Internet company Yahoo has struck a deal to show live coverage of out-of-market games from the North American NHL ice hockey league in the US.
Fans will be able to access the games for free on Yahoo without the need for a cable-television subscription or authentication. The content, which will be available from tomorrow (Friday), will be supported by advertising.
Yahoo Sports will stream an NHL ‘game of the day’ in the US on up to four days each week, as well as highlights of each game on an on-demand basis. The coverage will be in addition to Wednesday and Sunday national NHL games currently promoted by Yahoo in partnership with the NBC Sports Group division of media company NBCUniversal.
Yahoo will also provide condensed games, ‘Best of the Day’ and ‘Best of the Week’ top plays.
“This alliance brings us one step closer to providing fans a live professional sporting event every day, on Yahoo, completely frictionless and for free – no cable subscription or authentication required,” Yahoo’s vice-president of media partnerships, Phil Lynch, said. “We remain committed to delivering the best digital content to our users and advertisers, and the NHL’s premium content nicely complements our offering of live and on-demand partner content, including Yahoo and Major League Baseball’s Game of the Day, Yahoo and NBC Sports content and our recently announced deal with golf’s PGA Tour.”
In October, Yahoo and online blogging website Tumblr provided the first global free-to-view live stream of a regular-season American football NFL game, attracting an audience of more than 15.2m for coverage of the Buffalo Bills v Jacksonville Jaguars game at London’s Wembley Stadium.