The National Hockey League has signed a deal with YouTube to market highlight clips. You may recall I recently linked to the NHL on Google Video page, a multi-year deal to provide NHL video content to Google Video. With YouTube now in the Google family, this seemed like a natural extension of that deal.
This is a great move by the NHL. On October 1, I wrote about the problem with YouTube. I found the best clips are posted without consent from the copyright holder and are eventually pulled. Noticing all NHL content among my YouTube favourites had remained online, I wrote this prophetic statement. "Either the CBC and NHL understand the marketing potential of these videos or their lawyers just haven't got around to mailing that cease and desist letter yet."
Luckily, the NHL did understand the marketing potential and I applaud this move. Make it easy for bloggers and GooTubers to share and view NHL highlights and you build a rabid fanbase that will buy tickets, watch games on television and purchase memorabilia.
It's all good.
