A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The National Hockey League season first games in North America start today. The NHL is struggling to adapt to consumers cutting their cable cords and picking among all those streaming services. In Dallas, where the Stars skate, a cable system's Chapter 11 bankruptcy put the Stars and their fans in a bind until a Canadian streaming service stepped up to save both. Here's Bill Zeeble with member station KERA.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Over for Blackwell. Score.
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BILL ZEEBLE, BYLINE: For the first time, Dallas Stars fans can watch games on any device all season for free thanks to an ad-supported streaming app called Victory+. The old cable company Diamond Sports Group is now mired in bankruptcy. Its Bally Sports channel carried Stars hockey games that fans could see for a fee. Now, thanks to the Victory+ app, nearly the entire 82-game hockey season will be available without a subscription or fee.
BRAD ALBERTS: What we decided at the end of the day was we were OK with pioneering what I'll call this experiment, which is to go free, go, you know, direct to consumer.
ZEEBLE: Brad Alberts is the Dallas Stars' president and CEO. Given the cable company's bankruptcy, he needed a solution for viewers. And months ago, the streaming programmer called A Parent Media Co., or APMC, came to the rescue. The Calgary, Alberta, business is led by Neil Gruninger.
NEIL GRUNINGER: You know, I am Canadian, so hockey is life (laughter).
ALBERTS: I think Neil Gruninger was steadfast in it. He was, you know, adamant from the beginning - let's go free, let's go free.
ZEEBLE: Again, Brad Alberts.
ALBERTS: They understand this space. They know that sophisticated streamers aren't going to pay. They're going to figure out ways around paywalls.
ZEEBLE: At a Stars fan gathering during a preseason practice, Bart Kudlicki (ph) is sporting his green Dallas jersey. He says he's glad fans will get to watch games for free.
BART KUDLICKI: That is fantastic for now. However, one thing we were discussing is how long will it be free?
ZEEBLE: Alberts says he doesn't know, but he's committed to it because he's aware customers are suffering from what he calls credit card and subscription fatigue. The team gets a cut of the ad revenue. The economics and fan feedback, he says, will all need to be evaluated.
ALBERTS: We're going to know a lot more by Christmas as to how this is working. The economics are important, and we depend on this revenue for our funding of our team. But we're steadfast in the belief that this is the future. And we believe that if we take care of our fan, the rest will, you know, take care of itself.
ZEEBLE: For now, fans like Chris Whipple (ph) feel taken care of. He says the streaming app will be especially big for his 9-year-old son Cristobal (ph).
CRISTOBAL: I like hockey.
CHRIS WHIPPLE: I think he was on the ice for the first time when he was 3. Now I know where to go whenever he asks me to find the game.
ZEEBLE: If Whipple goes to the channel when there's no game, Gruninger says there will be other sports programming.
GRUNINGER: We've signed deals with Red Bull to ensure that we have great, you know, extreme sports on the service. This is just really the beginning of what we're bringing.
ZEEBLE: They've basically launched a new free streaming sports network funded by advertising. Alberts says the NHL's Anaheim Ducks was the second team to join the network.
ALBERTS: Everybody's paying attention to this, so how it all ends up going over the next couple of years remains to be seen.
ZEEBLE: The latest NHL team to join the Victory+ roster is the St. Louis Blues, winner of the Stanley Cup five years ago. Alberts and Gruninger have high expectations to expand the free service with more teams, other professional leagues and maybe even high school games.
For NPR News, I'm Bill Zeeble in Dallas.
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