The National Hockey League has become the first major sports league to embrace the Slingbox. Sling Media and the NHL have announced a new agreement allowing Slingbox owners to use Sling Media's Clip+Sling technology to share NHL programming online.

Clip+Sling is currently in beta but will be incorporated into the SlingPlayer software once development is complete. It gives Slingbox owners the ability to easily record and share video clips. Those clips will be posted to an upcoming Sling Media "video destination site" where they can be viewed by anyone.

NHL clips will be grouped together and searchable, although as a Chicagoan I'm assuming that the search results for "Chicago Blackhawks highlights" will be depressingly small. The NHL will also make league-produced content available on Sling Media's site.

Unlike most other North American sports leagues, the NHL has been relatively quick to embrace the Internet when it comes to making video content available. After the loss of the 2004-05 season to labor problems, the league signed an agreement with Comcast to stream some of its games live on the Internet to Comcast cable subscribers.

In contrast, the NFL refuses to let any site other than NFL.com show game footage while maintaining draconian restrictions on how other league footage can be shown online (no more than 45 seconds of practice or press conference footage a day, please). Major League Baseball is also trying to go the exclusive route with MLB.TV and continues to make threatening noises about the Slingbox's place-shifting abilities.

"Having the most tech-savvy fans of all major professional sports, who also tend to be early adopters of new technology, makes offering NHL content through Clip+Sling a natural fit," said Keith Ritter, president of NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises, in a statement. "This partnership expands the visibility of our NHL games online and we are excited and proud to be the first sports league to offer this service to our fans."

Expanding the visibility of the NHL is the key for the league. The just-concluded Stanley Cup finals between Anaheim and Ottawa garnered record low ratings south of Canada after games 1 and 2 were consigned to cable outlet Versus and the last three games were aired on NBC. Those final three games averaged a 1.6 rating, according to NBC, putting it on par with Sunday afternoon golf for a minor tournament. Game 3, televised last Saturday night on NBC, produced an abysmal 1.1 rating—the lowest prime-time rating in NBC history.

With the NHL struggling for attention, the deal with Sling Media makes sense. It will also help Sling's Clip+Share feature and video destination site get off the ground if it becomes a go-to destination for hockey fans in North America. But don't expect more popular leagues to follow suit: the more popular the property, the greater the desire for exclusivity.