The NHL 2018-19 season is almost upon us with teams about to enter their training camps in readiness for the new campaign.

Information from the parties involved in NHL coverage has been lacking in depth and quality, but as in previous years through this article, I’ll endeavour to provide the means and ways of watching the NHL in the UK.

I’ll finish with a final assessment at the foot of this piece in which I provide a balanced opinion and tell you how I’ll be watching the NHL this upcoming season.

Television Coverage:

Premier Sports (I shall refer to them as PS for remainder of article) have an NHL coverage deal which runs until 2021.

They are entering year three of their new agreement and coverage of what they exactly they are offering is sparse to say the least. The only release is an NHL FAQ which I’ll post below but can be viewed at their website here http://www.premiersports.com/ice-hockey/nhl/

Q: What do I get?

A: Exclusive coverage of up to 15 games a week. Live games are exclusive to Premier (and our sister channel FreeSports) and include nearly all of the Playoffs and every game from the Stanley Cup Final. Games we select for live coverage are not available live through NHL.tv until 24 hours later.

– NHL “On the Fly” every day

Q: How to I make sure a game I have recorded live does not end before the game has finished?

A: This is a common problem with live sports and particularly NHL that can go to overtime. We give every live game 3 hours to air which is normally more than enough. We can’t change durations at the last minute to extend the slot, nor can we give every game a longer slot than is normally necessary as this would conflict with other live events on the channel. Although you can extend the length of every record by 10 minutes in the SKY settings menu we recommend you record the program that follows to avoid a record cutting out. The alternative is to record the 1st repeat of a game that is normally shown the next morning/afternoon. This will have been edited to fit the slot.

Other information relating to our coverage and that of NHL.tv Live online.

A: Included in the new 5 year contract for NHL broadcasts in the UK is an agreement that means NHL Gamecenter Live blackout restrictions apply to games selected for live broadcast by Premier Sports. Games that we may join in progress we allow GCL to show live.

This was agreed with the NHL based on the enhanced rights fee and the need for us to maximise and protect our investment in the sport.

Q: What games will be blocked live on GameCenter online?

A: 12-15 games we select to broadcast live each week, Most of the playoff games from rounds 1 and 2, all of the playoff games from round 3, the Stanley Cup Final matches, the Winter Classic and other outdoor games and the All-Star matches.

Q: When can GameCenter show the games they have to block in the UK?

A: They can make games available after 24 hours after the live game
There is no mention of the ‘Continued daily coverage of the 1 hour NHL highlights show’ nor intermission coverage which was advertised at the beginning of the deal in the following way:
“For the first time on Premier Sports, full intermission and pre and post game coverage will be included on a rolling basis with the aim that within the first 2 seasons 80% of live games shown will contain these segments.”

So how can you access the channel? PS operates via Sky channel 428, Virgin channel 551 and via the Premier Player online.

The following link provides the terms and conditions, including payment and billing. http://www.premiersports.com/info/terms-and-conditions.html

A sister channel of PS, Freesports (FS) will also be broadcasting NHL games this season.
As the title suggests, it’s a free to view channel, which is available on the following platforms:

As per the FS website, “FreeSports is a new TV channel dedicated to bringing free sport back to 22 million UK homes through the Freeview, Sky, Freesat, TalkTalk and BT Platforms.

On the content page of the FS website https://www.freesports.tv/, the following ice hockey coverage is listed:

Elite Ice Hockey League — LIVE games every 2 weeks & highlights
National Hockey League – 3 games a week that can’t be shown live on Premier Sports.
International Ice Hockey Federation – 20 live games from Championships and 5 GB games from Div1A (obviously hasn’t been updated!)
Champions Hockey League – 20 live games
Swedish Hockey League – 2 live games a week
KHL
Spengler Cup live semi’s and final
GB u18s World Championship

FS are going to be showing some pre-season NHL hockey from China, with Boston facing Calgary on September 15 and September 19.

It’s not known whether pre-season games will be blocked on NHL.TV but they weren’t last year and I assume that to be the case this time around.

Online Coverage:

NHL TV is available with two payment options of which one is a single payment of $119.00 and the second is monthly payments of $19.99. (https://www.nhl.com/subscribe)

The latter option will work out much more expensive over the season so if you intend to watch for the entirely then a one-off payment is the way to go.

The final price in GBP has been around 105-110 (for one-off season payment) depending on the exchange rate the date you make the purchase and the credit/debit card used.

Select pre-season games are to be included in the package as they were last season.

The blackout situation does exist and will apply to eleven games a week that PS intend to show live. Games that are blacked out for NHL.tv viewers will be available 24 hours later. Any game shown on delay by PS should be available LIVE on NHL.tv.

