As NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights switches up its distribution play, ViewLift on Monday announced a multi-year deal to serve as digital partner and power streams of the NHL team’s in-market live games across major devices.
ViewLift will support a streaming service that brings games to viewers in Nevada and the surrounding territory, with a launch planned by the opening season on September 24. According to the vendor, the reigning Stanley Cup champion ice hockey team will use its end-to-end platform to simplify content streaming with easier production workflows. It will also tap ViewLift’s integrated marketing services and monetization tools.
Under the deal ViewLift is set to develop Golden Knights- branded properties on the web, iOS and Android devices, Roku, Fire TV, Appl TV, Vizio and Xbox for both live games and companion content.
It isn’t ViewLift’s first swing at streaming with an NHL team. The vendor already powers streams for the Washington Capitals. Capabilities highlighted in the announcement include ViewLift’s previous experience bringing live sports to market in days and teams’ ability to make changes on the go without additional software development, as well as real-time dashboards of key business metrics across OTT devices.
“Our expertise delivering live sports across the OTT device world – including for the NHL and its teams – will ensure the best streaming experience for those fans, watching at home or on the go,” said ViewLift CEO Rick Allen in a statement.
ViewLift’s streams of the games complement an earlier announced deal for linear with Scripps Sports. In May the Golden Knights left the challenged cable regional sports networks (RSN) model, marking a deal with the nascent Scripps Sports division that will see the broadcaster produce and distribute regional match ups via its local Ion network on KMCC-TV station over-the-air, on pay TV and connected TV platforms.
The Las Vegas NHL team previously licensed local TV rights to AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, which was among RSNs that parent Warner Bros. Discovery planned to divest.
In a statement the pro ice hockey team’s chief executive highlighted ViewLift deal and streaming benefits with the ability for fans to watch local games across devices and more opportunity for engagement.
“Our alliance with ViewLift and Scripps Sports enables our fans throughout the region to enjoy the action on whatever device they choose and from wherever they are," said Vegas Golden Knights team President and CEO Kerry Bubolz in a statement. "We will give our fans every possible option to interact with the team and watch hockey live and on demand. It's essential that our TV and digital services reflect our Stanley Cup winning on-ice performance, and I know that with Scripps Sports and ViewLift we will achieve this."