YouTube will provide live coverage of the 2012 Ice Hockey World Championship after the Infront Sports & Media agency, the marketing partner of the International Ice Hockey Federation, launched an official channel for the tournament on the video-sharing website.
The channel will offer live and on-demand coverage, as well as daily highlights, of all 64 games at this year’s competition, which started today (Friday).
The YouTube coverage will not be available in countries where exclusive rights deals are already in place, but will be free to access elsewhere. The countries where the YouTube coverage will not be available are: Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and the USA.
“Through the YouTube coverage, realised by Infront, we have managed to realise the best global digital media exposure for the championship possible and provide the fans with exceptional levels of access to this year’s ice hockey action,” the federation’s general secretary, Horst Lichtner, said.
Carmaker Škoda, the main tournament sponsor, is sponsoring the YouTube channel.
The tournament, which is being co-hosted by Helsinki in Finland and Stockholm in Sweden, will run until May 20.