The NHL All-Star Game, aside from being an event for hockey’s most talented players to showcase their skills (and a chance for Ovechkin to take a little vacation), it is also an opportunity for the league to test new and innovative technology to bring more people closer to hockey.
Last year, the league introduced puck and player tracking (see https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-puck-player-tracking-system-trial-run-at-all-star-game/c-304264280). This year, the league tested new technology with huge advertisement and digital media implications.
A Canadian company, Athletica Sport Systems, has manufactured new technology for hockey rinks and broadcasters: “Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards” that allow for market-specific advertising and graphics to appear along the boards, while still allowing live spectators to see ads in-person. The technology uses infrared strips that is picked up by the camera lenses and allows Supponor (a sports media and tech company) to insert graphics over the dashboards. This year, the All-Star Game was able to run nine different feeds.
In my opinion, the communications impacts are two-fold.
First, this form of advertising will likely make overseas broadcasting more attractive, given the ability to insert market-specific ads. It is no secret that the NHL has been broadening its market to many European countries and China over the past few years. Recently, they’ve hosted pre-season exhibition games and tours in Sweden, Russia, Finland, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai. The league also has strategically timed weekend matinee games to allow for viewers in time zones across the world to tune in. This technology is arguably a great step towards bringing NHL hockey all over the world by allowing businesses to advertise “using native tongue on the boards in the broadcast”.
But as the article points out, the bigger potential lies in the US and Canadian markets. While American partners will be able to “take advantage of very valuable camera-visible signage with [the] dasherboards”, Canadian-only partners such as Scotiabank and Tim Hortons will now be able to capitalize as well.
Out of the league’s 31 teams, only 7 are Canadian. This means many ‘away’ games are played in the US, resulting in loss of valuable marketing opportunities for Canadian companies. These new boards not only mean more ad revenue, but also greater advertising potential. (What could this mean for American advertisers? Could we have another SuperBowl commercial situation on our hands?)
Unfortunately, in order for this technology to be operational, the company still has to cut costs of operation before these boards get installed into all 31 rinks in the league. Additionally, there are discussions to be had about how the ad revenue gets split.
Read the original article here: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/01/24/live-from-nhl-all-star-digitally-enhanced-dasherboard-takes-next-step-with-nine-feeds/