Google's YouTube signs a deal with NHL and I'm singing

I know that most of the readers of BloggingStocks are American and therefore may not fully understand my (or any other Canadian's, for that matter) excitement to the news that the National Hockey League signed a content and advertising partnership with Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube for the 2006-2007 season. I mean, the NHL would actually provide daily short-form video content to YouTube starting this month. This is HUGE!

You see, while Americans have baseball, basketball and football, Canada has one national sports (and don't let anyone tell you it's Lacrosse) -- Hockey. Canadians live by it. Canada's culture is largely based on hockey. If you've seen our (funny) money or other national symbols, you would understand. So no wonder that when young (sort of) Canadian up-starters who have made it big want to realize a dream, they buy a hockey team. Mark Cuban bought the Mavericks, but Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) CEO, Jim Balsillie, bought the Pitsburgh Penguins (back in the beginning of October).

I know there are many hockey fans in the U.S., especially in those cities of the original six, and probably many more in the expansion cities. Therefore, my guess is that while I know for a fact that this YouTube deal with the NHL is going to be very popular up here, it would probably have its American fans as well.

Hopefully, this would be beneficial to both: YouTube gaining revenue while the NHL gets more exposure in the U.S. Seriously, watching a beauty breakaway goal is unmatched (and for the youngsters, hockey fights would be just as fun).

So for all those who were concerned on how Google was planning to monetize YouTube and deal with copyrights issue, here's one way to deal with both at the same time. Kudos!

[Photo TKnoxB]