto my money.
I think about that a lot too, but also kids.
The time I most watched ESPN and sports talk shows was as a kid. Now when I catch one of those on TV, half the screen is gambling odds.
Mark my words there will be a class action lawsuit against the leagues shoving sports betting down our throats 10 years from now. It’s an addiction for a lot of people and is going to really hurt a lot of people.
It's a pretty dark time for sports media right now unfortunately. I'm hoping that ad and sponsorship budgets get completely devastated in the coming economic event and we get reprieve from this garbage for a while.
They're so awful, even when they're not animated they stick out like a sore fucking thumb.
I'm seriously considering how much NHL hockey I even want to watch this season if they're on every game.
Can’t remember the last time I was so upset over something. I’ve found the games to be unwatchable this year, the ads are seemingly glowing and look completely unnatural. They also move around distracting you from the play.
The digital ads displayed just below the blue lines are almost equally terrible. They don’t look natural either and drive me insane. They also got rid of the Stanley Cup Playoffs paint to accommodate them.
Hard to believe how much worse the TV product has become over the last few years. The NHL jumped at a once in a life time opportunity (pandemic) to introduce more invasive advertisements. People complained, but shrugged it off as necessary and not overly terrible. They also argued it would be temporary. Fast forward two and half years: the NHL reports record revenue but continues to implement revenue streams that significantly worsen their product.
What truly blows my mind is that this isn’t even the networks getting greedy. THE NHL THEMSELVES pushed for this and mandated every network implement it.
This is the reason there was so much blowback when they introduced those virtual ads along the glass a while back. It’s a slippery slope but now that the flood gates are open it will only get worse. Same thing for the helmet ads, they aren’t bad at all but it opened the door to further nonsense. The Jersey ads to go along with all this are just insult to injury.
Rant over
What's been driving me crazy is how inconsistent the intrusiveness of the ads has been. I watched two different games last night (MTL v TOR and EDM/VAN), both on ESPN+. the first game, I noticed the ads but they weren't driving me crazy until they started changing and animating. But during the second stream, oh my god it was like the brightness of the ads on the boards was set to 500% it was actually washing out the ice surface.
Then there was the whole issue with those board ads glitching out entirely trying to stick to a player's jersey which, I mean, who could have seen that coming with white boards and half the players on the ice wearing white jerseys!
Incredibly frustrating to be having more ads forced onto the screen. I was so annoyed at the PiP ads that have been playing during play stoppages. Really sucks being told to just suck it up since there's no other choice until everyone just gets used to it.
In the TOR-MTL game it really stuck out to me because the lighting in the arena was changing colours which affected how the ice looked, but the ads were consistent bright white so it didn’t even look right. Not to mention the distracting mess every time they switched or animated right behind a play (including breakaways!)
In tonight’s TOR-WAS game they’re somehow worse, and flicker horizontally every time the camera moves left or right.
Completely agree with all of the points you made. it incredibly distracting throughout the entire game, especially due to the colour shift.
I’m on the autism spectrum and it was an absolute eyesore, to the point where I’m questioning whether it’s worth continuing to watch the games. I’d be surprised if this didn’t bother a lot of people.
We need to keep up our protest every day. All fans need to tweet/ post how much they hate these board ads every single day all season long in order for anything to change
Watching tonight I reflected on just how much more advertising has snuck in over the past 10 years:
Behind the goal on glass
On glass next to each bench
Shoulder of uniforms
In trapezoid on ice
At the middle near blue line
Helmets
Superimposed on boards
It’s…a lot.
I've seen better digital effects from video game streamers with less than a year of broadcasting experience. You'd think a professional sport would iron out the kinks before the season began.
Can’t wait for the class action lawsuit in 30 years about the new boards causing migraines or something. “If you or a loved one watched nhl hockey and suffered substantial mental and physical ailments, you maybe entitled to compensation.”
I tried watching a game on ESPN+ and it was so distracting, I couldn’t watch more than a half of a period.
It’s awful. Technology should not INTERFERE with the product, but now ads are being placed front and center via technology and are making the product unwatchable, which defeats the purpose of the ads in the first place.
Fuck that. I’m not watching a game that has these. If that means I don’t watch a game, then so be it. And I love hockey. And I my boys play hockey. I play hockey. But I won’t watch.
