2007 IIHF World Championship complete schedule will be available Live and On Demand on IHWC.net
Sport:
The leading international sports marketing group, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, will produce a dedicated online broadcast service for the 2007 IIHF World Championship, offering fans the opportunity to view live and on demand every game of the Championship on the official event website – www.ihwc.net. The website is jointly managed by the IIHF and Infront as the federation’s exclusive marketing partner.
Flexible subscriptions models
This is the first time in the event history that such a wide ranging online service is available for fans, with a flexible set of viewing options.
The 2007 IIHF World Championship online service allows fans to purchase single live games from 3.50 Euro (group, relegation and quarter final games, 3rd place game) to 7.50 Euro (final game). Ice hockey fans can also download or access the high-quality video stream of the games after the live event has ended for 2.50 Euro per game.
The “Follow Your Team” option enables users to follow all games of their favourite team throughout the entire tournament live and on demand. The price for this service is 20 Euros.
And for the ultimate fans, broadband consumers worldwide will be able to watch every game of the tournament live and delayed for 40 Euros. Access is only geo-blocked in a few countries where conflicting media license agreements are in place.
Infront Advanced Media Solutions
Infront’s in-house IP broadcast platform has been set-up to complement the Group’s service offering and to exploit existing media rights more effectively to a wider and more discerning viewing audience.
The production and post-production facilities are located in Milan, Italy and will be managed by MP Web – the new media company of Infront’s wholly-owned subsidiary Media Partners. In June 2007, MP Web will be re-launched formally as Infront Advanced Media Solutions and function as the Group’s dedicated competence centre for the management and distribution of new media sports rights.
Infront Advanced Media Solutions will offer a one-stop-shop for producing, delivering, protecting and billing new media content, enabling clients to globally expose their events. The company will also continue to produce the official FIS Ski World Cup magazine programme, a variety of new media services for the leading Italian football teams, as well as Snowtime Channel (www.snowtime.com) - a branded block of programmes and footage dedicated to winter sports.
For the 2007 IIHF World Championship online service, Infront Advanced Media Solutions will produce tailor-made new media content using experienced editors, commentators and producers to create the dedicated online coverage for ice hockey fans worldwide.
Philippe Blatter, President & CEO of the Infront Group, said: “This innovative project demonstrates that Infront’s acquisition of Media Partners is delivering real synergies and real added value for our clients. In this case, it is a major boost for our winter sports and production services capabilities. In the future, we are planning to implement similar high-quality IP exploitation models for other clients, enhancing the coverage of their properties and providing increased exposure for sponsors.”
Bruno Marty, Infront’s Executive Director Winter Sport, added: “We are very happy that the 2007 IIHF World Championship will be more accessible to fans than ever before. Through the service offered by Infront Advanced Media Solutions we are able to bring this action-packed competition to the online consumer worldwide, even in those markets where the event does not normally have television exposure.”
For further information, please contact:
Jörg Polzer
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax. +41-41-723-1516
info@infrontsports.com
www.infrontsports.com
