Sep 26, 2008 6:05 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Richard Tedesco

The National Hockey League is looking to lure more fans online with enhanced video and social networking features on its new Web site and through a fantasy hockey partnership with Yahoo.

The new, improved www.NHL.com will provide broadcast quality video highlights, an improved video subscription service with social networking, more stats and player photos for purchase. Game Center Live replaces Center Ice Online as the video subscription service for out-of-market live games at the same $169 price (or $159 “early bird” price before Nov. 15).

Free video highlights from each game will be available between periods and at the conclusion of each contest.

One featured game on Game Center Live each night will be shot with auxiliary cameras to provide a multitude of angles on the action. Fans will be able to chat with each other during the games and switch readily between games. They’ll also receive alerts when close games are in the final two minutes of play.

“Our demographics show that the product is well-positioned given the high incidence of broadband penetration,” said NHL spokesman Michael DiLorenzo. “We also know that our fans trend toward younger, educated and affluent.”

The league also knows that its core audience of young, upscale males encompasses a large segment of displaced fans: half of each NHL team’s fan base lives outside the team’s market.

The NHL’s free fantasy hockey offering will now reside at Yahoo’s Web site and will offer video clips that fantasy players can access to see their fantasy players’ performance each night. The move to Yahoo is intended to aggregate the audience that formerly played separate fantasy hockey games on NHL.com and Yahoo.

“Yahoo is the gold standard in fantasy hockey,” DiLorenzo said.

That partnership will enable the NHL to learn about hockey fantasy players for marketing purposes, according to DiLorenzo. He declined to indicate how many players NHL.com had been drawing for its fantasy league.

For more coverage on interactive marketing

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