No More NHL Live for Canadians

[activeStick]

Just saw an e-mail from NHL Live letting me know that NHL Live will no longer be available in Canada starting next season and if we want to watch NHL games going forward, our option is only SN Now.

This sucks as I often watch the American feeds on NHL Live for better quality, higher crowd volume and to avoid some of the SN PBP/color commentary when it's Singh/Oilers people. I'm assuming none of the American feeds will be available on SN Now if the game is covered by SN, right? What if SN isn't covering the game at all, say a NYR v BOS game? Would that game be on the SN Now app?

Edit: Okay, the e-mail says you can watch all the same out-of-market games, so I'm guessing SN Now will carry the US feeds for games that SN are not covering themselves

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Wow that's dumb. I typically watched via NHL Live instead of Sportsnet mostly just to replace the repetitive commercials with silence, but also occasionally for the American feeds like you mentioned.

This, plus losing Mario as an option makes me sad.

[activeStick]

Full e-mail:

The NHL LIVE streaming service will no longer be available in Canada at the conclusion of this NHL® season, but next season you can use SN NOW to watch all the same out-of-market and national games, all Stanley Cup Playoffs matchups, plus even more regional games with fewer blackouts*, at the same price you paid for NHL LIVE.

What does this mean for you?

At the start of the 2022-23 season, your NHL LIVE subscription will not be renewed, you will not be charged, and you will no longer be able to access NHL LIVE.

For the 2022-23 NHL® season, you can watch all the same great matchups previously available from NHL LIVE, including every out-of-market NHL game, by signing up for SN NOW PREMIUM for the same price you paid for NHL LIVE.

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Originally Posted by activeStick

For the 2022-23 NHL® season, you can watch all the same great matchups previously available from NHL LIVE, including every out-of-market NHL game, by signing up for SN NOW PREMIUM for the same price you paid for NHL LIVE.

Soooo... it's the same thing as NHL Live, but now just branded by SN? Is this just the NHL getting out of having to manage the software? Seems odd.


And thanks for the detail, I didn't get the email because I just share the account with someone else... until they fix that too I suppose.

[calumniate]

How is the snet now app? Living in montreal, im concerned!

[Igottago]

I don't mind if the price is comparable. I suppose you'd get more content than just the NHL as well (like having Sportsnet on your cable package?). I pretty much get NHL Live every year, was always generally satisfied with the quality and reliability. Only a couple odd hiccups here and there. Hopefully the SN app is just as good.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by calumniate

How is the snet now app? Living in montreal, im concerned!

Garbage. Buffering, stuttering, and locked at 30fps. The NHL app is far superior, this is a huge downgrade for Canadian fans. Looks like pirate streams will be the only decent option now

[topfiverecords]

Wonder if this is going to work to my benefit. I subscribe to SN + CI and I’ve always been able to login to SN Now with my Telus login. Will I be able to skip ordering Centre Ice next year and get the rest of team’s games this way?

[Skaloper]

I have SN Now Premium with NHL Live right now. I only currently use it to watch Jays games right now but you have to watch all the commercials. So I wonder if this will also be the case with the move to SN.

[combustiblefuel]

Really? I haven't seen that email yet.

Can you start watching the game from the beginning on sports net now? That's what I liked about the nhl app. Start watching an hour later then I could fast foreward the commercials and intermission. That and you could watch the game anytime.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by combustiblefuel

Really? I haven't seen that email yet.

Can you start watching the game from the beginning on sports net now? That's what I liked about the nhl app. Start watching an hour later then I could fast foreward the commercials and intermission. That and you could watch the game anytime.

You can watch the game from the start, but got help you if you want to skip a period or any large chunk of time. You're forced to fast forward in 30 second increments and hope that the app doesn't crash

[activeStick]

Does anyone here have an Amazon Fire TV stick? Looks like the SN Now app is available on it, but I'd like to confirm with someone who's used it. If so, I will replace the Roku I bought for my dad to stream my NHL Live subscription with the Fire TV stick. No chance my dad will be able to cast anything from SN Now on his phone to the TV using a Chromecast.

[PeteMoss]

SN had the option this year to add the non-Sportsnet NHL games to your SN Now package.

THe NHL live package was cheaper though.

[FlamingHomer]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Does anyone here have an Amazon Fire TV stick? Looks like the SN Now app is available on it, but I'd like to confirm with someone who's used it. If so, I will replace the Roku I bought for my dad to stream my NHL Live subscription with the Fire TV stick. No chance my dad will be able to cast anything from SN Now on his phone to the TV using a Chromecast.

I have it on my Firestick but it doesn't run well. At all. I have 150 mbps with fibre and it stops a few minutes into a live event. I also have Google (Chromecast) TV device and it runs almost perfectly on that.

[Galakanokis]

It is minor but one thing I really liked about the NHL vs SN Now was the skip button. On the NHL version I could get a 10 second skip to work flawlessly with the arrow keys. SN Now only has a 30 second skip and I cannot get it to work with the arrow keys consistently to save my life. I always watch delayed so I use it a lot.

And please just find a better way to hide the scores when watching from the start.

[calumniate]

Sounds like bad news bears.. 2022 and can't even build a properly functioning TSN or SN app. Frigging criminals trying to latch on to the last straws of cable.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Sounds like bad news bears.. 2022 and can't even build a properly functioning TSN or SN app. Frigging criminals trying to latch on to the last straws of cable.

It is ridiculous that the two big technology companies in Canada can't build decent apps.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by FlamingHomer

I have it on my Firestick but it doesn't run well. At all. I have 150 mbps with fibre and it stops a few minutes into a live event. I also have Google (Chromecast) TV device and it runs almost perfectly on that.

Thanks for the review. Damn it. Maybe I'll just add centre ice to my dad's TV package so he can use the good ol' TV. I'll subscribe to SN Now for myself.

[Hanni]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Does anyone here have an Amazon Fire TV stick? Looks like the SN Now app is available on it, but I'd like to confirm with someone who's used it. If so, I will replace the Roku I bought for my dad to stream my NHL Live subscription with the Fire TV stick. No chance my dad will be able to cast anything from SN Now on his phone to the TV using a Chromecast.

I have it on a Fire stick and it works decently enough, it's a cheap device so you're not going to get high performance. The app takes a bit longer to load than on other devices but it's still under 30s I'd say.

The biggest issue is SN itself but that's not unique to Fire sticks. I have issues with it loading properly the first time, it randomly decides I no longer have a subscription so I have to re-login, buffering. This happens on my ShieldTV as well though.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Hanni

I have it on a Fire stick and it works decently enough, it's a cheap device so you're not going to get high performance. The app takes a bit longer to load than on other devices but it's still under 30s I'd say.

The biggest issue is SN itself but that's not unique to Fire sticks. I have issues with it loading properly the first time, it randomly decides I no longer have a subscription so I have to re-login, buffering. This happens on my ShieldTV as well though.

Thanks for the info. In the other review, FlamingHomer mentioned Google TV working well. I looked that up and didn't realize the newest Google TV Chromecast actually has a user interface and remote, which is different from the older Chromecast device I use. I might go with that since it's the interface that my dad needs.