Boston Globe NHL needs to dump these virtual boards.

[Gee Wally]

The NHL needs to dump these new virtual ad boards - The Boston Globe

They impose on the game-watching experience in a way I cannot abide. I am calling for a dump and change, writes Matt Porter.

www.bostonglobe.com

So it seems the NHL is plowing ahead with these virtual board ads.
It should not.
I don’t care how much cash they add to the league’s coffers. They’re bad. They impose on the game-watching experience in a way I cannot abide. I am calling for a dump and change.
Look, Impossible Burgers are a perfectly fine sandwich: They taste like a light burger, you can dress them in various ways, I like a fried egg on mine sometimes. I must object, however, to seeing a 30-foot-wide close-up of a plant-based burger patty plastered all over the half-wall.

The NHL viewing experience in 2022: You’re trying to follow the play, then this unwanted screensaver jolts away from the close-up and pans out to the whole sandwich. The word “IMPOSSIBLE” was painted in shouting capital letters in the rest of the available board space.

That’s as best I can describe one of the new virtual board ads, which are superimposed on the boards in each TV market’s broadcast. Those watching the Root Sports Seattle broadcast on Thursday, when the Kraken beat the Kings, might have seen the Impossible Burger ad; those watching the Los Angeles feed would have seen something else.

Are we not advertised to enough here?

They’re distracting. They’re disorienting. They’re bad for the casual fan, someone who might be trying to sort out the fastest team sport in the world. Watching an NHL game already demands a level of focus. Now imagine you’re following a player with the puck, wondering what he is going to do with it, and all of a sudden the Geico gecko pops up next to him.

At this rate, we’re not far away from the boards being covered in betting lines, letting the consumer play the odds on any number of in-game situations. Which of these two players are going to win this puck battle? Scan the QR code to place your bet now!

I don’t need approximately 1/10th of the horizontal space on my TV shouting at me about which cellular network is “the one America relies on” while the Kraken are trying to protect a two-goal lead in the final minutes. This is a call the NHL should drop.

I’m not even going to knock the league for the obvious technical glitches in the ads — players being swallowed by rogue-wave board ads — because they’ve been amusing.

If I’m being generous: NHL, do your viewers a favor and wait for the technology to catch up with the game experience you should be offering as the best league in the world. These detract from it.

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[PlayMakers]

Horrible. At the very least stop the ad movement during play.

 

[BruinDust]

The NHL can talk about the on-ice product being the best it has ever been until their blue in the face. The TV product has never been worse than it is today.

What more needs to be said about these board ads? They are awful in their current form and simply put I think the league is making a mistake implementing these ads the way they are now. If they want to grow the game, you need the casual viewer to watch your product and become more invested in it. These ads will not help in that regard. I've said this in other posts they need to get rid of the movement and stop changing ads every 30 seconds during the play. Make them static and change them when the camera pans away or the play stops. Also can the "white' not be so "white" it's 2022 surely they can find a way to make the digital ad boards look a bit more realistic. I just think that unlike other free-flowing sports like Soccer or Basketball the play on the ice just moves too fast, with a puck that can be hard to see at the best of times, for these animated digital ads to work well. Seriously did the NHL even bring in a focus group to test out the reaction to the ads? There is no way they brought a focus group in and got mostly positive feedback when the public reaction has been so negative.

Down in the US with the regional sports networks changing to Bally Sports it remains to be seen how successful it will be. I don't follow that stuff closely but I thought I read it wasn't going all that well. I still think NESN is a cut-above as far as Regional Sports Networks go.

Then you have ESPN and their awful presentation. Talk about boring. Watching paint dry is more interesting than listening to the insight from Chelios and Messier. Messier should stick to commercials (which he's actually good at) and forget this commentary stuff. Chelios he can simply get lost. Then they set Leah Hextall up to fail by putting her on play-by-play when she clearly isn't suited for it. Sportsnet is no better rolling out Jennifer Botterill every week in-studio when she isn't comfortable at all if you compare her in-studio work to her colour commentary (which is very good). Put your people in a position to succeed FFS. These two women are getting roasted on the Twitter-verse when they are being asked to do something they don't do well when there are platforms where they can succeed. Outside of one poorly phrased question no one was complaining about Leah Hextall when she was just doing interviews or hosting in-studio. She was a in-studio host up here in Canada at times as she was fine.

