2021 NHL Season

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I have decided to still sign up for NHL.tv despite having a Kayo and Fetch account. Not convinced ESPN via their app will stream all games.

You can still register for NHL.tv if you use a VPN and change location (I used UK), although you may need to create a new email login, because it won't let you register for a new NHL.tv season using your old login details, if your old login showed an Australia account.

For my new account, I used paypal as the payment method and it worked. You dont even need to enter a full UK address. Only a postcode.

Will try to watch a preseason game on the weekend using NHL app without a VPN on to see if it works.
 
Absolutely stunned how amateur this rollout has been.

I've sent a few emails seeking clarification on the availability of watching all games and the available platforms. Obviously no one has responded, because I think it's pretty clear that no one actually knows and the transfer of rights was hardly done with the viewers in mind.

Like someone said earlier, it's 2021 and regardless of what is ultimately decided before opening day that it will be inferior to what was available previously.

The ESPN app is dreadful and ominously, the pre-season games that should be available are absent and ones that are broadcast are 30 seconds behind other available (illegal) streams. When loading a game, you have to sit through a 15 second advert of an undrinkable beer, which means jumping between games (which was incredibly easy on the NHL tv app with dual screen) will end up becoming a 40 second round trip if you just want to catch a couple of minutes of overtime.

Not that I believe it will have any significant influence, but contacting the league and continuing to voice your/our disapproval with the service provided, may put more pressure on ESPN to actually improve their presentation.

But everyone's got paid so who gives a shit right?
 
So with the press release confirming the doomsday scenario, to stream the full season running 9 months from Oct to June your legal avenues in Australia are:

ESPN + foxtel now on the $54 / month sports + essentials pack for $486. You can sort a 30 day trial which would knock off $54.

ESPN + fetch using the Vibe pack at $6 / month. Catch is you need a fetch box to sign up and the cheapest is $169 ($199 for 4k output), bringing you to $223 for the season.

NHL.tv would have cost you US$99.99 for the season, which is roughly $136.99 at today's exchange rate.

With that, the ESPN + fetch combo works out OK if the deal holds up for two seasons ($138.50 / $153.50). It'd be cheaper than VPN + NHL.tv. Downside is the fetch box is otherwise useless to me, plus the aforementioned intrusive advertising.
 
Agent93 said:
So with the press release confirming the doomsday scenario, to stream the full season running 9 months from Oct to June your legal avenues in Australia are:

ESPN + foxtel now on the $54 / month sports + essentials pack for $486. You can sort a 30 day trial which would knock off $54.

ESPN + fetch using the Vibe pack at $6 / month. Catch is you need a fetch box to sign up and the cheapest is $169 ($199 for 4k output), bringing you to $223 for the season.

NHL.tv would have cost you US$99.99 for the season, which is roughly $136.99 at today's exchange rate.

With that, the ESPN + fetch combo works out OK if the deal holds up for two seasons ($138.50 / $153.50). It'd be cheaper than VPN + NHL.tv. Downside is the fetch box is otherwise useless to me, plus the aforementioned intrusive advertising.
Click to expand...
I have no issue just sticking to radio. They can make it more accessible next season and I might consider. Forking out for fetch with the box is a bit much, making you pay for shit you don't want. Bundles are rarely a good buy for consumers. 90% usually goes to waste.
 

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Agent93 said:
Downside is the fetch box is otherwise useless to me, plus the aforementioned intrusive advertising.
Click to expand...

This.

I now have to buy a device I dont want, just to access to the app, that you then have to cast to the tv.

How backwards is that, compared to the native nhl.tv app ffs.
 
Hodges 153! said:
This.

I now have to buy a device I dont want, just to access to the app, that you then have to cast to the tv.

How backwards is that, compared to the native nhl.tv app ffs.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, the fetch box doesn't even have the native ESPN App.

We're basically an afterthought and screwed by existing content deals, so there's limited profit in developing something as an exception for us. Ideally Disney brings EPSN in house in the same way they did to Star, and offers ESPN+ in Australia. I can't see any other way it works out; they won't not sell the content if foxtel will buy it so we won't end up in an European scenario where NHL.tv returns as a 'legal' option.

My guess is it's something that happens circa 2022/23 as ESPN execs were quoted as being keen on obtaining rights for Australian sports. Both the cricket and AFL deals are due in 23/24, and they'd need a local subscriber base to be considered a legitimate option.
 
