NHL Game Center Live - Europe

Crombeen · 10-04-2013, 11:35 AM

Just a question for the European people at this board.

How do you watch Live NHL games this year?
Last year I could receive ESPN America from my satellite cable provider for just a few extra euro's a month but ESPN America has stopped broadcasting in Europe I believe.

Now I'm eying on NHL Game Center Live but I'm afraid if I buy this membership I can't view Live NHL games just because I live in Europe.
Anybody who has experience with NHL Game Center Live in Europe ?

Since a day or two my Apple TV now supports the NHL function by default and it says I have to pay 90,- to view Live NHL games but what does "out-of-market games" or "blocked out" mean ?

90,- is really cheap if you can view all NHL games of your favorite team of course. But it almost sounds to good to be true - that's why i'm asking.

Sebastian Palkowski · 10-04-2013, 11:52 AM

I use NHL Game Center Live as I did last year. It's $99 for the season this year (the one time I'm happy about the bad Euro-$ exchange rate), I run it with my PS3 and it works great. As far as I know Blackout rules do not apply here in Europe but that might be different from country to country. Here in Germany I watched every Blackhawks game including the PO's last year and the first game this year without trouble.

tward13 · 10-04-2013, 11:58 AM

Here's the portion of the FAQ from NHL.com relating to international viewers:

For international customers, blackout restrictions may apply to games that appear on an NHL partner network in your viewing area. International partners include: ARENA SPORTS, CANAL PLUS SPORTS, ESPN America, Nelonen, NOVA SPORT, SPORT 1 Hungary & Romania, OSN SPORT, PRAGO SPORT, PREMIER Sports, PRISA TV, SETANTA SPORT, Setanta 1, Setanta Ireland, SPORT TV Portugal, SPORT TV Slovenia, VIASAT and Xsport. Please check your local listings for broadcasts on these networks.

It would seem that you'd be able to watch all other games available each night on NHL Game Center Live. It's more frustrating here in the US where we are blacked out of games for local teams and games on NHL Network (which isn't available free to many users)

Lukas Berger · 10-04-2013, 12:19 PM

Not sure if this is something I shouldn't mention. If so I can take it down, but there are services such as unblock-us which cost very little. They randomly assign you a dns that will get around blackout restrictions. I've used unblock-us with MLB.tv and it works great! I assume it'd work on the NHL site too.

Aliean · 10-04-2013, 01:04 PM

find a streaming site that shows the game i want to watch.i cant afford anything else and well i dont even have a tv as i hate watching it and im cheap thats what u have to be when your just home all day doing nothing.but if i wanted to watch it here in sweden its viasat or c-more

10-04-2013, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crombeen

Just a question for the European people at this board.

How do you watch Live NHL games this year?
Last year I could receive ESPN America from my satellite cable provider for just a few extra euro's a month but ESPN America has stopped broadcasting in Europe I believe.

Now I'm eying on NHL Game Center Live but I'm afraid if I buy this membership I can't view Live NHL games just because I live in Europe.
Anybody who has experience with NHL Game Center Live in Europe ?

Since a day or two my Apple TV now supports the NHL function by default and it says I have to pay 90,- to view Live NHL games but what does "out-of-market games" or "blocked out" mean ?

90,- is really cheap if you can view all NHL games of your favorite team of course. But it almost sounds to good to be true - that's why i'm asking.

As Sebastian says you can watch what you want! Although if you are in the UK we do get black-out games which sucks. So whichever game Premier Sports are showing that night is blocked on gamecentre too!

archibalduk · 10-04-2013, 03:05 PM

I've been subscribing to NHL streaming games for the past 6 years IIRC. I used to use ESPN360 but changed over to GCL about 2 or 3 years ago when ESPN lost the rights. GCL is a really good service (although the site could be a little better laid out and the PS3 app is apparently a bit temperamental).

Assuming you subscribe to the full package, you can watch any game live and on demand. However some games are blacked out if you live in certain Euro countries. It depends on whether there is a TV channel which owns the broadcasting rights in your country. For example, in the UK a satellite channel called Premier Sports bought the UK rights prior to last season. Any game they broadcast is blacked out. So you can't watch the game live and you have to wait about 48 hrs before you can watch it on demand (but you can watch the condensed game immediately). This isn't much of a pain during the regular season because Premier Sports only broadcast 1 or 2 games a day IIRC. However it becomes problematic during the playoffs because virtually every game was blacked out (especially the later rounds).

