Friday, September 11, 2020

Report: Neulion to continue QMJHL streams

Some bad news was dropped on Quebec Major Junior Hockey League fans this week as reports surfaced that Neulion will make an unexpected return as the league's webcast provider.

Teams were informed of the news earlier this week and Mikael Lalancette confirmed the speculation on Thursday.
We reached out to the league office on Wednesday for comment but were told all details would be released in the coming days.

This news comes as quite a surprise. In March, Canadian Hockey League president Dan MacKenzie told The Hockey News “We’ll have a new broadcast partner for next season. We want to improve the quality of our live streaming game offering more focus on the consistency of the broadcast product in all 60 arenas.”

In June, the WHL said in a press release, "In partnership with the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the WHL is pleased to announce the development of a brand-new streaming service set to launch with the beginning of the 2020-21 regular season.

"WHL fans can look forward to all three CHL leagues housed under one streaming service, with a new digital platform developed by an entirely new partner available on new devices. Further details including the new streaming service provider, pricing and packaging, will be announced at a later date."

Then just last month, the QMJHL confirmed at a news conference that a new webcast provider would be in place for the upcoming season. The belief was that the new provider would be American telecommunications giant Verizon - but obviously that all changed within the past few weeks.

The new webcasts were expected to have a higher minimum standard in each rink, giving fans a much better broadcast experience. It's unclear if Neulion will be upping their game this season - but let's all hope so. Fans will be wanting webcasts more than ever this year, especially with 2/3 of the league forced to play games in empty buildings.

CHL streams have been notoriously bad for years, particularly in the QMJHL and WHL where the majority of games are not shown on local cable stations. Just adding replays and a scoreboard to each feed would be a major improvement. The other major problem has been cost. Webcast subscription prices over the past few seasons have been comparable to NHL streams - but with the quality far worse.

The QMJHL has been with Neulion since the 2014-15 season. The banner image on the QMJHL Neulion site still features Nathan Beaulieu.

Fingers crossed this turns out much better than it seems right now - which, sadly, would be very unlike Neulion.

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