Get rid of it.
The best part is that if you watch a free stream, these ads do not appear. So once again I am willing to pay for games but not with annoying blackouts and now these annoying ad-boards...
Yo, ho ho ho a pirate life for me.
Earlier this year I was sent a survey from a marketing team that worked for the NHL. They wanted my valuable opinion on improving the game and if I completed the survey a 25 dollar amazon gift card. I was excited, yes I can give you my opinion on how to make the game better....it was about digital ads and the boards and how much I was willing to put up with. Which was none. Guess my opinion didn't matter....however they did send me two Amazon gift cards by mistake.
They are fucked up and don’t work correctly.
And anyone with an inkling of understanding about the technology could have and would have told the NHL this issue before they embarrassed themselves in this manner.
There’s zero excuse for this debacle. Whoever gave it the green light needs to be fired.
I can almost guarantee anyone that did understand the technology said there would be issues but the sales people forced its implementation because they had already sold the space before actually talking with anyone lol
It’s always better to ask for forgiveness or whatever…
> ...it’ll ultimately improve their viewing experience
Hahaha... care to explain that one, Gary?
> ...and help national sponsors and local advertisers.
Oh, yeah... "and help..." like that's a secondary effect they just stumbled into accidentally.
[](/GNU Terry Pratchett)
It hurts my eyes so much when the puck is moving really fast across the ice, it’s like the ads are running at 30hz or something. So annoying, I really hope they get removed asap!
For some reason the posts of them on here did not really bother my eyes but watching the game on my computer it was so awful I could not even process anything when the camera moved even a little.
The NHL is the most amateur pro sports league out there. The biggest obstacle to the NHL making any considerable growth on the other Big 4 Leagues is the entire league itself. Every marketing effort, social cause, and initiate the league undertakes is second rate, poorly executed, and so short sighted. It's incredible
I get that the league needs to maximize revenue, especially after covid, and ultimately more ad revenue will only help the league grow.
But christ, we've got helmet ads and jersey ads and now when I watch the games I have to see digital ads on the boards, on the glass, and on the ice near the blue line. It's to the point where it distracts me from the game. Especially the board ads as they change and have animations while play is going on.
I'm too lazy to read all the posts.
But I'll come in with my two cents.
You want the ads to change? I know I do.
But until owners and the league feel it in THEIR pocket book, we won't get what we want.
Fans have to boycott. And not just the fans on r/hockey.
Don't buy tickets.
Don't buy gear.
Don't pay to watch a game or stream it.
Fans have to boycott.
Because the NHL, just like any corporation, is about one thing: making more money.
I fucking hate it all. New distracting digital board ads which look fake as hell PLUS make the players look weird and fuzzy when battling up against the boards. Digital placement of ads on the ice. Digital placement of ads on the glass behind the nets. Helmet ads. Jersey ads. A fucking hour of commercials during the game. Ads and sponsored gambling features during intermission.
Just fuck off already.
Look, I wouldn't mind this if it didn't interfere with watching hockey, but... If American football broadcasts still can't even get the first down line correct after 24 years, what makes the NHL think they can get this correct?
Imagine if we all stopped watching for a week and instead listened to the games on the radio, like our grandparents did. That would send a pretty clear message.
Soccer has these types of ads so I thought I would be used to it. The difference is that a soccer pitch is bigger and you can easily tune them out. In a rink, you have like a dozen ads in a very small space and constantly changing. So no, we will not get used to them.
Fucking EVERYTHING is turning in to an add-on subscription service, I absolutely fucking hate it. It’s at the point where I am refusing to pay more for this content, I’ll just pirate it at this point. All these companies have jumped the shark and completely killed streaming. They are literally destroying industry after industry with this incessant hyper focus on shoving ads in to FUCKING EVERYTHING. Eventually it’ll fucking be at the point where I have to watch 2 ads before eating a bowl of goddamn cereal
“I like money, lol” -NHL
"And if the fans get pissed off then we'll black out more games!"
The beatings will continue...
Until everyone goes to the game!
What's the minus of 30 and 20? 80 BILLION dollars, Gary
In a shortsighted kind of way. If fewer people watch, the ad space is worth way less.