Meanwhile over on TNT you get the Biz-Nasty clown show. Nothing against Bissonette but his schtick is suitable for that more relaxed podcast format like Spittin' Chiclets. His clown show on TNT is cheesy and lame and he just comes across as trying to hard to be funny. Doesn't help that TNT decided to employ Wayne Gretzky with no real TV experience behind him. I've seen interviews with Wayne and he's never been terribly engaging but yet some executive at TNT felt they could just toss him on TV and it would draw in viewers. I think they only employ Tocchet (who is pretty mediocre himself) to make Wayne more comfortable as they are good friends.

I wonder which of them is going to pony up for PK Subban and his endless cliches. If you are looking for truly insightful analysis the bit I've seen of ol' PK in-studio you won't find that sort of analysis there.

Up in here in Canada it keeps getting worse. Ron MacLean is past his expiration date as a in-studio host you can see he has a difficulty relating to the younger in-studio crowd they have now on SN other than Friedman who is a bit older. I'm still trying to decide whether I like Anthony Stewart but Kevin Bieksa is fantastic if you really want to learn more about the game. Problem with Ron is they can't find anyone who is the clear-cut replacement. David Amber is getting more and more responsibility but he's sort of boring himself. I actually think PK Subban would make a good host of HNIC. He can be entertaining and energizing without having to be insightful or have to talk all the time. Knows the game and the league well enough to direct traffic in-studio which is mostly what the host does now with 3-4 analysts on each broadcast. Like Ron, PK's broadcasting strength is in his smooth delivery.

But SN has bigger problems. Gone are the days when each intermission had a distinct segment like Coach's Corner or the Hot Stove League talking rumours. They do have Friedman do a quick segment on Saturday nights but it's far from the more in-depth discussions we used to get on the Hot Stove. Every intermission feels exactly the same. They haven't gotten anywhere close to the viewership they thought they would when they acquire the NHL national rights in Canada. HNIC isn't must-see viewing and quite frankly you can find NHL hockey on SN about every day of the week. The specialness of Saturday Night hockey is gone. As is the specialness of playoff hockey and suddenly having games on every night. Now games are just on every night regardless and along comes the law of diminishing returns. I dropped my NHL Game Center/Centre Ice/whatever it's called now a few years ago because I don't feel like I need it with SN covering so many games and even what they air is too many.

The theme music for HNIC now is just awful. Something about putting your hands up, blah, blah. Hurts the ears. SN has never had strong production values in their history and that hasn't changed. TSN has always looked sleeker and smoother as did the CBC version of HNIC.

But if there is one recent change at Sportsnet that immediately got on my nerves was the incorporation of Bet lines and other Sportsbook gambling garbage. Seriously do you want your kids watching a program where every second advertisement is a Sportsbook app (Bet365, Northstar bets, Bet MGM, etc.) and then half of the intermission is the "Big Board" where a host talks sports gambling with some Twitter-verse gambling star? Nothing against people that gamble on sports (fill your boots none of my business how you spend your money) but aren't there already plenty of avenues to get your Sportsbook information? Does it need to be shoved down the throats of other viewers, in particular younger viewers? I'm actually surprised more hasn't been said about it considering the lengths we go through to protect children from smoking, drugs, and alcohol. Maybe more parents are betting on sports than I realized. I guess as far as addictions go I guess gambling ain't no big deal as long as the Sportsbook apps are willing to shell out for ad time and in-studio segments. Funny how that works.

Rant over. Hope everyone here is doing well and excited for another year of Bruins hockey.

 

[smithformeragent]

NHL fans are already fed up with the new digital board ads

The digitally enhanced dasherboards have been a source of frustration during the first week of the NHL season.

yhoo.it

 

[Aeroforce]

I preferred the glowing puck to the virtual boards.

My dad is 83 and due for cataract surgery. He has issues with his eyes, and he finds the virtual boards very distracting. But the league is all about pandering to young people, after lining the owners' pockets, of course.

I do agree the television product leaves much to be desired. Then again I realize we as fans dedicated enough to frequent a board such as this are not the target. In-depth analysis during extended period breaks would likely alienate casual observers.

