The ad is virtual, but for some NHL fans the irritation is real | CBC News

Hockey fans have taken notice of the high-tech virtual ads being shown on arena perimeter boards during NHL broadcasts league-wide this season.

The National Hockey League told CBC News that it was “satisfied” with the integration” of the new digitally enhanced dashboards (DEDs), although it has addressed “a few technical glitches” in the process.

But the league may not be attracting the kind of attention it seeks from DEDs – if some of the hot shots on social media are any indication.

In short, not everyone is impressed with what they saw on their screens.

“Once you notice it, it’s really hard to miss,” said Darcy Warrington, a Saskatoon-based hockey watcher who found the appearance of the new ads disturbing.

The ads are dynamic and can change rapidly during the broadcast – much to the chagrin of at-home viewers like Warrington, who find the visual transitions distracting when the game is on.

“Maybe I’ll get used to it, but so far it’s hard to see,” he said.

Virtual ads generate more sales

Michael Naraine, associate professor of sports management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, said he believes this type of advertising will last.

“Post-COVID, sports organizations are looking for new revenue streams to diversify, and so dynamic ads aren’t going anywhere anytime soon (just like helmet decals and sweater patches),” Naraine said via email.

Being able to rotate more ads in the same space creates an opportunity to generate more revenue, he said, adding that as technology improves and bugs are fixed, the incentive to use them will increase .

The NHL was certainly excited about delivering the ads, having worked for years with Supponor, a London-based virtual ads company, to deliver the end product. The ad will not be visible to fans watching the game in an arena.

“Supponor and the NHL have been discussing the potential use of digitally enhanced dashboards for nearly a decade,” David Patton, senior vice president of business development at the British company, told CBC News in an email.

Patton said upgrades were made to league arenas and the technology was incrementally tested, eventually leading to this season’s launch. There are a total of 32 NHL arenas in Canada and the United States.

ESPN reports that “tens of millions” of dollars have been invested along the way to make these virtual ads a reality.

“Distracting and Disturbing”

For Ontario hockey fan David Sutton, the ads are “distracting and disruptive to the experience of watching and feeling involved in the game.”

They also obscure the boards and their markings, which Sutton sees as important points for hockey game viewers.

“Seeing the markings on the board, whether they’re extensions of ice markers or even markings where the puck hit, is part of feeling involved and integrated into the game,” he said in an email.

Still, these arena-enveloping panels are ideal for displaying advertisements to those same viewers, said Hannah Holmes, an assistant professor of economics at McMaster University in Hamilton.

“The NHL is the perfect league to try/adopt this technology because of their infrastructure, which is the boards around the ice,” Holmes wrote in an email.

Is there more to come?

Holmes said if the ads prove successful, they’re likely to stay in the future, spurring the use of other new technologies.

“Hopefully game viewership won’t drop because of the distraction the ads create; the loss of viewers diminishes the impact of any advertising and lowers revenue across the board (no pun intended),” she said.

Sutton said he’s not optimistic the NHL will change course, even if fans object.

“I think eventually the younger viewers will not know anything other than using digital boards, and eventually it won’t matter,” he said.

“Sad as they are being presented with an artificial product and are not partaking in the experience.”