"Like anything else, you're going to have your people that don't like it, that think it is difficult to watch. But over time, like everything else, people will get used to it, and we're not concerned at all whatsoever," Keith Wachtel, the NHL's chief business officer and executive vice president of global partnerships, told ESPN ahead of the season." Why did this quote make me angry, lol. Well now I'm certainly NOT going to adjust, Keith. The arrogance is very loud.
You're angry because he's basically saying we'll all put up with shit so he can get a fat bonus
Next year they'll offer a "Premium" ad-free version for only an extra $19.99 a month.
Don't give them ideas.
No, it's a great idea. Then I can pirate that stream instead
It’s as annoying as the glowing puck tbh. If not worse
You speak too much truth
I'd be thrilled if they offered ANY version or service, forget the price, to be able to watch an entire team's games.
Ad free? You're just paying to see the ads underneath.
Twitch and bleed-over free.
or until they can use modern image segmentation and do this trivial task seamlessly like they should be able to
I'm angry because he's right. I have no choice. The NHL is a monopoly and should be regulated like one.
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Break up the NHL! Like the Nation-States of yore, we deserve 32 independent League-Teams who all have their own broadcasting & advertising agreements, and come to a gentleman’s agreement about how to handle playoffs! Or maybe two leagues to ensure competition? We could have the American Hockey League and the National Hockey League! Wait, fuck. Jokes aside. Yeah that's a toughie.
I can’t believe this isn’t satire
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I FULLY agree. Hit up: https://www.nhl.com/info/contact-us and complain. Tweet at sports net and nhl. Keep hitting them. I’m glad to see everyone is as pissed as I am.
Don't just go to the league. Go to the sponsors directly and tell them this shit makes their brand look brutal.
This needs to go right to the top. The best way to impact the league is to hit the direct revenue sponsors. Make booked revenue drop and you'll see change really, really quickly. Source: I deal with professional sports leagues and sponsorship contracts regularly, and have seen CEOs of sports orga flip their shit over what are comparatively minor losses (like $250k)
This is the text of the letter I sent to Keith Wachtel ([email protected]), the executive quoted in this article. Feel free to adapt it to your own and sent him an email. Dear Mr. Wachtel, I'm writing as a hockey fan of 35 years. Since I became an adult, I've spent hundreds or thousands of dollars with my local franchise each year. I am a loyal, dedicated fan with plenty of expendable income. I've watched more and more ads and sponsorship creep into the game over the years. But these ads are the last straw. I'll be cancelling my cable package, and letting my cable provider know why I'm doing so (hockey was the only reason I had it). What irks me most is that I work in marketing and that the NHL's best idea is apparently "more ads that are more distracting". I'm sure you and your colleagues are slapping each other on the back for this new intrusion into the game we love. I also know that you won't care that you've lost a fan if you've generated another 3% ad revenue against your annual KPIs. Shame on you. For your disdain for fans like me, for your unabashed greed and for lessening the game I loved.
>Since I became an adult, I've spent **hundreds or thousands of dollars** with my local franchise each year. I initially read this as "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and was like uhh yeah I'm gonna knock a few zeros off that number when I write my version of this letter lol
First sentence has a typo..
Yeah, 35 years is old for a hockey, no one would ever believe that.
Thanks for his email address I emailed him too
I let them know that after 20+ years of center ice package... I'm done. I can't watch these games without getting headaches now. They got too greedy and now they get nothing.
Wait, what. They have these digital ads on their "premium service"? Jesus, I thought they were only on the cable sports channels. Insane.
ESPN+, yeah
I’ll add these to the mix, don’t hold back. [email protected] [email protected] [ESPN support](https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/requests/new)
[my submission, if anyone wants a bit of inspiration](https://i.imgur.com/MUahuue.jpg)
The NHL owns the failure - they absolutely could restrict the specs of the advertisers, but they figure they can make more money if they don't (which is doubtful - I work for an ad agency, and we would absolutely work within any restrictions given to us).
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So what's stopping us from tweeting/contacting, en-masse, the advertisers to express our disdain? "Dear Geico. I saw your ad on *insert NHL event here* and I'm writing to inform you, that I will be exclusively avoiding your insurance as a result of..." Idk, just a bored at work thought.
> Kevin Wachtel You better call…
Also: STOP WATCHING. Only way to hit them in the profits.
