Number 98
NHL Pioneers ASL Broadcasts With Immersive, Inclusive Coverage
Featured Focus:
Access / Inclusion / Equality, Partnerships for Good,
Community Programs
Scope of Impact: Global
For the second year in a row, the NHL doubled-down on a new era of inclusivity through its "NHL in ASL" initiative, delivering real-time hockey commentary in American Sign Language for the deaf community. Here’s what you should know:
Immersive Viewing Experience: The “NHL in ASL” provides a fully immersive, native-language viewing experience, moving beyond traditional captioning. It features deaf commentators, innovative visual aids like a crowd noise meter, and other graphic tools to convey game dynamics and crowd energy.
Strategic Partnerships: P-X-P provides specialized ASL production and advisory expertise, while Scotiabank's "hockey for all" platform champions diversity and accessibility through significant financial backing and community programs.
Setting New Standards: The initiative sets an high benchmark for inclusivity in live sports broadcasting, and challenges the industry to integrate ASL more broadly.
Beyond the powerful precedent set by this initiative, we love that the NHL went all-out for it. They could have tested their ASL broadcast for a random regular season game. Low stakes, right? Instead, they featured it for the first time during their Stadium Series — one of the most visible games outside of opening week, All-Star Weekend, and of course, the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The telecast was also available for exclusive streaming on ESPN+ in the U.S. and Sportsnet+ in Canada, in order to ensure broad digital access for the deaf community. It’s a great strategic play from the NHL not only to cater to a historically underserved fan base, but also to unlock a new market segment.
We love that they were able to partner with P-X-P from a logistical standpoint, with the National Association of the Deaf for their area expertise, and with Scotiabank as a financial sponsor that’s already committed to a “hockey for all” platform.
UPPING THE WIN
We imagine that pulling off a test-run of an ASL program like this wasn’t an easy feat. But if streaming viewership (which does have a subscription barrier) proved even the slightest-bit beneficial, we’d love to see the NHL expand its ASL capabilities more broadly in the future.
They’ve already added weekly highlight reels in ASL, but imagine the power of being the first of the big four leagues to commit to broadcasting all games with ASL on a major network or subchannel, for example. Leveraging picture-in-picture and smart TV technology to allow for second-sceeen overlays. Or even partnering with a streaming platform to offer ASL there, but for free. We’re not sure where the NHL will take this next season, but it would be a hell of a PR and fan-building move to provide greater accessibility all season long.
YOUR NEXT PLAY
This is more of an open forum for the WIN | WIN community. How can we all push for similar initiatives in the NBA, the NFL, the MLB, and other sports leagues? How could we, as an industry, leverage AI to more efficiently — and consistently — incorporate ASL broadcast practices into broadcasts and streams? Let’s hear your ideas.
A quick 3-minute peek into the team preparing to broadcast the 2025 Winter Classic in ASL.
Tech innovations from AT&T and a variety of partners are creating more opportunities to integrate ASL into everyday viewing.
The NAD is advocating for full ASL visibility in all sports broadcasts, and encouraging its community members to do the same.
The collaboration, which began in 2022, is one of the key components behind the NHL’s ASL capabilities.
Scotiabank pushes for more access in hockey through a variety of sponsorships, partnerships, and programs with the NHL and PWHL.
Since 1942, the Deaflympics has been an incredible presence that celebrates resilience, inclusion, and progress for the Deaf community.
