Reviews
NHL Gamecenter Android app offers live broadcasts and team tracking
October 14, 2011 | by Andrew Kameka
Android App Reviews, Entertainment, Multimedia, Paid apps
The NHL 2011-2012 season started last week, but the official Android app didn’t land until yesterday. Correction, the official apps didn’t arrive until yesterday because the NHL has decided to split its official app into two offerings: the free NHL Gamecenter and the $19.99 NHL Gamecenter Premium.
Gamecenter is an Android 2.1+ companion for all things NHL. Users tell the app the name of their favorite team, which then changes the background to reflect that franchise’s logo and provide quick links to tracking them. Live scores are available for every game, as are previews with television listings, season series, and head-to-head history between opponents. There’s also a schedule page showing when your favorite team is at home or away,
Other standard features like standings, news articles, player profiles, and game photos are also available in both apps. However, if you want live radio broadcasts, video highlights, and exclusive “Best of the Week” videos, you’ll have to pony-up for the Premium version. Hockey fans who want live game video will have to purchase an additional subscription to the annual NHL GameCenter Live broadband service. That service also gives users access to desktop streaming. It will cost $159 for a one-time payment or 8 monthly payments of $19.95.
I’ll be honest and admit that I only pay attention to hockey during the winter Olympics, so I won’t speak on how effective this app is at capturing the on-ice action. However, I can’t imagine people will be too thrilled at the prospect of spending $180 for the privilege of watching hockey matches on their phone, especially considering that broadcasts are still subject to blackout restrictions. If you love hockey and absolutely need to have it on all devices at all times, then head over to the Android Market to download the apps.
(free version)
(premium version)
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It's worth mentioning that the maximum total charge is $160, not the $180 stated in the article. Live video streaming and the other features should be enabled in the free app, after logging into a GameCenter Live account. The Premium app is just for people who don't have/want an account. But really, it's very unfair to judge it as paying $160 "for the privilege of watching hockey matches on their phone". Regardless of cost, nobody is going to want to watch an entire season of Hockey on a mobile phone screen – the game is too fast and the puck too small for that to be acceptable. Live Streaming via the app is being marketed as an extra feature to the Desktop service, rather than a service in itself. And on a Desktop, the service is fantastic – every game in HD and usually with a choice of Home or Away TV broadcast. The NHL did try a reduced cost "app only" live video streaming service last season, but apparently got hardly any interest and so it was withdrawn.
I enjoyed watching the pre-season on my Galaxy S phone. It has a great "TV Out" feature that allows you to reverse the antenna and watch the game on the auxillary of my big screen TV. I signed up for NHL Center Ice so I could continue to enjoy watching on my computer, my son's iphone or my TV via the output on my phone, but the "live" portion is not quite released yet…. as it will not allow me to log-in on my phone or my son's iphone. The NHL.com website says that the ability to watch games on android phones is "coming soon". I am confused though because it still allows me to watch the first 3 minutes a game before cutting out. Can't wait for them to get it right !
[...] Comments [...]
[...] Comments [...]
Gamecenter live will screw you on your renewal. They won't send you an email telling you about your renewal. Then it will be too late to cancel. They basically have no customer support.
Just got off the line with customer support after a 40 minute wait of listening to recording of 2011 Stanley cup finals over and over and over …. Anyway, they acknowledged that there is an issue with the Samsung Galaxy S app and said they were working on a fix and should have a new app out in a few days. I am a Canadian living in Australia with no hockey on TV, so this is important to me.
[...] NHL Gamecenter Android app offers live broadcasts and team tracking [...]
[...] NHL Gamecenter Android app offers live broadcasts and team tracking [...]
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