The reports were correct. Viasat and its sister MTG stations have signed a five year deal to air the NHL. Via NHL.com –.
MTG has the rights to show live coverage of all 1230 regular season games as well as every Stanley Cup playoff game each season on its pay-TV channels and Viaplay online multi-screen video streaming service across the Nordic region. Certain games also will be made available on MTG’s free-TV channels.
Swedish viewers will be able to watch live NHL® games on hockey pay-TV channel Viasat Hockey and premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport, with selected games also shown on free-TV channel TV10.
Norwegian viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on hockey channel Viasat Hockey and premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport HD, with selected games also shown on free-TV channel Viasat 4.
Danish viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on premium pay-TV channel TV2 Sport, which MTG operates together with TV2 Denmark.
Finnish viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on hockey channel Viasat Hockey and the Nelonen Pro sports channel, which are owned by Sanoma Media in strategic cooperation with MTG.
All of the games will be available over the internet on the Viaplay service in each country and, when several games are being played at the same time, Viasat satellite pay-TV customers will be able to choose between coverage on the channels mentioned above and the Viasat Xtra channels. The coverage also will include for the first time a new NHL-produced daily highlights show, which will be begin airing in the coming months.
At least that’s settled and fans will also get some games through Viaplay after all. It’s interesting how Gamecenter lost out in the Nordic region. Apparently, MTG demanded that Viaplay get the rights. Also, current GCL subscribers in the Nordic region will be transitioned to the Viaplay service. TV coverage begins tonight.
The Paranoid Puck 
JeffUK
October 20, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Sounds like Scandinavian viewers have done well out of this debacle- every game live on TV or online- you’d hope that if you subscribe to the TV package and get online coverage included. Hopefully they’ll keep the fans happy by offering the original english commentary as well as any local language coverage they add.
The NHL has certainly got their wish in Scandinavia, shame about the UK!
Magnus
October 20, 2011 at 11:44 pm
Currently, Viaplay.se will be streaming 15 games per week. Sometime during november all games will be available on ‘Viaplay Gamecenter’, whatever that means.
I’m glad that there finaly is a solution for Sweden, but I wont start cheering untill I actually see how it works. Viaplay.se is known for low quality streams at a high cost (about 20 euro per month).
paranoidpuck
October 21, 2011 at 12:04 am
It makes much more sense to just have everything go through GCL. Im assuming that the only way Viasat was going to make much money on this deal was to force everyone to use their own online service.
Christian Edinger
October 21, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Thankfully, with GCL on AppleTV you can forego whatever option Viasat has to offer.
Truly, this is messed up.
Christian Edinger
Copenhagen, Denmark
robin
October 21, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Everyone is just whining and I don’t get it. Viaplay ain’t bad and 20 euros per month is nothing when you think about all the sporting events you can watch, there is more stuff there besides the NHL. It’s not HD, but it is not bad either.
Christian Edinger
October 21, 2011 at 4:14 pm
@Robin:
When you consider the alternative – ESPN America – this is indeed a bad deal. Hence the “whining”.
Christian Edinger
Copenhagen, Denmark
Magnus
October 23, 2011 at 1:38 pm
To be able to view NHL on Viaplay.se you need to buy the “whole package” which includes tv-series, movies and… porn! :p So basically, the NHL package comes with free porn! Now thats an ad I would like to see on TV.
“Sign up for NHL right now and get free porn!”
//Magnus
paranoidpuck
October 23, 2011 at 3:57 pm
I think that’s getting lost in all the laudatory reporting about this. The NHL claims this is a great deal and the mainstream media are eating it up without doing any research on the subject.
GTheuns
October 25, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Still in other countries across the globe, including the Netherlands, it’s still impossible to watch NHL on TV. What abov us?!
And €20,- per month is not a cheap solution in my book. You’ll have to watch quite some games to get your money’s worth.
I’m not smiling yet…