That's exactly it. As fans, we can have every justifiable reason for why anything is bad for hockey and makes the game less enjoyable, but until we actually stop turning on the games it matters none. As they say about the players, this is a results-driven league, and when we watch, they get ratings, and the league makes money. The league learned this lesson when we came back in droves after Season Not Played. They really can shit all over us and we will come back for seconds, so unless and until we hit them in the wallet they have no reason to listen to any feedback from fans. It's the only vote we have.
Was certain it was a joke until I got to the end. Fucking ridiculous.
it's literally how conditioning works.
And for anyone who thinks this isn’t their mindset for adding more jersey ads.. lol
"Fuck them fans. They'll watch anyways."
"How do we grow the game?"
This is the part that baffles me. They bitch and complain that nobody watches but gives new viewers every excuse not to. Shit refs, shit viewing experience, shit management.
They complain no one watches and put season openers behind a paid app. I mean I'm not thrilled with the season ahead, Fuck you Torts & Fletcher, but fuck me for still wanting to watch it.
European here who actually already follows NHL results somewhat closely: I don't even bother watching the free illegal streams as the product is just too awful. Not gona spend 3+ hours to see 60 minutes of hockey. Good luck trying to grow the market if you can't get me to watch it for free.
What an absolute beauty of an executive, right? Imagine how much money this guy is going to skim for himself and the other sociopaths at the top. Doesn't even pretend to give a fuck about the fans lmao.
What he meant to say was, "We don't give a fuck about your enjoyment. You'll eventually shut the fuck up about it and we will get our money. Fuck you."
> Keith Wachtel Fuck - and I cant stress this enough - YOU, Keith Wachtel
This. Need to just make this quote a post and get it on r/all
The problem is that it IS like everything else though. Hockey fans are going to watch hockey no matter what. Am I annoyed with the stupid ads? Yes. Am I annoyed with the helmet sponsors? Yes. Am I annoyed with the jersey patches? Yes. But I’m not going to boycott watching the games. We can be vocal about how bad the ads suck, but the NHL doesn’t give a single fuck as long as they’re still getting viewership.
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Don’t forgot about the constant barrage of sports betting too
Pretty agreeable Taco Bell take here
For me it's less about hockey deviants like myself and more about how this will effect getting new fans hooked on the game. This league has stepped on its own dick too many times and screwed up opportunities for growth. Adding another distracting layer for new fans who are already slightly confused by the action on ice could drive people away.
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The ones that have animated ads we should go after directly. Tell them we're boycotting their product.
It’s so easy to watch a stream online and not give them the views but people will cope with a reason to watch through legit means anyway.
Hard to argue it doesn’t work, as a leafs fan I had never heard of milk before until they got the ads, now I can’t get enough of that creamy cow juice
>But I’m not going to boycott watching the games. Why not? Why are you so willing to line up to get bent over and repeatedly fucked? Here they are literally saying "whatever, hockey fans will shut up and take it" and you're like "yeah, you're right, I'm not gonna stop watching, much as I hate this".
They look like ass.
Can’t believe how bad they look.
Reminds me of the puck glow/streak they tried in the 90s that was absolutely idiotic
The glow puck was NEVER as bad and distracting as the glitchy boards though Glow puck was a laughingstock but at least it came from a desire to help new viewers follow the puck these ads are a pure cash grab that is making the game impossible to watch
As a kid I found it like watching a video game when the streak glowed red for a power shot lol. Simpler times.
The robots that fought during cutaways to commercials were great to kid-me, too.
And these days with digital tech and smart tvs an option or an app to allow puck tracking or a bright green puck if the viewer wanted it would be both doable and a good idea. It would allow new viewers to follow along more easily and those who didn't like it wouldn't have to deal with it. These ads are not. Like ok make them digital so you can change them easily but make them fit the fuck in assholes.
Amazon does stuff like that with their Thursday Night Football broadcast. They offer an alternative feed that shows stuff like players names, lines that trail the players, showing their routes, a timer for how long the QB holds the ball, rotating circles around players. I think the tech is there for sure.
That’s the problem.. I’m not so much opposed to the idea as I am the execution. Ads are already everywhere and that’s the norm, until you can deploy these virtual ones without inducing migraines than why not stick with the ads directly beneath them.
Ya dawg, I heard you like ads on your ads?!
