New KHL Webcast Subscriptions

[Faterson]

PayPal payment option is excellent news, and it proves that those of us who demanded it in recent seasons were not unreasonable in doing so.

Unfortunately, there is still that small-print disclaimer about "not 100% of games being webcast" (with the usual nonsense excuses attached), so subscribers may still miss quite a few games even after buying a subscription. Last season on some nights, "not 100% webcast" was sometimes a few games per day that were not available, despite being televised in the local TV markets (such as Kazakhstan or Slovakia).

Where do you get those conversion rates, Torsten? Google tells me right now that the season-long subscription, for 4000 roubles, equals about €82, not €73 like you said. And the one-team subscription, costing 1500 roubles, equals around €30, according to Google.

Even if it's €82 for the whole season, it's a good deal, considering you're getting 8 months of hockey to watch, and there will be fewer breaks in the upcoming KHL season due to those silly national C team tourneys that no one is interested in. The €82 price per season is finally somewhat competitive with and comparable to the NHL GameCenter price, which is roughly the same.

As to the €30 subscription for all games by your team the whole season long, it's a no-brainer. Unfortunately, you will still miss some games by your team if you buy it, as explained above.

I will probably buy the "all games by all teams" €82 subscription, to show my appreciation for the addition of PayPal.

If you want to buy, hurry! Last year, the price was raised without warning on September 1st (I think), and they will likely raise it on September 3rd at the latest this year, too, by 500 roubles, which might be roughly €10. That's not much, but still some savings.

 

[Faterson]

I have now found an English-language version of the webcast subscription page where the prices are stated directly in €:

http://video.khl.ru/page/subscription_page?locale=en

That is also something that didn't exist in previous years, and it's a great improvement for international KHL fans.

The prices as stated in € on that page are as follows:

• 24 hours: €4.10 (bad deal, in my opinion)
• all games by your team this season: €31.40 now, €41.90 later (good deal, especially now)
• all games by all teams all season: €83.90 now, €94.40 later (tolerable deal)
• archives for 1 month: €6.20 (meh...)

I'm now gonna go ahead and by the "all games by all teams" subscription via PayPal, but I wll do so from the Russian-language version of the subscription page: http://video.khl.ru/page/subscription_page I hope PayPal can give me a slightly better rouble to euro converson rate.

What some fans might be missing is the usual 1-month subscription for all games. On the other hand, that monthly subscription, in particular, used to be ridiculously overpriced in previous KHL seasons. Maybe the KHL canceled the monthly subscription because no one was buying it, anyway.

Finally, let's hope the KHL will at long last get some business sense and will cut the seasonal prices by half in, say, January 2015 at the latest, as usual with NHL GameCenter. In recent seasons, the KHL foolishly went on offering all these subscriptions at their full prices throughout February, March, April...

 

[Faterson]

Oops! There's a hefty PayPal fee to pay in addition to the subscription price if you buy via PayPal. If they do this for every PayPal transaction, malkinfan, then regularly buying individual games via PayPal might become too expensive.

The PayPal fee is a hefty 241.70 roubles, which according to Google is 5 euros.

And PayPal's rouble to euro conversion rate is extremely bad, saying it's 46.38 roubles for 1 euro, although via Google, it should be 48.46 roubles for 1 euro.

So in total, PayPal wants me to pay €91.35 for the reduced season-long subscription. That's a long shot away from the €73.40 originally mentioned by Torsten. Perhaps it might be wiser to purchase via a regular credit card, after all, if PayPal uses such bad conversion rates and if there even are additional, substantial PayPal fees. Usually, it's the recipient who needs to pay PayPal fees, but it looks like the KHL is transferring those PayPal fees back onto the subscribers.

I'm now cancelling the purchase from the Russian-language version of the subscripton page, and will try buying via PayPal from the English-language version, where the subscription officially costs €83.90. So, even with a PayPal fee of €5, the final price should be below €89.

 

[Faterson]

Another piece of bad news: there is absolutely no difference between buying via PayPal from the Russian or from the English version of the subscription page. The final PayPal price always shows €91.35 for me as the reduced season-long price, so that price on the subscription page itself, €83.90, is pure fiction. Or, you might say that the PayPal fee in addition to that price comes up to €7.45, which to me is unacceptable.

So, I will not be buying anything from the KHL via PayPal after all, because it's so overpriced. The only other option remaining for me is via a regular credit (or debit!) card using the "RBK" (Russian bank) option... I can only do so and hope for the best -- hope that the final price using that payment option will be lower than the €91.35 via PayPal...

 

[malkinfan]

Hey Fraterson! The Paypal fees are a little high, I certainly wont be paying pay per view although even with the fee its still around what you are going to pay per game with NHL or AHL.