So you'll need to check whether any channels in your country have broadcasting rights for the NHL.

A couple of pointers come to mind whilst I think of it:

- Approx 36-48 hours after a game finishes it is archived. This means that if you watch it on demand the bit rates available are much lower. If you want to watch the game on demand at a high quality bit rate, make sure you watch it before it gets archived.

- If you have a games console, use your console's NHL GCL app to watch the games. The bit rate is much higher on the console than the PC. This equates to a slightly better image quality and a much better frame rate. It is however possible to access the higher bit rate stream on a PC using XMBC.

- Check out unblock-us if you want to avoid the blackouts. It's about $4.99 per month. It was a god-send during the playoffs because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to watch any games. On unblock-us, set the country to Denmark - that seems to lift the restrictions. They offer a free trial too.

Merla · 10-04-2013, 05:38 PM

Viasat Hockey and Viaplay for Swedes.

lorreporre · 10-04-2013, 06:58 PM

Here in France, as mentioned above, Canal Plus Sport owns the rights of the NHL, but they only show one or two games a week, even during playoffs they show very little....

... so i must admit i watch live streaming for my favo team the Canadiens, as i found a very good Canadian site with a fun community of people, mostly French Canadians and Frenchmen ....

Crombeen · 10-05-2013, 10:50 AM

Thanks for the responses,

I live in Holland and for some reason we always have had the same viewing options as the U.K. has had for years. [ ESPN America ]
This wasn't great because they only aired 2 or 3 games a week and if you'd be lucky enough it was your favorite team playing if not you just had to watch other games because it's hockey in general and be pleased in the first place.

Something that's very strange.
ESPN America is still in the NHL International broadcasting list while it doesn't exists anymore.

Every other TV chanel in that list isn't available in my country so you would expect I could view ALL games without blackouts just like Sebastian says he has in Germany (next door)
The U.K. still has ESPN CO.UK so you could expect them to get blackouts for some NHL games because ESPN the American based company is still the root of all other ESPN versions, but when I look at my Apple TV right now I can choice every NHL game tonight except Montreal VS Philly probably because it's on Hockey Night in Canada.

Quote:

For international customers, blackout restrictions may apply to games that appear on an NHL partner network in your viewing area. International partners include: ARENA SPORTS, CANAL PLUS SPORTS, ESPN America, Nelonen, NOVA SPORT, SPORT 1 Hungary & Romania, OSN SPORT, PRAGO SPORT, PREMIER Sports, PRISA TV, SETANTA SPORT, Setanta 1, Setanta Ireland, SPORT TV Portugal, SPORT TV Slovenia, VIASAT and Xsport. Please check your local listings for broadcasts on these networks.

Strange if you ask me..
I don't care if I have to watch some other NHL team for a night or two but I hope it's not always Philly because that's my favorite team or all the NHL rival games.

I wouldn't mind paying to view premium content on TV but it I would like to know what's my best option of course. In my country they launched FOX and FOX Sports (soccer) this year, even Netflix is available so we're going places.
But something I really wished for was ESPN Extra the real American ESPN chanel that Apple TV America seem to have - they have Premier League soccer, Formula 1 and NHL hockey everything I need but of course they may not broadcast worldwide.

I don't like illegal stuff, I'm not a saint but I only pirate stuff that isn't available to me for some reason. Breaking Bad for example - that's stuff I pirate of the internet because there is simply no other option for me to stay up-to-date.

Looks like Game Center Live will be a solid fit for me. Thanks.

Crombeen · 10-05-2013, 11:16 AM

WHOOPS

Sebastian is right!

I can also watch ALL NHL games, I was looking at the wrong date because of the time difference.

My mistake

tward13 · 10-05-2013, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crombeen

WHOOPS

Sebastian is right!

I can also watch ALL NHL games, I was looking at the wrong date because of the time difference.

My mistake

You're in better shapre than me. And I'm in the US

BlackIce · 10-07-2013, 02:08 PM

I've just signed up to NHL game center last night for 19.99/ 8 mths CDN
My first game I decided to watch is the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks but the game was blacked out so I took it to the internet and downloaded a cool program called Hotspot Shield.

