- Every single country will be able to watch upcoming FIH events
- New deals with ESPN, CBC Sports, TV Tokyo and TVP
- Important step for the Hockey Revolution
Hockey will be shown in every single country by broadcasters across the world after the International Hockey Federation (FIH) agreed a number of partnerships with key media outlets.
Following the announcement of BT Sport and DAZN earlier this month, FIH confirmed today that ESPN Player, CBC Sports, TV Tokyo and TVP join over 20 other broadcasters, including FIH Official Media Partner Star Sports, will show the upcoming Hockey World League Semi-Finals.
Under the agreement with FIH, ESPN Player subscribers across EMEA, including more than 50 European countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Norway and Portugal, will be able to watch more than 350 hours of live and on-demand hockey coverage.
Under the agreement ESPN Player will stream more than 130 games from the Hockey World League Semi Finals, which take place in London, Brussels and Johannesburg, starting on Thursday 15 June and running until Sunday 23 July 2017.
In addition, the men and women’s Hockey World League Finals (44 games) will be available in November and December 2017 while ESPN and FIH will continue to explore more opportunities for future events.
Speaking about this, Charly Classen, Vice President and General Manager, ESPN EMEA said: “We are thrilled to work with FIH to bring the world’s best hockey action to sports fans in dozens of countries. The exclusive agreement for ESPN Player to broadcast the Hockey World League Semi-Finals and the Finals is a great start to our partnership with FIH, and we are excited about working with them closely in the future.”
In Canada, CBC Sports will live-stream every game from the Semi-Final in London, England at cbcsports.ca and on the CBC Sports app over the next couple of weeks, providing more than 65 hours of free access to all Canadians without the need for a subscription.
Japan’s TV Tokyo has committed to showing every match featuring their men’s and women’s teams at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in Johannesburg, South Africa, whilst Poland’s TVP will show all of their women’s matches from there. For nations without broadcast partners, the Olympic Channel will stream all of the matches from the upcoming Hockey World League Semi-Finals.
About these latest deals, Andrew Oram, FIH TV and Broadcast Director, said: “To partner with some of the world’s biggest broadcasters is a huge step for hockey. Having their backing will take coverage of our sport to the next level - into new territories, giving fans greater access to world-class hockey action. We look forward to working closely with all our broadcast partners to promote our sport throughout several huge international hockey events over the coming years. They will be key to helping us achieve our 10-year Hockey Revolution strategy’s main aim of making hockey a global game that inspires the next generation.”
Greg Stremlaw, Executive Director of CBC Sports and General Manager, Olympics, said the following with regard to the Canadian partnership: “As Canada’s home to the best in high-performance sport at the national and international level, we are excited to be working with FIH to provide our audiences coverage of world-class hockey. This partnership underscores our commitment to providing a platform that showcases Canada’s athletes and teams to the widest possible audience and we look forward to bringing the Semi-Final to Canadians over the next few weeks.”
In relation to the Polish partnership, Marek Szkolnikowski, Head of TVP Sport, said: “We are very happy to have acquired the rights to women’s World League Semi-Final with the Polish national team participating. We hope that it’s the beginning of a fruitful cooperation between Polish Television and FIH.”
For the full list of broadcast partners for the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, click here.
The Men’s Hero Hockey World League Semi-Final London 2017 gets underway today, Thursday 15 June. To keep up to date with all the latest news, including ticket information, visit the official event website on FIH.ch and follow FIH via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
