The Finnish ice hockey league, the SM Liiga, has concluded an exclusive five-year domestic rights deal, from 2013-14 to 2017-18, with commercial and pay-television broadcaster Nelonen.
The announcement of the deal follows on from an exclusive period of negotiation, as reported by TV Sports Markets last week (TV Sports Markets 16:11).
Nelonen, supported by parent company Sanoma, the Nordic media group, fought off competition for the rights from commercial and pay-television operator MTV3, pay-television operator UrhoTV and public-service broadcaster YLE.
Under the current deal, the bulk of the rights are held by UrhoTV, with Nelonen showing only one regular season match per month, plus coverage of the latter-stage play-off matches.
Sanoma Media Finland’s chief executive officer, Anu Nissinen said: “The new agreement with SM Liiga will give us access to a wealth of unique additional content, and we aim to leverage Sanoma’s extensive range of media and services to make the most of this material.”