It slows my internet down a bit but I was still able to stream full HD of the game and yes, I was able to block my ip from being used in Calgary. I did however use Unblock US for a short period of time and that worked wonderful as well. The Hot spot shield I used does the trick for me so far but I wanted to chime in here and let you all know just in case you are all in the same boat as I was my first night trying to watch a game! lol!

Cheers all

CCMV · 10-07-2013, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merla

Viasat Hockey and Viaplay for Swedes.

And NHL GameCenter if you login via Viaplay.

Crombeen · 10-09-2013, 11:08 AM

Just some feedback after playing around with it for a few days,

I really like it, the quality of the games are impressively good much better than I ever have with ESPN America at my Digital HD cable provider.
You can also use the App + website + TV at the same time.

Nice, a happy customer.

archibalduk · 10-09-2013, 02:34 PM

Glad you're enjoying it!

Btw, where in Holland do you live? I spent a year studying at the University of Groningen. I absolutely loved that city.

Crombeen · 10-09-2013, 07:05 PM

I live in the south part of the country near Maastricht close to Belgium and Germany.

Yeah students love Groningen, lots of party I believe

10-04-2013, 11:35 AM	#1
Crombeen Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 269	NHL Game Center Live - Europe Just a question for the European people at this board. How do you watch Live NHL games this year? Last year I could receive ESPN America from my satellite cable provider for just a few extra euro's a month but ESPN America has stopped broadcasting in Europe I believe. Now I'm eying on NHL Game Center Live but I'm afraid if I buy this membership I can't view Live NHL games just because I live in Europe. Anybody who has experience with NHL Game Center Live in Europe ? Since a day or two my Apple TV now supports the NHL function by default and it says I have to pay 90,- to view Live NHL games but what does "out-of-market games" or "blocked out" mean ? 90,- is really cheap if you can view all NHL games of your favorite team of course. But it almost sounds to good to be true - that's why i'm asking. __________________ FHM gamer since 2013 #oldskool

10-04-2013, 11:52 AM	#2
Sebastian Palkowski Developer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Hamburg, Germany Posts: 5,113	I use NHL Game Center Live as I did last year. It's $99 for the season this year (the one time I'm happy about the bad Euro-$ exchange rate), I run it with my PS3 and it works great. As far as I know Blackout rules do not apply here in Europe but that might be different from country to country. Here in Germany I watched every Blackhawks game including the PO's last year and the first game this year without trouble. __________________ Buy Franchise Hockey Manager 10

10-04-2013, 12:19 PM	#4
Lukas Berger OOTP Developments Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Nice, Côte d'Azur, France Posts: 19,880	Not sure if this is something I shouldn't mention. If so I can take it down, but there are services such as unblock-us which cost very little. They randomly assign you a dns that will get around blackout restrictions. I've used unblock-us with MLB.tv and it works great! I assume it'd work on the NHL site too. Last edited by Lukas Berger; 10-04-2013 at 12:36 PM.

10-04-2013, 01:04 PM	#5
Aliean Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 138	find a streaming site that shows the game i want to watch.i cant afford anything else and well i dont even have a tv as i hate watching it and im cheap thats what u have to be when your just home all day doing nothing.but if i wanted to watch it here in sweden its viasat or c-more Last edited by Aliean; 10-04-2013 at 01:05 PM.

