In a first for all major professional sports leagues, the National Hockey League is partnering with Sling Media around the company’s upcoming Clip+Sling technology. The NHL and Sling Media have signed an agreement whereby Sling Media’s Clip+Sling technology will enable all current and future Slingbox customers to clip and share live or recorded segments of NHL programming online with friends, family and others.

“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, NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises. “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.”

“The NHL has consistently been at the forefront of embracing new technologies to empower and grow their fan base and we are incredibly proud to have them as our first sports league partner,” said Jason Hirschhorn, President of Sling Media’s Entertainment Group. “Clip+Sling makes it extremely easy for fans to share a priceless moment with others, dramatically changing the way consumers socialize around TV. In addition, it enables content creators to build new communities as well as new revenue and marketing opportunities around their content.”

Clip+Sling is a feature that will be built into Sling Media’s SlingPlayer software, giving Slingbox owners the ability to record and share portions of content with just a few short clicks. While customers will need a Slingbox to create and share clips, the clips posted to Sling Media’s forthcoming video destination site will be accessible by anyone. NHL clips posted to this site will be searchable and categorized by NHL as a league and NHL clubs to help users navigate through clips with ease. In addition, the NHL will also make its own long-form and short-form content available on the video destination site.

Clip+Sling is currently in private beta, with the company accepting applications for inclusion in a broader public within the United States and Canada later this summer. Individuals interested in applying for inclusion in the broader public beta can sign up at www.lebowski37.com.