I read your story about the NBA League Pass and a free preview. Do you know if the NHL Power Play and Center Ice have free trials? I am a big hockey fan and would like to watch it before paying? — Yvonne, Portland, Oregon.
Yvonne, as you know, these are two different services. The NHL Power Play is simply ESPN’s new branding for the package of 1,050 out-of-market games which has been part of an ESPN+ subscription since last season. (The streaming out-of-market plan used to be NHL.TV; ESPN took over the rights last season.)
The cost of an ESPN+ subscription is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. And unlike the streaming NBA League Pass, there is no free trial for Power Play or ESPN+. You have to pay the regular ESPN+ rate to subscribe.
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The NHL Center Ice, which costs $69.99 for the entire season, is the cable/satellite version of the out-of-the-market package. And like the cable/satellite version of the NBA League Pass, there is no free trial for Center Ice. Cable and satellite ops offered a one-week free preview to start the season, but the freebie time is over. (The NHL season started on October 11.)
By the way, ESPN+ says the NHL Power Play this year includes the choice of two separate live streams for the out-of-market games with either the home team or away team broadcast as well as Canadian national presentations of Hockey Night in Canada. Replays of every NHL regular season and playoff game on ABC, ESPN, NHL Network, and TNT will also be available to stream on NHL Power Play on ESPN+.
To make it easier for subscribers to find Power Play games and features, ESPN+ will post a Power Play graphic across ESPN platforms, including the NHL schedule and score pages on ESPN.com and a dedicated section of NHL Power Play games in the ESPN app.
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— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman