Swiss pay-television broadcaster Teleclub has renewed National Hockey League rights, solidifying a key ice hockey property amid competition from telco UPC.
Teleclub’s new three-season deal with the NHL will run from 2019-20 to 2021-22. The property was an important one for Teleclub to hold onto as UPC – which owns the MySports channel – took over rights to the top Swiss ice hockey league from Teleclub in 2017-18, and was thought to be interested in NHL rights.
NHL complements Teleclub’s other ice hockey rights including; the Swiss Ice Hockey Cup (which also runs until 2020-21), the Champions Hockey League and the IIHF World Championships (the last two as part of a sublicensing agreement with public-service broadcaster SRG).
Teleclub will continue to broadcast up to four live NHL games per week; all regular-season and Stanley Cup playoff games will be broadcast in English, with select games in German and French.
Its current three-season deal, from 2016-17 to 2018-19, is non-exclusive as rights are also held in Switzerland by German sports broadcaster Sport1. Sport1 has a four-season deal, from 2016-17 to 2019-20, for rights in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sport1 share select rights with streaming service DAZN as part of a content sharing partnership.
The NHL are advised on all deals in Europe, excluding the Nordics, by the IMG agency.