April 23, 2007
NHL Teams Up With Amazon Unbox
More good news from our friends at NHL HQ: An alliance with Amazon to provide full-length games from the league's archives through the Amazon Unbox service. From the press release:
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE TO OFFER FULL-LENGTH PLAYOFF, REGULAR SEASON, AND CLASSIC GAMES THROUGH AMAZON UNBOX™
Full-Length Regular And Post-Season Games Now Available
SEATTLE and NEW YORK CITY (April 23, 2007) — Just in time for the NHL playoffs, hockey fans can now watch full-length games whenever and wherever they want through the Amazon Unbox (http://unbox.amazon.com) digital video download service. The National Hockey League (NHL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that hockey fans can download full-length regular-season, post-season and classic games through Amazon Unbox.
Amazon Unbox will offer three or more of the most exciting NHL games each week during the regular season and playoffs, as well as classic NHL games. The first set of games from the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs are now live and available through Amazon Unbox. Games are available for download as soon as 48 hours after the final buzzer for just $2.99. Dozens of classic games from the NHL’s rich history also are available, including the 1994 Stanley Cup Final in which the New York Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks, the 1993 Western Conference Final game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings featuring Wayne Gretzky, and the 1997 Stanley Cup Final in which the Detroit Red Wings topped the Philadelphia Flyers.
Click here for the main page on Amazon.
What's really cool about this is if you have a Series 2 TiVo, you can download the video directly to your TiVo box and watch the game on your television set as God intended.
For me and other TiVo users, this makes all the difference in the world. Paying $2.99 to watch an old game on a postage stamp-sized screen on my laptop seems like an extravagance. But paying $2.99 to watch that same game on my television set seems like a bargain. Bravo NHL and bravo TiVo for another great idea.
POSTSCRIPT: I've got some quibbles. We need more details on the individual videos available. Just slugging a video with Quebec Nordiques at Montreal Canadiens 1985, isn't enough. Tell me which game in the series it is, and why the game is important. Give me the exact date. As hockey fanatic, I know why these games are important, but in order to make more sales, or just remind those who have forgotten over the years, we need more details.
Still, this is a minor quibble. I'm off to order my first video right now, and have it ready to watch later tonight.
UPDATE: Woo-hoo! I went a little nuts and bought four. At $2.99, the price can't be beat!
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Just a quick warning about Unbox, assuming they haven't significantly changed their end user license agreement since last year: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/15/amazon_unbox_to_cust.html
It looks like they've corrected at least one thing since the original release: software upgrades are now optional and not pushed as a background operation. But there are still some very uncool features, such as the fact that you never own what you buy. If Amazon thinks you're misusing their service, they can delete anything you've downloaded and you have little recourse to fix the mistake if it was one. Generally I think Unbox is a great idea, especially if it's making Old School hockey available, but Amazon still has many privacy/security issues to sort out.
Posted by:
at April 23, 2007 03:05 PM
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