We’re getting reports that Viasat has come to a deal with AMI/Medge to air NHL games. Viasat had previously jumped the gun and announced a few weeks ago that they were airing games but this seems more definite.
What’s the difference this time around? NHL fans who are in Scandinavia and have NHL Gamecenter are now being told the service will no longer be available to them and they can watch games on Viasat.
This is all quite strange since it makes little sense to ban GCL. That’s what blackouts are for. We have e-mailed some NHL people and hope to hear back with something official soon.
The Paranoid Puck 
Franck
October 5, 2011 at 8:54 pm
I guess a select few will be happy over this, but for most Scandinavian NHL fans this is terrible news. Viasat’s premium cable/satellite channels where most of the games will be aired are not only expensive but not even available to many cable/satellite subscribers thanks to Viasat’s business model where they are both a media provider as well as a cable/satellite provider, not willing to make their premium media content available to their cable/satellite competitors in the hopes of winning their subscribers over to Viasat instead.
In addition to that Viasat’s online streaming services for other sports such as Champions League football has been both expensive and of a poor quality, which makes things look even darker, particularly for those of us who wanted a GCL/ESPN360-like online service.
Jesse
October 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
This is terrible news. As you say, it doesn’t make sense to ban Scandinavian viewers from Game Center Live altogether, since it would make more sense to simply just blackout the games aired on Viasat. Also, obviously not everyone has access to Viasat, so there should really be no blackouts at all, since blackouts (to my knowledge) only apply to games that are televised on national television. This is just a mess… Hopefully they sort something out for online users that wants to see NHL live and on demand.
paranoidpuck
October 5, 2011 at 10:01 pm
The way it usually works is that any games the national provider is airing are blacked out on GCL. Obviously, Viasat can’t air every game. It doesn’t add up unless Viasat is going to stream the games on their own website.
Ægir
October 6, 2011 at 12:14 pm
It’s so weird that they blocked out GCL in Iceland, Viasat isn’t even available in Iceland.
Shit!
Tero
October 6, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Actually, Viasat only cut a deal to show both NHL Premier games. Besides those two games, there’s no deal. The rumour is, that there is still three parties negotiating. It’s pretty bad situation, NHL fans are really getting angry.
paranoidpuck
October 6, 2011 at 2:26 pm
You’re correct. I did a post about it this AM. You must’ve missed it.
Magnus
October 11, 2011 at 3:54 pm
I had a look at Viaplay.se (Viasat online streaming) yesteday and the sports package then included NHL (whole season, not just the compuware games in europe). That has been removed today however…
//Magnus
Dan
October 16, 2011 at 4:34 pm
There is no NHL in Scandinavia whatsoever, and it have been handled terribly by Medge Consulting. They say they had a deal close to an end, heck thats two weeks ago. Nothing have been said from any party the last two weeks.
paranoidpuck
October 16, 2011 at 4:58 pm
That’s correct. There are subsequent posts that mention that and list the Viasat schedule.
The oddest thing is how GCL was banished from the region for no apparent reason since Viaplay only offered a couple of games.