National Hockey League Becomes First Professional Sports League to Team With Sling Media Inc. Around Forthcoming “Clip and Sling” Service; NHL Gives Fans the Power to Pick Their Favorite Hockey Footage To Share with Others through Clip+Sling™ Technology
In a first for all major professional sports leagues, the National Hockey League (NHL) is partnering with Sling Media, Inc. around the company’s upcoming Clip+Sling technology. The NHL and Sling Media have signed an agreement whereby Sling Media’s Clip+Sling technology will enable all current and future Slingbox™ customers to clip and share live or recorded segments of NHL programming online with friends, family and others.
“Having the most tech-savvy fans of all major professional sports, who also tend to be early adopters of new technology, makes offering NHL content through Clip+Sling a natural fit,” said Keith Ritter, President, NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises. “This partnership expands the visibility of our NHL games online and we are excited and proud to be the first sports league to offer this service to our fans.”
“The NHL has consistently been at the forefront of embracing new technologies to empower and grow their fan base and we are incredibly proud to have them as our first sports league partner,” said Jason Hirschhorn, President of Sling Media’s Entertainment Group. “Clip+Sling makes it extremely easy for fans to share a priceless moment with others, dramatically changing the way consumers socialize around TV. In addition, it enables content creators to build new communities as well as new revenue and marketing opportunities around their content.”
Clip+Sling is a feature that will be built into Sling Media’s SlingPlayer™ software, giving Slingbox owners the ability to record and share portions of content with just a few short clicks. While customers will need a Slingbox to create and share clips, the clips posted to Sling Media’s forthcoming video destination site will be accessible by anyone. NHL clips posted to this site will be searchable and categorized by NHL as a league and NHL clubs to help users navigate through clips with ease. In addition, the NHL will also make its own long-form and short-form content available on the video destination site.
Clip+Sling is currently in private beta, with the company accepting applications for inclusion in a broader public within the United States and Canada later this summer. Individuals interested in applying for inclusion in the broader public beta can sign up at www.lebowski37.com.
About the NHL
The National Hockey League, founded in 1917, is the second-oldest of the four major professional team sports leagues in North America. Today, the NHL consists of 30 Member Clubs, each reflecting the League’s international makeup, with players from more than 20 countries represented on team rosters. According to a Simmons Market Research study, NHL fans are younger, more educated, more affluent, and access content through digital means more than any other sport. The NHL entertains more than 100 million fans each season in-arena and through its partners in national television (VERSUS, NBC, TSN, CBC, RDS, RIS, NASN, NHL Network and HDNet) and radio (Westwood One, Sirius and XM Radio). Through the NHL Foundation, the League’s charitable arm, the NHL raises money and awareness for Hockey Fights Cancer, Hockey’s All-Star Kids and NHL Diversity, and supports the charitable efforts of all NHL players. For more information on the NHL, log on to NHL.com.
About Sling Media
Sling Media, Inc. is the world’s leading digital lifestyle company offering consumer services and products that are a natural extension of today’s digital way of life. Sling Media’s product family includes the internationally acclaimed, Emmy award-winning Slingbox™ that allows consumers to watch and control their living room television shows at any time, from any location, using PCs, Macs, PDAs and smartphones. For more information on Sling Media or the Slingbox, visit www.slingmedia.com.
NHL is a registered trademark and the NHL Shield is a trademark of the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.