120USD for a season pass isn't so bad if you get worth out of it. I could tell you if I was still a student I would be getting great worth out of it but the timing doesn't work out (games in morning). If you watch KHL everyday I would say its worth it. paying the extra bit for the security is worth the hassle on the transaction if you ask me, just not on many small transactions.

It might be worth it to buy the season pass even though I prolly only watch games on the weekend since approx. 22 weeks (daily passes) x 8USD in paypal fees will be more than getting the year membership lolol. Still worth it if in HD and no annoying ads

 

[Faterson]

You know, I have cards for some accounts that are usually empty with no money on them, so using a card like that with the Russian RBK bank should be pretty safe. I can temporarily put just €100 in that account, buy the subscription via RBK and an ordinary debit (not credit) card and see how much will be withdrawn.

 

[kometa]

Where do you get those conversion rates, Torsten? Google tells me right now that the season-long subscription, for 4000 roubles, equals about €82, not €73 like you said. And the one-team subscription, costing 1500 roubles, equals around €30, according to Google.

When I visited the page early afternoon CET they first showed me the original price of EUR 94.40 / RUB 4,495 but after logging in to the system they offered me EUR 73.40 / RUB 3,495 and that was the price I payed in the end. I have to say that was a client last year already. Maybe this was fact for the lower pricing, but that is only speculation. Now I see EUR 83.90 / RUB 3,995 when I am not logged in.

First I tried RBK money like last season but it didn't worked for me. Just after chatting with RBK's support I realised the new Paypal option.

Paypal billed me about RUB 211 service fee so it looks like they are taking 6 percent in addition to the original price.

@malkinfan
For purchasing single games you have to create an account and update it with a sum of roubles. So you should calculate how many games you are planning to watch and transfer an amount at once at the beginning of the season for example for the first three or four months. HD streams cost 65 roubles, SD streams 45 roubles and archived games 29 roubles. So even HD live should not be more than $2 for you.

 

[Faterson]

That's pretty shocking, Torsten. So earlier today, the discounted price was 3500 roubles, but now it's 4000? I was their customer last season, too, though not for the "all games, all teams" subscription that I'm interested in now.

The discounted price, for me, shows as 4000 roubles (Russian page) or €81.30 (English page), regardless of whether I'm logged in or logged out. I refuse to pay the PayPal fee of €7.45, that's ridiculous. That's nearly 10% of the subscription price, not 6%.

Well, I'm now going the RBK way via an ordinary debit card and a bank account that is usually empty. I have now deposited €100 there. I will let you guys know how much of that the KHL will withdraw. I'll be making the purchase from the Russian-language version of the subscription page, although it may not make a difference eventually.

 

[kometa]

They still show me the RUB 3,495 when I am logged in, interesting! What about the prices they show you, when you click at the "buy subscription" button at your profile page, still 4k?

The 6 percent is only the service fee by Paypal. 211 from my 3,495 or 241 from the 3,995 you wrote about. They handle the whole process with the prices in rouble - euros and dollars are only a kind of illustration for clients abroad.

In the end Paypal billed me RUB 3,706.70 and will debit EUR 79,91 from my bank account. So what, that's the way the world goes in our days. For me it's about the sum I payed for travelling, ticket and catering when I made a trip to Lev Prague for one game from my hometown last season.

 

[Faterson]

They still show me the RUB 3,495 when I am logged in, interesting! What about the prices they show you, when you click at the "buy subscription" button at your profile page, still 4k?

Of course.

The RBK option seems useless. I have now tried it 3 times, and the payment was rejected every time, without stating the reason.

The Yandex payment option I used last year no longer works, either. Yandex now says it only accepts cards from ex-USSR countries and, funnily enough, also ex-Yugoslavia countries, except for Slovenia and Croatia. I suppose that them joining the EU makes them no longer desirable customers for Yandex. Never mind that a Croatian (etc.) team is playing in the KHL. Ah, the winds of Cold War are blowing again.

The 6 percent is only the service fee by Paypal. 211 from my 3,495 or 241 from the 3,995 you wrote about. They handle the whole process with the prices in rouble - euros and dollars are only a kind of illustration for clients abroad.

The English-language webpage doesn't say that the prices are "only a kind of illustration". If it says €83.90, that's exactly how much I should pay, no more. Courtesy and a customer-friendly approach would also demand a mention of potential PayPal (etc.) extra fees directly on the subscription page.

Something is definitely fishy here, because as I said, instead of €83.90, I'm suddenly asked to pay €91.35, which is way more than a 6% surcharge. It may be that extremely bad roubles to euros exchange rate that PayPal is using that is causing the price increase.

In PayPal, you have the option to reject PayPal's conversion rate, and instead use "your bank's conversion rate", so perhaps this is what I'm going to do now. PayPal says if I reject their conversion rate, I may learn the final amount that was paid only after a few days of waiting. Well, I could live with that... my hope certainly is that my (Slovak) bank's roubles to euros conversion rate won't be as outrageously low as PayPal's.

