If you love baseball, subscribing to MLB.tv is a nobrainer. For $20 a month, you get on-demand access to any game over the internet. It’s amazing. Now the NHL is teaming up with the super innovative media department behind the product, which could end up producing some incredible new viewing experiences for fans.
MLB Advanced Media has been a leader on providing awesome digital products to fans. MLB.tv is so good that MLBAM was hired to help HBO Go scale up to the point that its streaming product would be more reliable. Besides the streaming video, MLBAM also developed Statcast, an innovative way of tracking on-field statistics, like how fast a are running. MLBAM doesn’t just track the stats in real time, they’re also incorporated into entertaining replays.
At this time, the NHL and MLBAM aren’t saying precisely what’s going to happen in 2016 when the new partnership goes into full effect. We know for sure that the NHL Network would be operated by MLBAM alongside the MLB operations in Secaucus, New Jersey. MLBAM will also run NHL’s MLB.tv-like product, Center Ice. (The deal only covers out of market games, so sorry for you hometeam fans.)
What we’re really hoping is that innovations like Statcast tracking tech might soon be installed in your favorite professional hockey rink. Let’s hope so! Hockey is notoriously hard to watch on screens. MLBAM might make it downright enjoyable.