Looking to bolster advertising revenues, the National Hockey League LP and its clubs are replacing static dasherboards with dynamic technology supported by artificial intelligence.
Dasherboards are the lower barriers around the ice rink separating the players from the spectators. Deploying technology from London-based Supponor Ltd., NHL telecasts in the U.S., Canada and outside North America will feature digital graphics depicting various advertising messages overlaid on the dasherboards that fans see in the league's 32 arenas.
With digitally enhanced dasherboards, or DED, NHL fans watching a televised home game will see different advertising on the boards than fans in the arena. Further, supporters watching the game in a visiting team's market, as well as those watching internationally, will see other sets of ads on the boards.
The DED system will open doors to more sponsorships, with brands able to deliver ads relevant to companies operating in particular geographies with messages in native languages, said Keith Wachtel, the NHL's chief business officer and executive vice president.
"This changes the entire dynamic," Wachtel said in an interview. "It's a new way of selling."
DED details
The ads can rotate every 30 seconds throughout the contests, and marketers can feature bar codes, hashtags, full-board takeovers, text and animated copy or creative.
Wachtel pointed to Honda, the NHL's official U.S. automotive partner, as an example. The executive said the carmaker could support various models of its vehicles throughout the game, highlighting the Accord in the opening period, then switching to the Civic in the second and the Pilot in the third.
The NHL and the clubs handle the ad inventory. In the U.S. during the regular season, clubs control the boards for games that air locally on regional sports networks. For nationally aired contests on Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN (US) and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.'s TNT (US), the inventory will be shared by the league and the teams. The NHL will be in charge of ads in postseason games.
The DED system will be featured on the NHL Global Series games that begin the regular season Oct. 7-8 from Prague. NHL Network (US)'s national coverage of the games will feature dynamic ads from U.S. corporate marketing partner Jägermeister and NHL global marketing partner Amazon.com Inc.
Initially, the DED views will emanate from the "camera 1" position — a broad midarena shot — with the far dasherboards in the background accounting for 80% to 85% of what watchers see on TV.
In-arena dasherboard marketers will continue to receive some air-time exposure, occurring when cameras detail the action behind the nets and near boards, plus other closeup and alternative views.
Wachtel said the DED platform provides maximum flexibility for clubs, with the home team controlling all of its inventory, some of which could be pitched to their opponent.
"They could sell to 50 companies or make it more exclusive by limiting it to 10," Wachtel said. "They could market the platform on a game-by-game basis."
To manage and program the various digital entries, Supponor has established an internet-based hub where clubs and the league enter schedules for when the dynamic ads will appear, along with the appropriate creative and animation files.
A long time coming
Dasherboard ads in NHL arenas initially surfaced in 1981. Supponor and the NHL first worked together at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto's Air Canada Centre, now known as Scotiabank Arena. The venue hosted all 16 games of the international tournament, and Wachtel said the product worked well and met key financial goals.
The delivery, though, was "incredibly complex" and expensive, the executive said. It required special treatments on the boards themselves, enhanced optics on the cameras and additional lighting in the rafters.
But after investing much time and money, a more sophisticated yet simpler system is now in place. Working with game footage, the system's AI elements and algorithms were trained to recognize the speed of the game and the objects that appear in front of the boards. This includes players, sticks, pucks and sprays of ice as well as when doors open to the clubs' benches and penalty boxes.
Production entails taking camera feeds and applying Supponor's AI, computer rigging and viewing "magic" to deliver its feed in essentially real time, Supponor CEO James Gambrell said. Supponor equipment is housed in the NHL arenas but operated remotely from Toronto.
Opportunities north of the border and beyond
The DED system is especially important to the league in Canada, where the NHL has seven franchises and strong viewership. Historically, Canadian viewers have seen U.S. brand logos on the boards during telecasts.
Wachtel said the league is now in a position to overlay country-specific brands such as Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. and Tim Hortons on Rogers Communications Inc.'s Sportsnet coverage.
Supponor's DED offering is one reason why Hyundai Canada inked a deal to become the league's official automotive partner, according to Wachtel.
The opportunity is perhaps even greater outside of North America, where NHL games air in more than 100 nations. The virtual ads open up potential sponsorship pacts with auto, telecom and sports betting companies in those countries.
"We can have dynamic signage on every NHL game that airs on Viasat AB in Sweden and Finland," Wachtel said.
Calling the 2022-23 season a pilot program, Wachtel said DED will afford incremental revenue opportunities over the course of the multiyear pact, but he did not project an amount.
On-ice and content integrations
Supponor's Gambrell said that over time, there will be virtual on-ice commercial integrations while content will appear on the digital dashers. He said the league's puck- and player-tracking information, detailing things like the speed of an up-ice rush or the velocity of a slap-shot goal, could be incorporated into the DED views.
The NHL's Wachtel said he expects DED will support content information in the next season or two. For example, Wachtel said there could be an image of a New York Rangers player who scored a power-play goal, accompanied by the club's sponsor for that element, appearing on the Rangers' RSN home, MSG Network (US).
