FIH signs World Cup rights deals with TVE, CCTV

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE have acquired rights for the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) 2014 Hockey World Cup national team tournament.

TVE will broadcast the Spanish men’s national team’s matches in the country.

Details of CCTV’s deal were not disclosed.

The FIH said that the two deals represented the final rights agreements for this year’s tournament, which will take place from May 31 until June 15 in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The FIH expects the World Cup to reach over 300 million viewers while an expected 1.25 million views are projected for live streaming coverage on video-sharing website YouTube.

In addition to CCTV and TVE, the FIH also has rights deals in place with other broadcasters.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB will show all of England's matches while Malaysian pay-television operator Astro will broadcast 46 games live.

Sports broadcaster ESPN’s internet-only network ESPN3 will cover the tournament in the US while Australian public-service broadcaster ABC has domestic rights to live and delayed coverage.

Elsewhere, pay-television broadcaster Ten Sports will show 38 men’s games live in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and pay-television broadcaster SuperSport is planning to show 76 games in sub-Saharan Africa.