Does this mean my NHL.TV subscription is gone??

Posted by pnwwing on 09/23/21 at 12:12 PM ET

I’m kind of excited to watch some games on ESPN+. I just hope that they don’t require a tv/cable provider login like they do with their live football streams.

Posted by beardChamp on 09/23/21 at 12:23 PM ET

That would be terrible news…

Posted by pnwwing on 09/23/21 at 12:26 PM ET

I think it’s a direct subscription but if they do require a ‘cable’ provider, Hulu works cause of Disney.

Posted by awould on 09/23/21 at 12:38 PM ET

So I’m confused - if ESPN isn’t covering the game and BSD is, does that mean they’ll stream it?  Or does this mean Bally Sports’ regional networks are no longer rebroadcast out of market at all?

Posted by Hippy Dave from Somewhere West of Detroit on 09/23/21 at 01:16 PM ET

(I’m not in the Detroit market)

Posted by Hippy Dave from Somewhere West of Detroit on 09/23/21 at 01:17 PM ET

To my knowledge and experience, for ESPN+ you need a cable log-in AND you get to pay another $15/mo for Plus. AND we get ads on unis this year, on sweaters next year, and ads superimposed on the glass!

This is why I have zero qualms about using “grey market” streaming.

Posted by Steeb on 09/23/21 at 02:22 PM ET

ESPN+ is a standalone service. Subscribe to it (or Hulu or the Disney/ESPN+ bundle) and you get everything that’s on ESPN+, from NHL games to the Bundesliga to random women’s college soccer games. NHL.tv is now gone in the U.S., though Center Ice does still exist and it seems like will be discounted to compete since ESPN+ is a fair bit cheaper than NHL.tv was. No cable provider needed.

Personally, I still have some questions about how the product will compare to NHL.tv, or at least how it will compare to NHL.tv on my Roku, where the picture quality the last couple seasons was outstanding (and better than what I’ve seen from ESPN+), where you can start a game in progress from the beginning, where when watching replays they would hide the full game time (since it’s kind of a spoiler to know that a game lasted nearly three full hours—might as well just fast-forward to the shootout), and where you could jump ahead in the game by period.

I’m guessing there are a lot of others out there who really liked those features on NHL.tv, and I’ll be really disappointed if we lose them even in the process of saving a couple bucks a month.

Posted by nosferatu from Albany, NY on 09/23/21 at 02:26 PM ET

One thing nhl.tv really stunk at was streaming to a Chromecast from a phone, so looking forward to (hopefully) a better solution.

Posted by Hippy Dave from Somewhere West of Detroit on 09/23/21 at 03:29 PM ET

I’ve got to admit, I’m still confused on how to see all the Wings games.

ESPN+ will have exclusive games
ESPN - excusive games?
ABC - exclusive games? What do I need to stream them?
HULU - exclusive games? / will they show all ESPN or ESPN games?
TNT - exclusive games - how can I stream them?
In-Market Games - this doesn’t apply to me since I’m in a hockey deprived market but how does someone stream those?

For now I’ve got access to most of it via Center Ice via Directv but would really like to ditch that for all streaming in the near future.

Posted by evileye on 09/23/21 at 04:05 PM ET

From what I understand, all the games that were available on NHL.tv will be available on ESPN+. That means all the Fox Sports Det—I mean “Bally Sports” Detroit games we used to see will still be there.

In addition to that, there will be exclusive games on ESPN+, ESPN, ABC, and TNT.

It’s also a far better deal than NHL.tv ever was.

Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 09/23/21 at 05:29 PM ET

If its not on ESPN+, im just gonna stream it.

https://sportsurge.net/#/groups/0
https://firstrowsport.org/

Posted by ilovehomers on 09/23/21 at 06:02 PM ET

@evileye, the Hulu games are the same as ESPN+, so a subscription to one of the two covers you there (and with all out-of-market, non-nationally-televised games).

But yeah, ESPN, ESPN+, ABC, and TNT will all have exclusive broadcasts. I think if you want to stream the exclusive games that aren’t on ESPN+ you’ll need some service like Sling or YouTube TV. Or, you know, utilize other, not-legal means.

Posted by nosferatu from Albany, NY on 09/23/21 at 06:23 PM ET

@AJMleczko and I are doing it on ESPN+

So they actually want people to pay extra to hear Mleczko provide her scintilating commentary. Hilarious. On the other hand, if forced to, I’d probably pay to not hear her.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids, MI on 09/23/21 at 06:43 PM ET