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NHL to use digital advertising on boards for 2022-23 season

Every single 2022-23 NHL game will feature new digitally enhanced dasherboards as part of league's latest effort to boos ad-related revenue. (Getty Images)
Every single 2022-23 NHL game will feature new digitally enhanced dasherboards as part of league's latest effort to boos ad-related revenue. (Getty Images)

The NHL is continuing to find different ways to bring in advertisements to help increase league revenue, no matter how unpopular they may be.

The newest idea, as first reported by Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, will be the use of digitally enhanced dasherboards (DED) for each and every game throughout the 2022-23 season.

The DED system will have advertisements on the dasherboards change throughout the course of a game, with any particular brand being able to purchase a 30-second increment. These will change plenty throughout the course of a game, as teams will have 120 increments to fill. The NHL will also be allotted 90 seconds of institutional time for their own advertisements.

Reactions online have been quite negative to this point, as many believe it will be a cause of distraction when watching games on TV. For the most part, it seems fans would much prefer having the ads permanently placed on the boards, as the movement on the DED boards may take attention away from the action. While it may be a valid concern, however, Keith Wachtel, the NHL’s chief business officer and executive vice president of global partnerships, isn’t overly concerned.

“Like anything else, you’re going to have your people that don’t like it, that think it is difficult to watch,” Wachtel acknowledged when speaking with reporters. “But over time, like everything else, people will get used to it, and we’re not concerned at all whatsoever.”

The good news for fans who have concerns is that the NHL has done their due diligence to ensure this will work out for not only the brands but fans viewing from home as well. In fact, this project has been underway for seven years now, costing tens of millions of dollars. Whether or not it goes the way they hope remains to be seen, but there is no denying that the NHL is seeking creative ways to boost ad-related revenue.

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