NHL GameCenter LIVE Class Action Settlement

[IPv6Freely 2082]

This popped up in my email. Quote:

The lawsuit alleges that the territorial allocation of broadcast rights within the NHL assigned to each of its member clubs and thereafter sold to regional sporting networks violated federal antitrust laws, provides out of market consumers with fewer choices, and inflates prices charged to view broadcasts of live professional hockey games. Defendants dispute Plaintiffs' factual and legal claims and deny any wrongdoing and liability, as well as any adverse effect on consumer choices and that prices charged have been inflated. The parties have concluded that it is in their best interests to settle the litigation to avoid the expense, inconvenience, and uncertainty of litigation.

If the settlement is approved, they will now have team-specific streams at 20% off the purchase price of the full GameCenter Live package. Also a 17.25% discount on full package purchases for the 2015-16 season.

More info: www.NHLbroadcastingsettlement.com

[OldCY 94]

Does effect blackouts at all?

[pittu 15]

I live WAYYYYY outside the market area of my team (Red Wings). I don't have access to any cable or satellite tv.

All I want to do is watch the Red Wings play and I am willing to pay to do it. NHL Game Center Live was not worth it to me by any stretch. Hopefully this will improve things at least somewhat.

Edited to add: it looks like the black outs would be unaffected from the way I read it.....

[IPv6Freely 2082]

Same here. But it didn't carry CBC games (but had sportsnet, TSN and even LeafsTV games). I'd absolutely pay to actually get all the games. And for that matter id pay AGAIN for full access to the playoffs.

[start_today 757]

Isn't that 17.25% discount fairly close to whatever the early subscriber discount was already? And what am I missing about the team specific streaming packages? You pay 80% of the full rate, and get 1/15th of the games? And that's minus the national broadcast games.

I know the NHL hates their fans, but this settlement seems like they're offering exactly what they were before, with the added option to overpay for local broadcasts.

Edit: Fixed the fraction of games that you get.

[IPv6Freely 2082]

I guess. I mean if I only cared about MY team id take a reduced package even if it's not a better value.

[pittu 15]

I agree with "start today". The way this is structured seems like basically an FU to fans who just want to consume the game and are willing to pay to do so.

Is there a satellite based way to watch every game of a single team, including playoffs?

[IPv6Freely 2082]

Don't think so. Sucks that there's still no good way to watch all the games.

[Vet88 673]

Hmm, I live overseas and for my annual gamecenter subscription I can watch every NHL game live (if only I had the time!). Seems like the closer you are to home the more you get screwed? I didn't realise you guys were so restricted in which games you can watch....

[IPv6Freely 2082]

Hmm, I live overseas and for my annual gamecenter subscription I can watch every NHL game live (if only I had the time!). Seems like the closer you are to home the more you get screwed? I didn't realise you guys were so restricted in which games you can watch....

Generally you can't watch local games AT ALL (I'm unable to watch LA or Anaheim games where I live), and for whatever reason CBC games (Leafs on Saturdays) I can't watch either. They aren't blacked out, they just aren't broadcast on gamecenter at all.

[Vet88 673]

Before I joined gamecenter I found that most of the games were live streamed thru various channels, whilst you could watch them the quality wasn't that great and sometimes you couldn't get the game you wanted to watch. These were the main reasons I finally signed up for gamecenter. I wonder if gamecenter filters you based on your address details (for your card payment) and or your ip address? If the latter then would going through an offshore proxy change anything? If the former or both then you need to find somebody who lives overseas to pay the subscription :)

[JAG 20]

Before I joined gamecenter I found that most of the games were live streamed thru various channels, whilst you could watch them the quality wasn't that great and sometimes you couldn't get the game you wanted to watch. These were the main reasons I finally signed up for gamecenter. I wonder if gamecenter filters you based on your address details (for your card payment) and or your ip address? If the latter then would going through an offshore proxy change anything? If the former or both then you need to find somebody who lives overseas to pay the subscription :)

It filters by your IP address. So you can't trick it by using a dummy address when you sign up.

However, there are ways around the blackouts. If you are using google chrome, you can download the extension called "Stealthy". You activate stealthy while trying to load a local game stream, and your IP address is masked with an offshore one. It worked for me every time.

A lot of games are on NBCSports. If you have a friend who has dish network, or direct tv, or whatever... you can use their sign-in info and watch the games streaming through the NBCsports website, or their apps on your phone, tablet, or apple TV.

[Goonsquad 209]

This should be a good deal for everyone

[IPv6Freely 2082]

It filters by your IP address. So you can't trick it by using a dummy address when you sign up.

However, there are ways around the blackouts. If you are using google chrome, you can download the extension called "Stealthy". You activate stealthy while trying to load a local game stream, and your IP address is masked with an offshore one. It worked for me every time.

A lot of games are on NBCSports. If you have a friend who has dish network, or direct tv, or whatever... you can use their sign-in info and watch the games streaming through the NBCsports website, or their apps on your phone, tablet, or apple TV.

I could probably get some kind of proxy going so that even when I use my AppleTV to stream it still appears I'm offshore to avoid blackouts, but that still doesn't help me with the CBC games that aren't broadcast on GCL at all :(

The NBCSports app on the AppleTV works pretty well, the downside is that you have to listen to NBC announcers.

[Stewie 721]

I could probably get some kind of proxy going so that even when I use my AppleTV to stream it still appears I'm offshore to avoid blackouts, but that still doesn't help me with the CBC games that aren't broadcast on GCL at all :(

The NBCSports app on the AppleTV works pretty well, the downside is that you have to listen to NBC announcers.

Easy fix. Mute Apple TV and sync up a radio feed.

[Gummer12 134]

This should be a good deal for everyone

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/4/9090897/mlb-bam-live-streaming-internet-tv-nhl-hbo-now-espn

[Steve_v3 275]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/4/9090897/mlb-bam-live-streaming-internet-tv-nhl-hbo-now-espn

Very Cool..

[IPv6Freely 2082]

I saw that a week or so ago. That's a good thing.