TV2 leaves it late to secure Ice Hockey World Championships rights

Norwegian commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV2 has agreed a late rights deal for the 2014 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships, which gets underway in Belarus on Friday.

The agreement has been reached with pan-Nordic pay-television broadcaster C-More, with TV2 stating that a requirement that Norway’s games had to be shown free-to-air was a vital part of the deal.

In order to meet this requirement, the TV2 Zebra channel will broadcast Norway’s games, plus the semi-finals and final. The remainder of the games will be covered by the TV2 Sportskanalen and TV2 Sumo channels.

TV2’s rights manager Bjørn Taalesen said: “This has taken time, but we are very satisfied with the result. It would have been very sad if a hockey championship with Norwegian participation would not have been shown on television at home.

“We at TV2 are used to preparing at short notice and the organisation is now in full swing to prepare for the World Championships in record time.”

The 2014 World Championships are due to run through to May 25.