The Toronto-based Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Vancouver-based Interactive Netcasting Systems will be delivering over 2,000 OHL hockey games via the Internet on a pay-per-view broadband basis over the next three years. The Webcasting initiative starts free this weekend, then playoff games will be available for $8.95 per game. There will also be a database of programming highlights that users can search.
Aaron Bell, director of information at the OHL, says the league hasn’t researched demos yet; part of the reason for the free preview is to collect customer info for its database and subscriptions for next season. The OHL in general has a wide demo, with 16 to early 20s and mid 40s to 55 being key sectors. Fans skew male, but not heavily so. Research will be done after the streaming has been up for a while to find out who’s tuning in.
