Yesterday the news broke via WEEI.com that the NHL is handing over the operating duties of its online operations to MLB advanced media.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media will take over the NHL‘s web operations, apps, streaming video and more in 2016, multiple sources told WEEI.com Monday. The partnership, which is expected to be announced on Tuesday, will also involve Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) taking over the NHL Network. In addition to running MLB.com and all 30 MLB team sites, MLBAM runs the websites for Minor League Baseball, the YES Network and SportsNet New York. It also provides the backend infrastructure for WatchESPN, the WWE Network, CBS Sports’ March Madness and HBO Now, among others.

The deal is rumoured to be worth $1.2B, which will include the NHL gaining a 7-10% stake in MLBAM, and a $100M per year rights fee paid to the NHL.

The NHL's archaic video streaming service known as GameCentre Live may finally get a much needed update, which will hopefully narrow down the two minute delay that's currently frustrating most GCL users.

What does it mean for NHL fans? Hopefully a better overall product is in the works, seeing as how MLB At Bat and MLB Game Day Audio are generally regarded as top notch services.

Major League Baseball, however, is quite meticulous when it comes to protecting their product, which can be seen from two perspectives. For one, it's quite silly to go after people that are voluntarily promoting your product, but on the other hand they're paying tons of money for the rights to control the multimedia.

It'll probably be up to the NHL to decide whether or not the same stringent rules will be applied to their highlights.

To those fearing this may be the end of hockey GIFs: That's MLB's policy that BAM follows for MLB. Seems this is more of a tech move. — DJ Bean (@DJ_Bean) August 3, 2015

Par example, HBO GIFs are kosher. All about who owns the rights. If anyone says no to GIFs, it would have to be NHL. pic.twitter.com/eSLsYsc94L — DJ Bean (@DJ_Bean) August 3, 2015

It remains to be seen if the new $1.2B deal will be factored in as hockey-related revenue.