Mix in the sea-change of what is and isn't allowed on the air, resulting in multiple personalities no longer in the game, and the milquetoast current product is the expected result.

Being in a different time zone, I DVR the games and skip the extras. Outside of Brickley, there isn't anyone I see while the DVR fast forwards that I feel I need to hear, especially on national telecasts.

 

[McGarnagle]

I actually kinda like them. They look cleaner and have less signage per inch than the painted boards.

 

[WestCoastBruinsFan]

I hate them but the NHL was losing long before this.

 

[CDJ]

I don’t really care one way or the other but I do feel for the ppl who find it distracting (and totally understand why they feel that way)

 

[The National]

I’d prefer they only move them when the puck isn’t in the area or in between whistles. But whatever, don’t think any amount of whining is gonna change them lol.

 

[ON3M4N]

I’d prefer they only move them when the puck isn’t in the area or in between whistles. But whatever, don’t think any amount of whining is gonna change them lol.

This. I'm fine with the digital boards if they only changed between whistles.

 

[TD Charlie]

They’re terrible. When the camera is stationary and they aren’t transitioning to the next ad, or moving, they’re fine.

I mentioned in the main sub forum that these would be fine given:

They weren’t bright
They don’t glitch
They don’t move

But i also mentioned that the nhl would screw it up and at least 2/3 of Those items were gonna go against us. I was wrong. It’s all 3

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

What I don’t get is that most of the ads they showed last night are already on the boards. So why do we need them lmao.

 

[Bruinfanatic]

Horrible. At the very least stop the ad movement during play.

Yeah that’s the main thing.

 

[Bruinfanatic]

I was watching a Basketball game from Europe League today for a few minutes,that’s all I could handle the add were constantly changing,like every few seconds it was making me dizzy.

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

That rolling tire during the Yokohama Tire advert as Foligno scored

last night reminded me of a prior acid trip

 

[BMC]

I hate them.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

That rolling tire during the Yokohama Tire advert as Foligno scoredView attachment 594852 last night reminded me of a prior acid trip

I don’t think there could have been a worse ad + movement during this goal. So distracting.

 

[BruinsBtn]

This is the worst change I've ever seen in a sport. It's repulsive.

 

[trenton1]

I understand wanting to have the ability to change the ads many times during a game. It's actually a good idea....if marketing is your thing.

But this should never happen during play and no ads should move during play. The NHL just shit all over everyone tuning in by allowing this. The new viewers, the old viewers. Everyone got a hat full of shit.

 

[trenton1]

I’d prefer they only move them when the puck isn’t in the area or in between whistles. But whatever, don’t think any amount of whining is gonna change them lol.

The NHL and its media apologists endlessly announced that "the fans love the shootout" all throughout the 2005-06 season despite fan polls panning it and comments crapping on it endlessly.

I'm waiting for the league to tell us that we actually love these ads and that no one can sit down when they are changing.

 

[KesselBuiltMyHotrod]

They give me headache, especially the way they go in and out of focus.

 

[StonedZboril]

The ads are absolute garbage. They are super distracting when they move. I wish i could punt Gary Bettman and all of the owners into the sun.

That rolling tire during the Yokohama Tire advert as Foligno scoredView attachment 594852 last night reminded me of a prior acid trip

I was gonna say it reminded me of a bad salvia trip. Then again all salvia trips are bad trips.

 

[caz16]

I hate them and it doesn't make me want to buy their product, if anything it annoys me that the companies are paying money to ruin the flow of the game. How do they pay...by the second, the minute? Why do these companies want to pay for advertising that most fans hate?

 

[The National]

The NHL and its media apologists endlessly announced that "the fans love the shootout" all throughout the 2005-06 season despite fan polls panning it and comments crapping on it endlessly.

I'm waiting for the league to tell us that we actually love these ads and that no one can sit down when they are changing.

Well I can’t imagine they’re good for new fans who can barely track the puck as it is. They should at least care about that lol.

 

[Si Hopkins]

Horrible. At the very least stop the ad movement during play.

That's what pissed me off the most. that they were designed to pull your eye from the game. It just feels like the league saying, "yeah, we really don't give a f*** about your experience watching this."