By the way, the "1 team for whole season" package is, similarly, €34.22 for me via PayPal, instead of €31.40 as advertised on the subscription page. Again, that's way more than a 6% PayPal surcharge.

 

[Faterson]

OK, my subscription ordeal is over now for the upcoming season. Here is what I did:

• I selected the "all games, all teams" package and the PayPal option: should have been 3995 roubles / €83.90 according to the Russian-language and English-language subscription pages.
• PayPal said I should pay 4236.70 roubles (which includes a PayPal fee of 241.70), which according to them is €91.35 in total, although according to Google, 4236.70 roubles should only be €87.43.
• I rejected PayPal's roubles to euros conversion rate. I clicked on "Other conversion options" and selected "VISA/Mastercard conversion process" instead.
• Then I made the PayPal purchase. It worked instantly, but PayPal now only states the purchase price in roubles in my PayPal account: 4236.70. No € value can be seen there.
• I logged in to my credit card's virtual online account and discovered that €89.10 were actually charged using MasterCard's conversion process. That's €1.67 more than what Google said it should be, but it's still €2.25 less than what PayPal wanted to charge me.
• This means I managed to save €2.10 by all these examinations and worrying tonight, which is ridiculous, but might be useful and save some time and headache for other HFBoards users. Advice: When buying KHL webcasts via PayPal, just reject PayPal's conversion rate, select VISA/Mastercard conversion process instead, and you will save some money, for a beer or something.

Bottom line: instead of the €83.90 advertised on KHL's subscription webpage, I ended up paying €89.10, which is €5.20 more. The €73.40 price originally mentioned by Torsten would have been a fantastic deal; the €83.90 would have been tolerable; and the €89.10 I actually paid... well, I'm not thrilled by that price, but I can live with it.

Happy watching, everyone, over the next 8 months, and go Slovan!

 

[kometa]

I found a mail with explanation of the pricing at my spam folder. They have reduced prices until next Wednesday. Clients who have bought an subscription last season get a special discount:

Season
regular RUB 4.495
until Sep 3rd RUB 3.995
special discount RUB 3.495

1 Team
regular RUB 1.995
until Sep 3rd RUB 1.495
special discount RUB 1.245

So they gave me the special discount, because I have booked an archive pass for one month last year. All other transactions were single games. Thank you dear KHL!

For all who want to test the offer, they have two games for free in the system:
today, 29.08.14 14:55 MSK/12:55 CET/06:55 ET - Traktor vs. Salavat Yulaev
Wed, 03.09.14 16:50 MSK/14:50 CET/08:50 ET - Magnitka vs. Dynamo Msk (season's opener)

 

[Exarz]

Just bought the all games, all teams subscrption! I hope it will be good!

I also got if for 3495 rubles (€72.89), even though I didn't subscribe to anything last season. I bought around 5 games though.

 

[cska78]

Is there an archive option for ur team? I will not sign up, as many games were not shown or shown in horrid standard

 

[ult]

Well, I can say that compared to the last season, this year, home games of Ufa, Sibir, Sochi and Jokerit will be 100% HD. Spartak with a lot of home games not streamed is gone, and there are less Moscow area teams now, so that could help, I guess.

As for Lada, their home games will be broadcast by GTRK Samara, and they do have a 16-cam Full HD OB Van, so it should be in a good quality as well, but I haven't heard anything specific. There is also no Olympic games, which will help.

 

[habsturies]

last year i watched around 40-50 games in infamous streams.Enough.
I already purchase the all season option.

I used to follow specially Riga and Sibir,and I have a question for the old suscriptors.

cause Sibir got a bad timing for my area ,I expect to watch their games recorded.
there's any problem to watch them without knowing the final score?

 

[kometa]

@habsturies
I recomend to use the direct link http://video.khl.ru/category/archives to get to the archive section in this case. Can't see any scores there so it should work.

During the first eight days only seven of 47 games are missing. Home games of Barys, Lada and Torpedo two times each plus one of Avto.

 

[Faterson]

"16-cam Full HD OB Van" apparently not of much help so far for Lada, after all.

40 out of 47 games shown is an 85% rate. Not satisfactory, if you ask me.

The Astana games definitely are televised on Kazakh TV. This problem is recurring every season. Looks like the KHL is too lazy to negotiate a webcast deal on behalf of their customers who purchased the "all games, all teams" subscription, because none of the vague excuses listed on the subscription page can really be applied to Barys Astana home games.

As to the archives, my problem was many games were missing from them, and some games were only posted to them with huge delays of half a day or more after completion, so you were bound to learn the result in the meantime. Let's see what happens this season.

