How popular is ice hockey in Germany?

FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
6,897
1,260
The truth is baseball ratings have collapsed in America since their peak in the 70s/80s. It is more of a regional game now.
This seems true for its variants as well. Here in Finland we have pesäpallo (or "Finnish baseball"), and while it's called our "national game", it's extremely difficult to come across anybody who would be gushing over it, especially if you stick to the large population centers. There might be some folks in the rural areas, but its widespread cultural influence is greatly exaggerated.
 

BladesofSTEELwFIRE

Registered User
Feb 15, 2010
1,570
3
LOL...never heard of Finnish baseball. I hate all these ball and stick games like basebarf, cricket, etc. If I lived in Finland I'd be in heaven since hockey is #1!
 

Siamese Dream

Registered User
Feb 5, 2011
75,215
1,238
United Britain of Great Kingdom
If you mean American football though with wussified because of the pads, think again.
Pretty different game from rugby with the element of forward passing, and the resulting hits are much harder.
Anyway, I'm not nearly watching as much NFL as I used to when I was younger. Can't stand the constant brainwashing with these mind numbing ads anymore :eek:

The hits may be harder but they're way less frequent. A world class openside like Richie McCaw averages more than 20 tackles made per game. The top NFL tacklers barely average half that. Rugby forwards go through a constant battering the entire game.
 

Melphiz

Registered User
Oct 23, 2012
40
0
Berlin, Germany
Of course you have a point. But for example German fans think that having promotions and relegations between leagues is like the most important stuff in all of the sports (currently there is no promotion between DEL and DEL2). And without it there would be no excitement.
Don't come with NHL, it has no effect on most german fans. The thing with up and down between two leagues is in my opinion because of the system in the Football League. And as it is already possible to gain an available licence in the DEL as a lower league team, it should be possible for a DEL team to go down if their results are that bad (speaking of DEG for example).
But of course that's also a matter of money and sponsors, though going up is much more expensive than going down, haha.

#####

Sky never showed all the games, they showed one per gameday, which is exactly the same as Servus TV is doing (including the stream that is).

Servus TV doesn't really show mostly Bavarian teams either.
Wait, wait, wait. Servus TV shows ONE game per week and that's sunday, right? The friday game is usually streamed online only via laola1.tv (I dont't put TV+Stream on the same level as TV+TV)
Yes, you are right, I was wrong: Sky never showed all games (I couldn't have it due to satellite but my buddy got it back then, may he told me wrong or I misunderstood) but if they showed one game per gameday it means you could see games during the week which Servus TV never shows.

#####

Yeah, if you look at the regular season games they showed live you'll find the Bavarian teams didn't seem to get any bonus:
Haha, you have to understand: I wasn't speaking of one bavarian team but the number of all together. As I usually don't care for me it's just: Meh, bavarian team. Bavaria belongs to Austria (one of the slogans we call out to a bavarian team when they play in Berlin).
So having Augsburg, Munich, Straubing and Nuremburg ... :D

Anyway, I've got a 16.000 DSL and can stream full HD everywhere fine but Servus TV fails to deliver anything near 720p here, the games are online usually so pixeled and sometimes hanging or you'll get even loops, it's no fun.
 

Eisdork

Registered User
Jan 19, 2013
118
4
-
Anyway, I've got a 16.000 DSL and can stream full HD everywhere fine but Servus TV fails to deliver anything near 720p here, the games are online usually so pixeled and sometimes hanging or you'll get even loops, it's no fun.

That must be your connection. I'm in the Netherlands and have 180Mbps and the ServusTV stream is most certainly 720p and not pixelated at all.
 

Eisdork

Registered User
Jan 19, 2013
118
4
-
So how does hockey compare in popularity to other German speaking nations like Austria and Switzerland?

Are you actually really interested in this subject, or you just throw out random questions that pop up in your head? Because that's the feeling I'm getting...
 

BladesofSTEELwFIRE

Registered User
Feb 15, 2010
1,570
3
Are you actually really interested in this subject, or you just throw out random questions that pop up in your head? Because that's the feeling I'm getting...

No I'm interested. Switzerland made the Elite division at the Worlds and Austria came close.
 

