Last week MTV acquired rights for the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships, from 2012 to 2017, outbidding public broadcaster YLE, the incumbent. Earlier this year it renewed its deal for the rights to the Fédération Internationale de Ski World Cup events until 2016 in a deal with the Infront Sports & Media agency.
Two new competitors for MTV have emerged in the past year – Nelonen Sport Pro, a joint venture between pan-Nordic pay-operator Modern Times Group and local commercial operator Nelonen, and Urho TV, a new start-up. The new players are both sports pay-channels. MTV operates free-to-air and ‘mini-pay’ channels showing a mixture of sports and general entertainment, and four premium sports channels under the pan-Nordic Canal Plus brand.