 

[habsturies]

I recomend to use the direct link http://video.khl.ru/category/archives to get to the archive section in this case. Can't see any scores there so it should work.

During the first eight days only seven of 47 games are missing. Home games of Barys, Lada and Torpedo two times each plus one of Avto.

thanks Torsten.very helpful.

 

[mrgbg]

I am thinking of purchasing the seasonpackage, but I have a few questions unanswered and I wonder if someone here could help me?

I want to watch the games on my Ipad.

Has someone here tried that before?

I haven´t found the application for that?
I only found KHL-marketing but that is only in russian...

 

[Faterson]

Works perfectly on the iPad and iPhone. You simply launch the stream from the regular webpage and you can make it full-screen, too.

Streaming from iPad or iPhone to your TV set via Apple TV works excellently, too. If the webcast is HD, I had razor-sharp picture on my 46-inch TV screen when streaming from the iPad via Apple TV. SD webcasts weren't as good but still watchable.

My only complaints last season, as mentioned above, were that quite a few games were not webcast at all (despite being shown on local TV channels), and the delay of posting completed games to the archives tended to be huge (up to half a day or longer), with some games apparently entirely missing in the archives despite having been webcast live earlier.

This will only be a 100% satisfactory service if 100% of games are webcast and if they are posted to the archives immediately upon game completion in real time. I could tolerate not all games being HD, but missing games live or hugely delayed/missing games in archives aren't really tolerable.

 

[penepi]

Okay, I've just sucesfully purchased Slovan's all-season access. I'm also going to buy NHL subscription for entire season, so I can see what is the real difference. Anyway, guys, does this KHL LIVE Broadcasting works well? Is it really HD and will I be able to see every single match of my chosen team via this?

 

[ViD]

kind of sad hockeystream don't show KHL anymore.

 

[Faterson]

penepi, you must have skipped reading my (overlong) posts because I've answered your questions a couple of times already.

Yes, HD webcasts work very well, but not all webcasts are HD. For example, tomorrow Thursday, out of 10 games played, 6 will be shown in HD, 3 games in SD, and 1 game not at all.

On Saturday, out of 12 games played, 6 will be shown in HD, 4 games in SD, and 2 games not at all.

As can be seen from above, no, you're not going to see all games even after purchasing an "all games" subscription (your team or all teams, doesn't matter). These things are slowly improving from season to season, so let's hope there will soon be a KHL season when truly all games will be available as webcasts, especially for KHL's paying customers.

(Perversely, some games not available for paying customers may still be available as crappy pirated streams, such as those from Astana -- Kazakh TV streamed from a Kazakh fan's living room along with his burping, etc. That's the KHL's way of doing business, unfortunately.)

@Vid: Yes, that's too bad, but the NHL may be gone from there overnight, too, because as you know, it's a "guerilla project".

 

[Faterson]

First full game-day, and the webcast quality has been excellent so far. The only real downside is the 1 game not shown at all today, Lada vs. Yugra.

Watching on an iPad here, launching the live streams from the regular webpage:

http://video.khl.ru/live

Completed games are here:

http://video.khl.ru/category/archives

No delays so far for the first 2 games completed this season -- they were both posted to the archives pretty promptly after their completion in real time.

There's a potential spoiler danger when launching a game from the archives page. Don't look on the right side of the screen, because it shows both the game result and the list of goal scorers, etc. I can see no way to disable spoilers in the archives section -- obviously a feature the KHL hasn't thought about so far. Fortunately, the spoilers are printed in a very small font, so if you're careful, you can launch the archived game by tapping its window, and then switching to full-screen mode right away. After that, you should be safe.

Rewinding / pausing / jumping ahead in live games or archive games works a bit clumsily on the iPad, but it works, and that's the main thing. So, you can join a game in progress and rewind it all the way to the beginning if you missed the start. Instead of attempting to move the time indicator, which never works for me here (although that's the standard method for videos on iPads/iPhones), what works for me is tapping your finger roughly to the time-spot where you wish to start watching. There also appears to be a "reset" button (a backwards-pointing, circulrar arrow) that should launch a live game or archive game right from the start, although the button is very small, so it's pretty difficult to hit on a hand-held device. However, simply tapping your finger roughly towards the beginning of the time-line should transfer you to the start of the game, too. If 1 tap doesn't do it, 2 or 3 taps should do it.

Quite apart from the HD picture quality, which is outstanding in the games shown so far, to me, this is the best thing about these webcast subscriptions: the ability to rewind/pause/fast-forward a game at will. No pirated live stream will give you this luxury, so paying roughly €90 for an entire season of it seems like a good investment. Particularly for those of us in Central Europe, because a typical KHL game is played in the afternoon (work/office) hours for us, instead of in the evening. The ability to launch a game "as if live" later in the evening after you get home from work is priceless.