said by zod5000:said by markf:tAt least with a service available, and much talked about here, one can by-pass Rogers and still get NHL GameCenter Live from the NHL itself with no restrictions or blackouts imposed.
I have a question about this (as I've done this myself). When you use an NHL.com account (opposed to a rogers account). Nothing seems to be blacked out this year. I usually watch Red Wings games and I can still watch them when they play the Canucks (which would usually be blacked out).
I know Roger's removed many of the blackouts as they own the rights to both TV and Streaming. IE national games are no longer blacked out. Do they still block regional games on the Rogers version? Is having the NHL version something they didn't think of, and thus it's an easy way to circumvent local blackouts? I don't have the rogers version so it's hard to know if Roger's stopped blackouts or if it's because no one's bothering to Administer the NHL version.
I was pretty surprised Roger's didn't try and turn off nhl logins all together. NHL charges different prices depending on what country to come from. It's really easy to signup and make it think your in Russia or Europe and get a much cheaper price.
I suppose the NHL put pressure on them so that roaming customers could still watch hockey when going into Canada, but it's a significant loophole that's probably costing Rogers money....
Here's the thing, in theory folks are supposed to sign up for the service in whatever region they are living
IE: you live in Canada - Through Rogers, Rest of the World - NHL.com (I think, as I haven't heard of any overseas broadcaster buying streaming rights as well, only Rogers here at home)
I think the reason that Rogers didn't simply force all sign ins via their portal rather than NHL.com has more to do with teh (lack of) robustness of their portal, it seems to be more down than up at times.
Now the fact that people are willing to "geoblock dodge" to get a cheaper price / fewer restrictions is not something I'll comment on except to say "Enjoy it while it lasts" because eventually they will discover a way to block the "easy" methods of dodging geoblocking.
As to blackouts, there's something screwy going on, because initially Rogers announced that anyone on Game Centre Live after Dec 31/14 would require a TV subscription for in-market games that they had exclusive rights to (IE: In my case Maple Leafs) and that anything owned by TSN I was SOL for.
Since then not only have I gotten in market games that Rogers owns thru GCL, on at least two occasions that I can remember, they forgot to blackout the TSN Leafs broadcast.
I think they're having some growing pains and frankly I wish they would just jack the price up another $50 a year, remove all these stupid artificial restrictions and call it a day.
NefCanuck