NHL, Google to show games on tape-delay
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal -
2:19 PM PST Wednesday
by Eric Fisher
The National Hockey League has annunced a new multi-year video content deal with Google Inc., making full-length games from the '06-07 season and some classic games available for online purchase on a 48-hour, tape-delay basis.
Pricing is still being finalized, but games are likely to cost $2.99 each after a free trial for the first two weeks of November. The deal arrives after a beta test on Google Video, as well as an offering last spring in which condensed NHL playoff games were sold on Cupertino-based Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes store.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal is a revenue-sharing pact common to video download agreements. Mountain View-based Google will create an NHL-themed portion of the store where the official league content will be joined by hockey-oriented, user-generated videos.
"This is obviously an on-demand world where people want what they want, when they want it, and where they want it," said NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises President Keith Ritter. "Google is a place where we definitely need to be."
Discussions about a future video content deal with Apple are still ongoing, Ritter said, as are efforts to offer live streaming of games online. No timetable exists for either initiative.
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