10-04-2013, 03:05 PM	#7
archibalduk All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: UK Posts: 1,209	I've been subscribing to NHL streaming games for the past 6 years IIRC. I used to use ESPN360 but changed over to GCL about 2 or 3 years ago when ESPN lost the rights. GCL is a really good service (although the site could be a little better laid out and the PS3 app is apparently a bit temperamental). Assuming you subscribe to the full package, you can watch any game live and on demand. However some games are blacked out if you live in certain Euro countries. It depends on whether there is a TV channel which owns the broadcasting rights in your country. For example, in the UK a satellite channel called Premier Sports bought the UK rights prior to last season. Any game they broadcast is blacked out. So you can't watch the game live and you have to wait about 48 hrs before you can watch it on demand (but you can watch the condensed game immediately). This isn't much of a pain during the regular season because Premier Sports only broadcast 1 or 2 games a day IIRC. However it becomes problematic during the playoffs because virtually every game was blacked out (especially the later rounds). So you'll need to check whether any channels in your country have broadcasting rights for the NHL. A couple of pointers come to mind whilst I think of it: - Approx 36-48 hours after a game finishes it is archived. This means that if you watch it on demand the bit rates available are much lower. If you want to watch the game on demand at a high quality bit rate, make sure you watch it before it gets archived. - If you have a games console, use your console's NHL GCL app to watch the games. The bit rate is much higher on the console than the PC. This equates to a slightly better image quality and a much better frame rate. It is however possible to access the higher bit rate stream on a PC using XMBC. - Check out unblock-us if you want to avoid the blackouts. It's about $4.99 per month. It was a god-send during the playoffs because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to watch any games. On unblock-us, set the country to Denmark - that seems to lift the restrictions. They offer a free trial too. __________________ Webmaster of The Blue Line Eastside Hockey Manager & Franchise Hockey Manager community and resource Last edited by archibalduk; 10-04-2013 at 03:09 PM.

10-04-2013, 11:58 AM	#3
tward13 All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 1,957	Here's the portion of the FAQ from NHL.com relating to international viewers: For international customers, blackout restrictions may apply to games that appear on an NHL partner network in your viewing area. International partners include: ARENA SPORTS, CANAL PLUS SPORTS, ESPN America, Nelonen, NOVA SPORT, SPORT 1 Hungary & Romania, OSN SPORT, PRAGO SPORT, PREMIER Sports, PRISA TV, SETANTA SPORT, Setanta 1, Setanta Ireland, SPORT TV Portugal, SPORT TV Slovenia, VIASAT and Xsport. Please check your local listings for broadcasts on these networks. It would seem that you'd be able to watch all other games available each night on NHL Game Center Live. It's more frustrating here in the US where we are blacked out of games for local teams and games on NHL Network (which isn't available free to many users)

10-04-2013, 05:38 PM	#8
Merla Moderator Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 342 Blog Entries: 1	Viasat Hockey and Viaplay for Swedes.

10-04-2013, 06:58 PM	#9
lorreporre Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 111	Here in France, as mentioned above, Canal Plus Sport owns the rights of the NHL, but they only show one or two games a week, even during playoffs they show very little.... ... so i must admit i watch live streaming for my favo team the Canadiens, as i found a very good Canadian site with a fun community of people, mostly French Canadians and Frenchmen .... __________________

10-05-2013, 11:16 AM	#11
Crombeen Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 269	WHOOPS Sebastian is right! I can also watch ALL NHL games, I was looking at the wrong date because of the time difference. My mistake __________________ FHM gamer since 2013 #oldskool

10-07-2013, 02:08 PM	#13
BlackIce All Star Reserve Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Calgary, AB Posts: 574	I've just signed up to NHL game center last night for 19.99/ 8 mths CDN My first game I decided to watch is the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks but the game was blacked out so I took it to the internet and downloaded a cool program called Hotspot Shield. It slows my internet down a bit but I was still able to stream full HD of the game and yes, I was able to block my ip from being used in Calgary. I did however use Unblock US for a short period of time and that worked wonderful as well. The Hot spot shield I used does the trick for me so far but I wanted to chime in here and let you all know just in case you are all in the same boat as I was my first night trying to watch a game! lol! Cheers all

10-09-2013, 11:08 AM	#15
Crombeen Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 269	Just some feedback after playing around with it for a few days, I really like it, the quality of the games are impressively good much better than I ever have with ESPN America at my Digital HD cable provider. You can also use the App + website + TV at the same time. Nice, a happy customer. __________________ FHM gamer since 2013 #oldskool

10-09-2013, 02:34 PM	#16
archibalduk All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: UK Posts: 1,209	Glad you're enjoying it! Btw, where in Holland do you live? I spent a year studying at the University of Groningen. I absolutely loved that city. __________________ Webmaster of The Blue Line Eastside Hockey Manager & Franchise Hockey Manager community and resource

10-09-2013, 07:05 PM	#17
Crombeen Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 269	I live in the south part of the country near Maastricht close to Belgium and Germany. Yeah students love Groningen, lots of party I believe __________________ FHM gamer since 2013 #oldskool