Russian free-to-air broadcaster RTR has agreed a sub-licensing deal with pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus for the rights to the 2013-14 Tour de Ski cross-country skiing event.
RTR’s head of sport, Alexander Taschin, said the agreement forms part of the broadcaster’s strategy to televise winter sports events ahead of Sochi’s staging of the 2014 winter Olympic Games.
“In anticipation of the Olympics, we will try to show as much winter sports as possible, so the choice fell on the Tour de Ski,” he told the Sports.ru website.
The Tour de Ski is an annual event. The 2013-14 edition got underway on December 27 and runs through January 5.