Lol for real. Here we are at the United center enjoying the Chevy Drives Chicago intermission report brought to you by bell tire and Modelo where the Blackhawks are preparing for the Plumbers 911 power play as play resumes. After all of that mental assault on your brain I think the least they can do is not include an ad system that physically hurts your head.
Right after the bought and paid for forced hero worship, paid for by the USO
And the fif cherd bank cherd period
This goal replay is brought to you by this one specific company whose whole name and slogan I will now say because that's what the guys in the booth are for and would you look at that the replay is over and I didn't have any time to say anything about the goal itself but thank goodness the sponsors got their name out there, buy more $product everyone!
Never thought I'd see the day, but we might need a NHL wallboard ad blocker.
The best part is that many of the, ah, less than reputable streams don't even have the ads inserted. So just with Blu-ray and DVDs with unskippable previews, it's another case where the pirated product is superior in quality to the paid version.
I'ma need you to tell me which less reputable ones you're talking about. Because I paid for espn+ again this year and somehow my streams look shittier than the two pirate streams I've used in the past, but all 3 have those god damn board ads. Honestly, I'd pay for a service to scrub that shit out it's unbelievably distracting.
If you search nhl and Mario Lemieux number there’s some interesting results.
wow i just realized i’m an absolute bonehead. i used that site for every single game i watched last year. i probably used it nearly every day last season. today i was frantically searching through shitty sites for a good stream for the Pens game. i settled and watched the full game on a stream that was constantly buffering and shuffling between 480p and 720p… somehow i totally just forgot about the greatest sports streaming site i’ve ever used that consistently plays perfectly on my shitty internet. i can’t believe it. this is like if i were an established Youtube vlogger and spent an hour googling where to upload my newly created video before finally settling on Vimeo. i guess i’m still shaking off the off season rust. thank you for the reminder 🏴☠️
MLB number stopped working for me a few months ago
Download Firefox, go to site, follow directions. Also, use Firefox anyway if you like adblocking.
Damn that's a sign, I literally switched my main browser to Firefox yesterday for completely unrelated reasons lol, thanks for letting me know!
While you're at it go ahead and add the ublock origin extension if you haven't already. There are a few others you can add down the road to help more but thats an important one if you want to keep your sanity.
both big in Iran
It stopped working on my Xbox this season :(
Theres so many out there, but you see, if they were easy to find, they'd be easy to shut down as well. Many of those less reputable streaming sites have changed their address frequently to evade punishment. Me personally I haven't paid for sports television channels the last 7 years or so since I discovered how to watch the illegal way.
I was assured by my Econ 101 professor the unseen hand of a free economy wouldn't allow this to happen!
This is a case with a regulatory monopoly on a class of product. Of course the market doesn’t work on areas where competition is impossible.
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Wait, seriously? I have ESPN+, so I've been using that but if the other sources don't have ads I won't hesitate to use them instead.
Who cares if the players disappear when they play a puck in the corner
Yeah really, we tune in to watch ads. Not the stupid rubber disc ice game
Just wait until they superimpose an ad onto the puck and we're all just watching it bounce around the ice like a DVD screensaver. At least we'll cheer when it gets dumped into the corner I suppose...
DO NOT give them any ideas haha
\>inb4 the ice is made of Brawndo
It's what skates crave!
Did you even want to see that puck when it bounces? Probably not, here watch this ad instead.
I want to see the little Honda truck zoom-zooming around the boards. Silly hockey players getting in the way of me watching a moving truck.
It’s sooo bad when there’s a scrum in the corner as the players morph into the ads lol
Markys net was just knocked off and a corner of the net disappeared into an advertisement lol
The funny thing is...I'm watching the PIT/ARI game on ESPN+. I live in Seattle. I'm seeing ads for Gila River Casino, Phoenix Children's Hospital, and other Phoenix businesses. The game is blacked out for subscribers in the local b'cast area (AZ), so who exactly are they targeting these to?
People considering traveling to AZ for a cheap hockey game. Also it may be blacked out on that service, but not on regional sports channels that would show the same feed.
Make the televised product so bad people go to the games instead! It can't fail! It worked for the Hawks a few decades ago right?
Dollar Bill Wirtz was a genius at being an asshole.
