By embracing Google Video and YouTube, the NHL hopes to be soon issuing press releases similar to this one from CBS. Since launching the CBS Brand Channel on YouTube in October, the network claims that audiences have grown 5% (200,000 viewers) for Letterman and 7% (100,000 viewers) for Craig Ferguson (Craig Ferguwho?). Citing Google and YouTube as the singular source for their audience growth is dodgy at best and doofy at worst, but the 30 million views of their 300 clips cannot be dismissed.
The number of hockey video clips available online far exceed CBS's offerings. Between YouTube, Google, and Yahoo there are nearly 15,000 clips with an "NHL" tag; the majority being highlight reels of fights, checks, and goals. Complete games, past and present, are available on Google. And this being the internets, the silly is always readily available. (We'll spare the shameful for now.) (I take it back. Dance, Darren, dance.)
Saturday's game between the Sabres and Capitals presented the opportunity for online video clips to function beyond entertainment or diversion. Within an hour of the incident between Daniel Briere and Alexander Ovechkin a clip was was available on YouTube. By the end of that evening, three clips were available; receiving more than 25,000 views. (As of Tuesday morning, the count was nearly 100,000.) Hockey fans not attending or watching the game on television were able to witness (and judge) Ovechkin's check for themselves. Arguments defending and damning Ovechkin were occurring online simultaneously with those outside the Verizon Center and in living rooms in upstate New York and the DC metro area.
And while I admire the speed and ease with which YouTube can provide a window onto events, I do find it telling that no one has seen fit to put up a clip of the ankle breaking move Ovechkin made past Paetsch for a goal in the 1st period. (I saw it live and have yet to see the replay.) It is exactly this type of highlight, showing hockey's speed and skill, that will attract new fans to the NHL.
As for old fans of the NHL, especially Caps and Rangers fans, enjoy this GMGM gem discovered on YouTube last week.
First off, great stuff, Ken.
As I see it, the NHL is thus far (and I know it’s early) missing a great opportunity for basically free publicity by underutilizing YouTube. Specifically, I’d love to see them put together a one minute (or so) highlight package from the previous night’s games that would be available early in the morning for bloggers to embed in their posts. Game-specific highlight packages would also be great, but certainly a League-wide recap would be fantastic.
Off Wing’s daily “NHL Roundup,” for example, would be enhanced by having highlights of the previous night’s action available (of course, that’s not to say the video content currently being selected is irrelevant). Fans – and perhaps as importantly, non-fans – would become even more familiar with the players and teams, and the League would show how it is at the forefront with regards to alternative media.
I know that this likely won’t happen because as soon as people can get fresh NHL highlights without going to NHL.com, the League fears they will lose advertising and related revenue, but is the NHL really in a position to be so picky?
Great idea, JP. Someone should present the idea to the NHL, pitching, say…Apple Final Cut as the exclusive sponsor of the video packages? (Hey, should this ever happen? Would love to get a new set of headphones for my iPod.)