Can NHL's Web Strategy Make a Difference?

The NHL today launches a new NHL.com and a new Web strategy that the league hopes will show advertisers that hockey is a good national buy. NHL audiences are scattered among regional cable channels and team Web sites, explains NHL VP John Collins. "We have to aggregate every asset we have" on the Web site, he says. "We're trying to grow our North American footprint."

The site is certainly pretty nice, with tons of video. The league is now producing an ESPN-like show called The Hockey Show, which is on the site. My favorite part is the deep library of game highlights -- lengthy highlights from every game going back nearly three years.

But is it enough? The site is a big improvement, but it's not wildly innovative or attention-getting. When the NHL first told me it was going to do big new things on the Web, as a hockey fan I was hoping that meant it might do something radical, like showing out-of-market games for free on the site. (The NHL does offer on-line access to games -- for $159 a year.) But Collins says that kind of access isn't in the cards yet. "Maybe one day we'll get to that point" where ads can support free games online, he says.

So we'll see how this works. The NHL needs to use technology to win new audiences, and many of the league's owners come from the tech world and know that.

David L. Pokress/MCT/Landov

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