Ice Hockey World Championship: Due to a surprising rights deal, another provider will soon be available

SPORTS1

March 08, 2023 at 5:02 p.m

Sport1 previously had the TV rights to the Ice Hockey World Championships, but another provider will take over from 2024. The sports broadcaster has also lost other ice hockey rights.

• Sport1 lost the Ice Hockey World Championship.
• Two other competitions are also on the list of losses.
• Instead, Sportdeutschland.TV can now look forward to an attractive package of TV and streaming rights.

If the Ice Hockey World Championship is on Sport1 this May, it will be the last time. After the tournament in Finland and Latvia, the provider Sportdeutschland.TV will take over the media rights.

Sport Germany steals Sport1 Ice Hockey World Championship, Champions League and Spengler Cup

But that’s not all: Sport1 also loses two ice hockey competitions at club level. The Champions Hockey League (CHL) and the traditional Spengler Cup are also part of the rights package that Sportdeutschland.TV was able to secure. In contrast to the Ice Hockey World Championship, in these two cases it will not start until 2024, but already in the second half of 2023.

Sport1 not quite out of the race yet

But one problem remains: Sportdeutschland.TV is a paid streaming platform, but does not have its own TV station. The extent to which the provider will be forced by the rights holder to sell the Spengler Cup, CHL and the Ice Hockey World Championships to TV was not initially apparent when the rights were purchased.

Handball as a role model?

However, there is already a precedent. Sportdeutschland.TV also owns the rights to the World Handball Championship. However, there are sublicense deals with ARD, ZDF and Eurosport for games with or without German participation. Such deals are of course also conceivable in the case of the Ice Hockey World Championship. However, it is questionable whether Sport1 can emerge as a beneficiary.

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