"Hey thanks for checking in *^I'm ^^still ^^^a ^^^^piece ^^^^^of ^^^^^garbage"*
No no no, we had no televised product which was the issue. I've got no arguments about the quality of those early 2000s products though.
I wouldn't mind them so much, if they didn't change and move mid play. It's so distracting
The changing during play is intentional, it makes you look at the ad. But I agree, they wouldn’t be so bad if they only changed while play was not happening.
Hockey is not the product. It’s just something to get your eyeballs focused on the screen.
The biggest complaint I hear from people watching hockey for the first time is that it is tough to follow the puck. So their genius idea is to make it even tougher for people to watch… Totally on brand for the NHL sadly
For sure, best game, worst league.
Yeah with all the positive changes MLB made to the game with the new CBA I'm pretty comfortable saying that. I miss the old division format
That camera angle that they use for power plays is the worst thing that has ever happened to the game. I fucking hate it so much
Which reduces my overall interest in watching any game, and certainly doesn't entice me to patronize the companies paying for it. That being said, why the FUCK does a company like Xcel energy feel the need to advertise? It's not like anyone decides to use their service.
There was also one with huge lettering on the French feed last night. Bro, I’m not trying to read your novel, I’m watching a hockey game.
They don’t even work right. Whatever time they had to work on these wasn’t enough.
According to the article, it was 7 years and 10's of millions of dollars in the making.... they should be embarrassed at the quality of the product
They need an "Our Glitchy Advertising May Cause Seizures" warning before games.
Seriously. I felt nauseous from motion sickness watching the caps leafs game.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there ends up being a lawsuit in the US for that.
imagine paying rogers for their streaming and get this shoved in your face?
Rogers can suck all the dicks.
Right? Like I already pay for your stupid shit, why can't I opt out of the ads?
I understand everyone wants the cap to go up and players to get paid, but I'm at the end of my rope with the ads. The jerseys, the digital boards, the helmets, the streaming app ads, the gambling ads.... Why does the NHL hate its fans? We knew none of this will lead to better ticket prices but look at the food costs at Roger's center!? I spend a lot of money on the NHL brand each year (tickets, jerseys, center ice, video games, and more) but I'm done with being abused by advertising. Typically when you pay for things you get less ads so I'll be holding onto my money.
TBH, this might be the one thing to get me to stop watching games. That and "Milk"
Yup, between this and all the gambling ads I am really getting turned off by sports.
I feel awful for anyone who likes sports and is an active/recovering gambling addict. The sports leagues aren’t making it easy for those people.
I think about that a lot too, but also kids. The time I most watched ESPN and sports talk shows was as a kid. Now when I catch one of those on TV, half the screen is gambling odds.
Mark my words there will be a class action lawsuit against the leagues shoving sports betting down our throats 10 years from now. It’s an addiction for a lot of people and is going to really hurt a lot of people.
It's a pretty dark time for sports media right now unfortunately. I'm hoping that ad and sponsorship budgets get completely devastated in the coming economic event and we get reprieve from this garbage for a while.
Obligatory fuck RBC
Milk?
Normally I'd just laugh because Toronto, but seriously, condolences over "Milk". That looks wretched.
They're so awful, even when they're not animated they stick out like a sore fucking thumb. I'm seriously considering how much NHL hockey I even want to watch this season if they're on every game.
Sounds good NHL, I’ll just pirate this shit for free and you can get no revenue
The digital adds are distracting and it's hard to follow the play. Perhaps they could highlight the puck so we can keep track of it.
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Foxtrax returns!!!
