Hockey’s big digital push as FIH signs 10 year partnership with NAGRA

Sports Business Deals : The International Hockey Federation (FIH), the world’s governing body for the sport of hockey, and NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and the world’s leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen video solutions, have signed a ten-year partnership that brings together the established sports leadership of the FIH and NAGRA’s market-leading digital media solutions to deliver a ground-breaking fan engagement service. The new platform will be the “home of hockey”, creating a central community for the 30 million players, fans, and officials worldwide. It will also benefit the global growth of the sport through new awareness, expanded fan engagement, and new sources of revenue for the FIH.

Deployed and operated by NAGRA as a “sports-as-a-service” offering, the multi-faceted digital platform will be developed for web, mobile and smart TVs. It will include live matches, replays, highlights, videos, archives, news, articles, live scores, results, and statistics, as well as innovative social sharing functionality where fans and participants can capture and share instant moments online. The new service will be launched simultaneously with the resumption of live international matches. In addition, the platform will provide the FIH, Continental Federations, National Associations and clubs with a centralized management service for their millions of participants and fans.

“With more than 30 million participants, the International Hockey Federation has always had great ambition for the worldwide promotion and development of its sport. Improving our digital engagement for the whole hockey community, and primarily our fans and athletes, has been one of our key objectives,” said Thierry Weil, FIH CEO.  

 

“We are thrilled – especially in this challenging period – to engage in a long-term partnership with a global technology leader to achieve our goals. I want to thank NAGRA for their commitment and trust, we view this as a game-changing agreement that takes our digital development to the next level.” 

“This is the start of a wider journey that goes beyond just sports streaming,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, SVP Sales Development for NAGRA. “With this partnership, we are taking field hockey into a realm of global digital transformation and harnessing the power of player participation as well as fandom. NAGRA’s cloud-based video content management technologies and services and drive for innovative business transformation will enable the FIH to deliver a new level of engagement for the sport and provide hockey fans with an unmatched experience.”

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