The Ice Hockey World Championships will be carried on Viasat branded channels through to 2028.
Parent company NENT Group has secured exclusive rights to the competition in the Nordic region in a new deal spanning 2024 to 2028. It already has the rights to the competition in Sweden until 2023 and will now add the neighbouring states of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Every game will be shown live on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service and Viasat pay-TV channels, with selected games also broadcast on NENT Group’s free-TV channels.
The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is the world’s most prestigious annual tournament for international ice hockey teams, and consistently attracts large audiences.
The Nordic countries have dominated the competition in recent years, with Finland winning in 2019 and Sweden lifting the trophy in both 2017 and 2018. The next tournament will be held in Switzerland in May 2020, with NENT Group as the exclusive broadcaster in Sweden.
For viewers in Sweden, NENT Group’s streaming services and TV channels have been practically synonymous with the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship for 30 years. In 1989, NENT Group’s TV3 became the first commercial channel to broadcast the competition in Sweden.
NENT subsequently secured the streaming rights to show the competition on Viaplay in Sweden every year until 2023, with the Swedish linear TV rights alternating between NENT Group and SVT each year until 2023. This is the first time that NENT Group has held the rights to the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Finland and Iceland.
The range and depth of NENT Group’s winter sport offering are unparalleled in any major media market around the world. Every season, NENT Group delivers extensive coverage of NHL and KHL ice hockey to fans across the Nordic region, in addition to nearly 400 hours of ISU speed skating and figure skating. From 2021, NENT Group will also be the exclusive pan-Nordic home of FIS Alpine and Nordic skiing.
Bruno Marty, Infront Senior Vice President of Spectator Sports: “This agreement with NENT Group – a well-established and proven partner to both the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and Infront – will ensure long-term consistency in exposure and quality, whilst providing the best possible coverage for the world’s top ice hockey tournament across the Nordic region.”
In addition to the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, NENT Group has acquired the rights to the IIHF World Championship Division 1 A and B.
