Ok, so literally whilst I was drawing up an email to the NHL with several questions re: Centre Ice Online (price, blackouts, Mac support, etc), they went and updated their site! Man, I'm on the forefront of change! (There's no games on tonight, if you're wondering what the deal is with that screenshot).
So I got my answer about price...get this...you can sign up for the Free Preview, which ends after the first week of the regular season. OR, you can sign up now for the entire season, for the low low price of $200 CDN!!! ROFLLOLWTFNHLBBQ!
Now, I'm no finance wizard, but I'm starting to know a rip off when I see one! For one thing, I could sign up through my cable company for less than that, $170 for the season, $150 at the Early Bird price! Maybe I'm stupid, but I think a cable feed to my TV is a helluva lot better quality than low grade Windows Media over the Internet! How can the Online price be anywhere NEAR the broadcast one?! That's ballz.
Not only that, but they're missing the entire 'secret' of Internet commerce: Micropayments! Ok NHL, I'm gonna say this once: $2 per game. That's what you're going to get from me. I'm not gonna watch every single game this season, therefore, I want to only pay for what I watch. And that's ONLY if I can log in from Saskatchewan and watch Leafs games...again, it's not clear.
Now, I thought I saw, during the sign up process, a reference to something called "Day Pass". I didn't get a screenshot of it unfortunately. However, that sounds like a much more reasonable option. Maybe a Day Pass option will roll out at some point and be about $2.
The NHL is seriously over-valuing its product in this case. I cannot believe it's more money than the actual cable package...that's lunacy!
Anyway, one step forward. I'll enjoy the free preview, and see where we go from here.
On a related note, the CBC will be streaming all its games online this year. They can do that because they have National rights to the games. The LeafsTV only have rights for their "region". Anyways, props to the CBC. I assume they'll use the despised Windows Media as well, but that's what Flip4Mac is for...
It's not that I want everything to be done my way all the time...it just seems like it. :)
4 comments:
Sure hope CBS sticks with the standard wmv format, so that Flip4Mac can allow us Mac'ers to see it. Quite a few content providers have gone with some weird mutant wmv format that doesn't comply with the norm, and even Flip4Mac has a hard time with that stuff.
Yeah, I'd like to see much wider adoption of Quicktime, but Windows people don't seem to care for it. Or, if Flash could stream live events, but I don't think it can.
There ought to be a live stream player that works in every browser, on Windows, Mac and Linux. VLC comes to mind, but it's not a browser plug in, although it can handle URLs.
this is sorta related...I recently moved from Calgary to Saint John. I got hooked up with a digital box and subscribed to a sports package hoping to watch my flames, only to find its regionally restricted. no last year i could watch the hockey on any of the sportsnet stations. My friend who has satellite can watch the games' on sportsnet. so why cant I? Any information on why and who's boneheaded idea this was would be greatly appreciated.
this is sorta related...I recently moved from Calgary to Saint John. I got hooked up with a digital box and subscribed to a sports package hoping to watch my flames, only to find its regionally restricted. no last year i could watch the hockey on any of the sportsnet stations. My friend who has satellite can watch the games' on sportsnet. so why cant I? Any information on why and who's boneheaded idea this was would be greatly appreciated.
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