NBC Sports retains IIHF Worlds rights, signs Roku and Apple TV deals

The NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal has acquired rights to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2015 World Championship, while it has also expanded the reach of its live streaming product NBC Sports Live Extra.

This year’s edition of the national team ice hockey competition is being held in the Czech cities of Prague and Ostrava from May 1-17.

NBC Sports Group’s fifth consecutive year covering the World Championship will total more than 40 hours of coverage across pay-television channel NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra.

Live coverage begins on NBCSN on May 1 when Team USA faces Finland, the 2014 silver medallist, in the first of seven preliminary-round games, which will all air on NBCSN.

In other news, NBC Sports has agreed deals to make NBC Sports Live Extra available via the Roku and Apple TV streaming platforms.

In time for the second round of the NHL ice hockey league’s Stanley Cup Playoffs and upcoming Triple Crown, customers of the two services will now be able to access Live Extra’s more than 3,000 live events a year.

In addition to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Triple Crown, Live Extra streams all live sports content televised by NBC, NBCSN and Golf Channel, including: the summer and winter Olympics; Sunday Night Football from the NFL American football league and NBC’s pre-season and post-season coverage; NHL regular-season games; golf’s PGA Tour and LPGA tour; and football’s English Premier League.

NBC Sports Live Extra also hosts digital-only content that is not televised by NBC, NBCSN or Golf Channel, including some Premier League matches and select motorsports content.