Leehh

Registered User
Oct 8, 2011
529
2
Austria
Hockey costs way more,i know quite a few upper class german guys that despises football and thinks of it as ghetto sports that is ment for dumb immigrants who have learning problems so they would stay out of streets and get a job for themselves. Not trying to insult anyone, just saying what one of my friends thinks of football.
 

Jonimaus

Registered User
Jul 15, 2011
3,005
27
Lund
Hockey costs way more,i know quite a few upper class german guys that despises football and thinks of it as ghetto sports that is ment for dumb immigrants who have learning problems so they would stay out of streets and get a job for themselves. Not trying to insult anyone, just saying what one of my friends thinks of football.

Seems like a nice friend. :laugh:
 

BladesofSTEELwFIRE

Registered User
Feb 15, 2010
1,570
3
Hockey costs way more,i know quite a few upper class german guys that despises football and thinks of it as ghetto sports that is ment for dumb immigrants who have learning problems so they would stay out of streets and get a job for themselves. Not trying to insult anyone, just saying what one of my friends thinks of football.

So do these upper class German guys like ice hockey?
 

Ryker

Registered User
Oct 3, 2008
4,981
2
Triangle, NC, USA
That must be your connection. I'm in the Netherlands and have 180Mbps and the ServusTV stream is most certainly 720p and not pixelated at all.
I think ServusTV also does a great job with the other aspects of the broadcast. The commentators are good, I like the ref camera, the replays are on point, they do a good job on listing lineups and various stats throughout the game, and the in-game interviews are decent enough, as well. I also liked how during the DEL finals they still showed the cable guy footage without cutting those segments where a player says "****". I'm pretty sure that would be the case with the US or Canadian television when they have players hooked up. But, yeah, just in general, I always have a blast watching their broadcasts (and the same goes for EBEL).
 

Ryker

Registered User
Oct 3, 2008
4,981
2
Triangle, NC, USA
Yeah, if you look at the regular season games they showed live you'll find the Bavarian teams didn't seem to get any bonus:

Cologne - 15x
Berlin, Hamburg, Mannheim - 9x
Krefeld - 8x
Augsburg - 7x
Munich - 6x
Ingolstadt, Iserlohn, Nuremberg, Straubing - 5x
Düsseldorf - 4x
Schwenningen - 3x
Wolfsburg - 2x

So as you'd expect the big names are at the top while the smaller teams make up the rear. Funnily enough ServusTV's home team, Munich, is found smack in the middle. How suspiciously average :sarcasm:
If anything you could make a case for them showing Cologne too often as they got almost a third of all games.
BTW, The ServusTV stream is free and 720p, also the Satellite broadcast is free and in HD.
So wait, Sky had all games of every game day running parallel?
Anyway, having Servus TV as public spot for watching matches might be nice for the common german guy who likes to watch some icehockey but it's worse for the fans which had Premiere and later Sky (payTV) as they could watch every game and ofc every game of their home team. But now you have to watch what Servus TV decides to show, not suprising having more Red Bull München and other Bavarian games shown than .... badumts Berlin for example.

And Free TV isn't really free if you're watching it in HD on a TV as you need to have cable been payed. Watching the stream (as I do) is usually a pay and only 480p if even.
So if I got this straight, based on your discussion it seems there is currently no pay-per-view service (be it online or TV) that would offer all games. Is this correct? I always enjoy the ServusTV broadcasts, but since I'm living in Canada, I don't really have a lot of opportunity to watch them due to the time difference. Also, is there perhaps an online repository or video-on-demand of games, so that people can watch them not live, but later?
 
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modano

Registered User
Mar 29, 2010
90
3
So if I got this straight, based on your discussion it seems there is currently no pay-per-view service (be it online or TV) that would offer all games. Is this correct? I always enjoy the ServusTV broadcasts, but since I'm living in Canada, I don't really have a lot of opportunity to watch them due to the time difference. Also, is there perhaps an online repository or video-on-demand of games, so that people can watch them not live, but later?

VOD is available for all broadcasted games.

http://www.laola1.tv/partner/v4player/index.php?identifier=servustv_del&menu1=86&menu2=&menu3=
 

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