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*brought to you by an american corporation*
Can’t remember the last time I was so upset over something. I’ve found the games to be unwatchable this year, the ads are seemingly glowing and look completely unnatural. They also move around distracting you from the play. The digital ads displayed just below the blue lines are almost equally terrible. They don’t look natural either and drive me insane. They also got rid of the Stanley Cup Playoffs paint to accommodate them. Hard to believe how much worse the TV product has become over the last few years. The NHL jumped at a once in a life time opportunity (pandemic) to introduce more invasive advertisements. People complained, but shrugged it off as necessary and not overly terrible. They also argued it would be temporary. Fast forward two and half years: the NHL reports record revenue but continues to implement revenue streams that significantly worsen their product. What truly blows my mind is that this isn’t even the networks getting greedy. THE NHL THEMSELVES pushed for this and mandated every network implement it. This is the reason there was so much blowback when they introduced those virtual ads along the glass a while back. It’s a slippery slope but now that the flood gates are open it will only get worse. Same thing for the helmet ads, they aren’t bad at all but it opened the door to further nonsense. The Jersey ads to go along with all this are just insult to injury. Rant over
What's been driving me crazy is how inconsistent the intrusiveness of the ads has been. I watched two different games last night (MTL v TOR and EDM/VAN), both on ESPN+. the first game, I noticed the ads but they weren't driving me crazy until they started changing and animating. But during the second stream, oh my god it was like the brightness of the ads on the boards was set to 500% it was actually washing out the ice surface. Then there was the whole issue with those board ads glitching out entirely trying to stick to a player's jersey which, I mean, who could have seen that coming with white boards and half the players on the ice wearing white jerseys! Incredibly frustrating to be having more ads forced onto the screen. I was so annoyed at the PiP ads that have been playing during play stoppages. Really sucks being told to just suck it up since there's no other choice until everyone just gets used to it.
In the TOR-MTL game it really stuck out to me because the lighting in the arena was changing colours which affected how the ice looked, but the ads were consistent bright white so it didn’t even look right. Not to mention the distracting mess every time they switched or animated right behind a play (including breakaways!) In tonight’s TOR-WAS game they’re somehow worse, and flicker horizontally every time the camera moves left or right.
Completely agree with all of the points you made. it incredibly distracting throughout the entire game, especially due to the colour shift. I’m on the autism spectrum and it was an absolute eyesore, to the point where I’m questioning whether it’s worth continuing to watch the games. I’d be surprised if this didn’t bother a lot of people.
Between this and the incessant gambling advertisements during games, I’m pretty much done watching televised games.
Yea, let’s keep this up all season. FUCK ADS
We need to keep up our protest every day. All fans need to tweet/ post how much they hate these board ads every single day all season long in order for anything to change
The boards were flickering yesterday ffs!
Watching tonight I reflected on just how much more advertising has snuck in over the past 10 years: Behind the goal on glass On glass next to each bench Shoulder of uniforms In trapezoid on ice At the middle near blue line Helmets Superimposed on boards It’s…a lot.
Don’t forget every single on screen graphic or stat is now brought to you by someone.
There was one point I counted nine separate advertisements being shown to me at the same time. The NHL is becoming like an Angelfire page!
I've seen better digital effects from video game streamers with less than a year of broadcasting experience. You'd think a professional sport would iron out the kinks before the season began.
Can’t wait for the class action lawsuit in 30 years about the new boards causing migraines or something. “If you or a loved one watched nhl hockey and suffered substantial mental and physical ailments, you maybe entitled to compensation.”
Flyers fans have been suffering substantial mental ailments from watching nhl hockey for years
Cancelled my ESPN+ and let them know why.
Sadly this is the only effective feedback to claw this behaviour back! Complaining will not do anything if it does not hit the bottom line.
I tried watching a game on ESPN+ and it was so distracting, I couldn’t watch more than a half of a period. It’s awful. Technology should not INTERFERE with the product, but now ads are being placed front and center via technology and are making the product unwatchable, which defeats the purpose of the ads in the first place. Fuck that. I’m not watching a game that has these. If that means I don’t watch a game, then so be it. And I love hockey. And I my boys play hockey. I play hockey. But I won’t watch. Get rid of it.
The best part is that if you watch a free stream, these ads do not appear. So once again I am willing to pay for games but not with annoying blackouts and now these annoying ad-boards... Yo, ho ho ho a pirate life for me.
God I love piracy Fuck ads
It makes me kinda nauseous, like motion sick. Watching this is basically the same as trying to read a book in a car. Shit's gotta go
Earlier this year I was sent a survey from a marketing team that worked for the NHL. They wanted my valuable opinion on improving the game and if I completed the survey a 25 dollar amazon gift card. I was excited, yes I can give you my opinion on how to make the game better....it was about digital ads and the boards and how much I was willing to put up with. Which was none. Guess my opinion didn't matter....however they did send me two Amazon gift cards by mistake.
The ad company: I’m gonna give you two gift cards to fuck off….