Agent93 said:
Oh yeah, the fetch box doesn't even have the native ESPN App.

We're basically an afterthought and screwed by existing content deals, so there's limited profit in developing something as an exception for us. Ideally Disney brings EPSN in house in the same way they did to Star, and offers ESPN+ in Australia. I can't see any other way it works out; they won't not sell the content if foxtel will buy it so we won't end up in an European scenario where NHL.tv returns as a 'legal' option.

My guess is it's something that happens circa 2022/23 as ESPN execs were quoted as being keen on obtaining rights for Australian sports. Both the cricket and AFL deals are due in 23/24, and they'd need a local subscriber base to be considered a legitimate option.
Click to expand...
The fact Disney own ESPN, and won't provide the option to host ESPN on their Disney Plus streaming service seems weird and stupid to me.
 
Drunkgoliath said:
The fact Disney own ESPN, and won't provide the option to host ESPN on their Disney Plus streaming service seems weird and stupid to me.
Click to expand...
foxtel and fetch currently own the rights to ESPN TV content in Australia. Disney needs to wait for that to expire (much like they did for the Netflix agreements) before they can launch ESPN+ in Australia. I haven't been able to find out how long that deal runs for.
 
So as someone who has watched nearly every Capitals game for what seems an eternity how do i know watch all of our games?
Price doesn’t matter I’ll pay whatever
 
The press release is clear in stating that all games will be available through streaming, which means either subscribing to Foxtel Now and signing up to the basic package + the sports package, which as Agent93 says will set you back a total of $54 a month, or signing up the $6 a month "Vibe" package on Fetch.....but you need to spend $160 odd upfront getting a Fetch Box, which is a very annoying cost if you already have a Smart TV/Apple TV/etc to watch Netflix on. Either option sucks.

What is unclear to us is....everything to do with it, apart from paying for it.
 
So I have signed up for a 2021-22 NHL.tv season pass via a VPN. However, before you do this, there a potential issue that you need to be aware of. Even with your NHL.tv subscription active, the NHL app will try and divert you to ESPN app to load the stream if you are using an Apple product/Apple TV.

But on my android phone it works fine. The stream loads. I can even chromecast to my TV. I can do this without the VPN switched on.

If you have an android TV or Google TV, the NHL app also works perfectly if you have an active subscription.

At the moment I have only tested it for completed games such as Toronto-Montreal game today and Ottawa-Winnipeg game yesterday. I will test it live on the weekend.

If the press release is correct that all games will be available via ESPN, then it is perhaps not necessary to pay for an NHL.tv subscription if you have Foxtel/Kayo/Fetch.
 
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Peter Sidorkiewicz said:
Kayo
Click to expand...
Not Kayo, you can't register that as a 'TV provider' in the ESPN app (see below).

Phone said:
What is unclear to us is....everything to do with it, apart from paying for it.
Click to expand...
You need the ESPN app, which is available on android or IOS. Within the setting there you link your TV provider account (either foxtel or Fetch), which then unlocks the paid for content.

The web version is a PITA and you basically have to disable all browser add-ins for it to function. Here's what it asks when I try and click on the Islanders / Flyers game:

1632876102898.png

Peter Sidorkiewicz said:
But on my android phone it works fine. The stream loads. I can even chromecast to my TV. I can do this without the VPN switched on.
Click to expand...
This seems consistent with what I've seen in the past, although I wonder whether they'll start trying to geo-block it.

Great8 said:
So as someone who has watched nearly every Capitals game for what seems an eternity how do i know watch all of our games?
Price doesn’t matter I’ll pay whatever
Click to expand...
There's a decent chance (as Peter Sidorkiewicz has done) you can sign up for NHL.tv using an international (Western European) address, and it'll just work. I remember a few seasons back there was 3 or 4 different sets or pricing depending on where you signed up, the cheapest being the US version of the nhl.com website. Once you'd signed up, every app didn't care where you were logging in from and just worked.

EDIT: Realised my 20-21 sub was still active to Oct 1, so I changed my address to 10 Downing St and... the browser redirects to ESPN, but the android app could load the both the NYR game stream. However when I went to change it to another game it crashed, and then crashed a few more times after that for good measure (android, galaxy S9). After a 5 minute wait I was able to load the NYI game stream. So yay, but it doesn't seem reliable.
 
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