Yahoo continues its push into live sports streaming with new NHL deal
Yahoo is looking to align itself with the millennial market’s transitioning viewing habits after partnering with the National Hockey League (NHL) to live stream games.
Building on its earlier successful endeavours in live sports streaming Yahoo’s new deal with the NHL will deliver live, out-of-market games for free to US residents.
The partnership begins today (11 March) and will allow ice hockey fans the chance to stream the NHL “Game of the Day” up to four days a week. Viewers will also be offered an array of highlight packages including live in-game highlights, “Best of the Day” and “Best of the Week” highlights.
The inaugural game in the partnership is tomorrow’s matchup between the Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Speaking about the partnership Yahoo’s vice president of media partnerships, Phil Lynch, said: “This alliance brings us one step closer to providing fans a live professional sporting event every day, on Yahoo, completely frictionless and for free — no cable subscription or authentication required.”
Last year Yahoo dipped its toes in the live sports streaming market with great success with its stream of the Jaguars vs. Bills game in London which achieved 15.2 million unique viewers. The positive results from the NFL game paved the way for further streaming partnerships with the PGA, MLB and eSports.
A number of other major Silicon Valley players have been making moves to capatalise on the change in viewing with talks surrounding broadcast rights for live sports streaming. Facebook's vice president of partnerships, Dan Rose, recently confirmed that the social network is currently in negotiations with the NFL over the digital broadcast rights to Thursday Night Football.