Another Year Of Telus Webcasts Is Here

Telus is back for another year of overpriced and mostly terrible Quebec Major Junior Hockey League webcasts.

The Telus website was updated last week with the 2012-13 campaign quickly approaching. They will once again offer four possible options to purchase games, including two season long packages.

It will cost you $6.95 to purchase a single live game and $1.95 for a single archived match.

The first package Telus is offering is for every QMJHL game this season - live and archived. The package also includes all playoff games. The cost is $199.95.

Package B will get you every game of a single team – live and archived. The package also includes archives of all league games. It does not include playoffs. The cost is $149.95.

These are the same pricing options as last year. 

Now it’s time for our yearly rant.

If you pay $200 for the full package it seems fairly reasonable. That’s 612+ games for $200. But the problem has been the quality of the broadcasts.

There are often technical glitches. Some rinks are very dark. Some rinks have polls or whatever in the way and block views of the corners (Chicoutimi is pictured above). Only a few buildings offer replays. And let’s not forget that many games are not even broadcast in English.

The only real improvement made over the years has been some teams hooking up their in-house feed to the webcast, offering outsiders replay, multiple camera angles, and 50/50 updates. It’s also been great having team’s radio feeds hooked up as well (although there have been plenty of technical problems with them).

But, at least it is something. And who knows, this might be the only hockey we will all be watching for a while.

The QMJHL season begins Thursday at 7pm with the Sea Dogs hosting the Titan.