Intermission coverage is hit and miss on NHL TV but it‘s certainly proved more readily available than on PS.

Previous subscribers should have received an email from the NHL, with subscriptions set to be automatically renewed on September 12-13, if subscription not cancelled before then (my apologies for this article being published post this date).

That being the case, this section in the FAQ may be of some use to those who did not wish to automatically renew subscription.

Cancellation. To cancel your subscription to Subscription Services, you must follow the procedures described below. If we do not list cancellation procedures for a particular Subscription Service, you should contact us at NHL.com/contact. Except as described below, we do not refund or prorate Subscription Services, or any other purchases made through the Services, for any reason. Requests to terminate subscriptions will be effective once the billing period in which we received the cancellation concludes.
NHL.TV. Subject to applicable laws, if you are a subscriber to NHL.TV, you may cancel your subscription within five (5) days of initially subscribing or within five (5) days after your subscription has automatically renewed, and receive a refund of the subscription price; provided that if you sign up for NHL.TV again after cancelling, the NHL reserves the right to deny further cancellation requests made within a single NHL season. You may cancel your subscription by contacting customer support at 800-559-2333 in the United States and 1-412-386-2646 internationally, between the hours of 12pm EST until the later of (i) 12am, or (ii) time of last puck drop during the NHL season and during standard business hours during the offseason.

Features:

Watch live games & highlights on the go
Stream games live and on-demand from your compatible computer, phone, tablet, or connected TV device.

Stunning video quality
Watch revolutionary 60fps (frames per second) live streaming video, available for select phones and tablets.

Play-by-play announcers that you want to hear
Whether your favourite out-of-market team has home ice or is in the middle of a six-game road trip, you can choose between the television broadcast of either team and get the play-by-play you want to hear.

DVR controls at your fingertips
Never miss another goal, hit, or save. Pause and rewind live games and jump back to highlights with the interactive timeline.

Your personal broadcast booth
Watch multiple games from around the League at the same time. Follow the action with picture-in-picture, or catch up to 4 games at once with Mosaic® View.

Extra camera angles
Analyze plays like a pro with up to 5 alternate camera angles, including two over-the-goal cameras and the zipline aerial cam. Or put yourself directly into the action with first-person ref cam. Availability of extra camera angles varies by game and arena.

Devices: Apple, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, Chromecast, Playstation and Amazon Fire. More information on connected devices can be found here https://www.nhl.com/faq/connected-devices

Review:

The coverage provided by PS has been blighted by issues during their tenure of broadcasting the NHL.

Poor feeds (TV and online), including break-up of the picture, buffering or the stream going totally offline have been consistent problems for the channel, who have blamed everything and everyone but themselves for continual issues in that regard.

Ice Hockey is not the prime sport or best seller for PS and on many occasions, games have been shifted to make way for NASCAR, often at late notice in the past. Pro 14 Rugby is now the standout product for PS (just take a look at their social media) and expect that to take priority over everything else the channels broadcasts.

Customer service is not PS forte to say the least. Many subscribers have complained about the poor telephone service when trying to rectify subscription issues or cancelling, while if you are suffering from other difficulties (technical or otherwise) with the channel, then good luck trying to rectify those with a company who seem to only respond to positive inquiries. That goes for online through social media networks as well as direct contact through telephone.

On the face of it, the cost is fair for eleven (or twelve) live games a week but it’s potluck which teams will be shown and of course no guarantees that the team you root for will be shown consistently, if at all. At the crux of the matter is that as a subscriber, you’re paying for the small amount of regular season games that will be blacked out and the majority of the Playoffs.

I’m a huge fan of the NHL.tv service but it’s not without it’s drawbacks.
The blackouts are bad enough during the regular season but they will be enforced for every single Stanley Cup playoff game as PS are due to show every match-up live.
We all know there are workarounds and I suspect many of you have used them in the past.

Waiting 24 hours to watch a game that has been blacked out is an inconvenience I agree but the odds are stacked in your that your team won’t be affected (at least during the regular season).

The price of NHL.tv is amazing value (at least for the regular season), while the numerous features and watching past games at will, are a luxury for fans this side of the ocean.

Summary:

With all their flaws and continual issues, I cannot possibly advocate anyone subscribing to PS but I wish you the best if you decide to do so.  You do also receive access to further KHL and SHL hockey along with other sports if that’s a consideration in your decision.    If you have views on their service, please feel free to share them in the comments section for others to read, positive or negative.

I’ll likely be heading down the NHL.tv route and checking out FS when they have games.

It’s a far from ideal situation for UK NHL fans but these are the legal options we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.

Appreciate any feedback or views in the comments section. I write this as a helpful guide and nothing more, so any information I might not be aware of is gratefully received.