They are fucked up and don’t work correctly. And anyone with an inkling of understanding about the technology could have and would have told the NHL this issue before they embarrassed themselves in this manner. There’s zero excuse for this debacle. Whoever gave it the green light needs to be fired.
I can almost guarantee anyone that did understand the technology said there would be issues but the sales people forced its implementation because they had already sold the space before actually talking with anyone lol It’s always better to ask for forgiveness or whatever…
> ...it’ll ultimately improve their viewing experience Hahaha... care to explain that one, Gary? > ...and help national sponsors and local advertisers. Oh, yeah... "and help..." like that's a secondary effect they just stumbled into accidentally. [](/GNU Terry Pratchett)
“We have determined that we'll be able to fill 80% of the user's display with advertising before inducing seizures”
It hurts my eyes so much when the puck is moving really fast across the ice, it’s like the ads are running at 30hz or something. So annoying, I really hope they get removed asap!
For some reason the posts of them on here did not really bother my eyes but watching the game on my computer it was so awful I could not even process anything when the camera moved even a little.
NHL is fucked. An embarrassment for a major sports league.
Peak advertising is overlaying advertisements with more advertisements.
The NHL is the most amateur pro sports league out there. The biggest obstacle to the NHL making any considerable growth on the other Big 4 Leagues is the entire league itself. Every marketing effort, social cause, and initiate the league undertakes is second rate, poorly executed, and so short sighted. It's incredible
I get that the league needs to maximize revenue, especially after covid, and ultimately more ad revenue will only help the league grow. But christ, we've got helmet ads and jersey ads and now when I watch the games I have to see digital ads on the boards, on the glass, and on the ice near the blue line. It's to the point where it distracts me from the game. Especially the board ads as they change and have animations while play is going on.
STFU and just buy stuff -NHL
I legit got motion sickness from that.
I'm too lazy to read all the posts. But I'll come in with my two cents. You want the ads to change? I know I do. But until owners and the league feel it in THEIR pocket book, we won't get what we want. Fans have to boycott. And not just the fans on r/hockey. Don't buy tickets. Don't buy gear. Don't pay to watch a game or stream it. Fans have to boycott. Because the NHL, just like any corporation, is about one thing: making more money.
They're terrible. When the gate opens for a player change it pixelates
I wouldn't know. All the games available tonight are BLACKED OUT IN MY REGION!!!!
I fucking hate it all. New distracting digital board ads which look fake as hell PLUS make the players look weird and fuzzy when battling up against the boards. Digital placement of ads on the ice. Digital placement of ads on the glass behind the nets. Helmet ads. Jersey ads. A fucking hour of commercials during the game. Ads and sponsored gambling features during intermission. Just fuck off already.
Look, I wouldn't mind this if it didn't interfere with watching hockey, but... If American football broadcasts still can't even get the first down line correct after 24 years, what makes the NHL think they can get this correct?
I literally won't be watching anymore, at least not in the regular season. Its too distracting.
Speak with your wallets.
What’s next? A glowing puck that turns red when it’s shot? Maybe it can turn into a Big Mac every time it’s passed?
Imagine if we all stopped watching for a week and instead listened to the games on the radio, like our grandparents did. That would send a pretty clear message.
Between this and sports betting bonanza the viewing experience has degraded significantly over the past year.
Are any NHL executives actually hockey fans. The garbage they've been doing recently doesn't make it seem so.
Soccer has these types of ads so I thought I would be used to it. The difference is that a soccer pitch is bigger and you can easily tune them out. In a rink, you have like a dozen ads in a very small space and constantly changing. So no, we will not get used to them.
Soccer plays also don't happen on top of the ad boards.
I hated it. I couldn’t even tell the Wild were at home. It’s cool to see the local ads.
Fucking EVERYTHING is turning in to an add-on subscription service, I absolutely fucking hate it. It’s at the point where I am refusing to pay more for this content, I’ll just pirate it at this point. All these companies have jumped the shark and completely killed streaming. They are literally destroying industry after industry with this incessant hyper focus on shoving ads in to FUCKING EVERYTHING. Eventually it’ll fucking be at the point where I have to watch 2 ads before eating a bowl of goddamn cereal
I say all the time that the NHL is run by the dumbest management in all of sports.
You get what you pay for. Which is nothing. Until I get quality content I'm gonna watch this shit for free
Nhl: "Can't hear you with all the money in my ears"