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I had GCL (NHLTV)since it was available in the UK. Prior to that we got streaming via ESPN.
This is my first season without.
My issue isn’t the cost, my renewal e-mail had it at around $120 usd. The problem is the complete absence of innovation and improvement. If anything the service has deteriorated over the years.
When watching completed games on demand, in the past they edited out the commercial breaks. They don’t do that any longer. And since the commercials are usually blacked out, you get a couple of minutes of a foggy rink.
When you try to fast forward, it was difficult to do it with a degree of accuracy. Sometimes you’d end up at the start of a telecast or else far further ahead than intended.
Intermission coverage is hit and miss. If it is miss, which it often is, you get 15 minutes or more of foggy ice. When you’re watching at 3 am, fighting sleep ends up a losing battle.
And it isn’t live. I’ve gotten goal alerts, texts and whatnot 1-2 minutes before they happen on my stream. On occasion, it was so bad I sought out illegal streams whilst paying for GCL.
The blackouts are ridiculous. I also subscribe to Premier Sports. Sometimes PS show delayed coverage. It could be 12 hours. The game isn’t supposed to be blacked out, but often it is. This meant that despite subscribing to every legal method of watching hockey in this country, I couldn’t watch live hockey.
I don’t want to access hockey using illegal methods, but what choice is there when the product to carry it is so useless?
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I feel your pain Mr Barnet, I went a couple of seasons without NHL.TV/GCL but came back last year, suffered the ridiculous blackouts but his year i'm trying the old VPN route to try and get round them, fingers crossed.
You are so right about the lack of innovation around the product, I actually preffered the adverts to the foggy rink we get now.
This may sound like homerism but I feel the UK really gets shafted by the NHL. No live games for what, 8-10 yrs, but they seem to go to Sweden or Finland each year. If the aim of sending NHL teams to play in Europe is to grow the game they are beating the wrong donkey (apologies to any donkey owners), the game is already massive in the scandic countries, so why not come here for a game. (Rant over)