Premier Sports is to take over as the broadcaster of the UK’s Elite League Ice Hockey for the 2013-14 season.
The new exclusive deal with the pay-TV channel, which is available on Sky and Virgin Media, includes a live game every week on a Saturday night and also involves coverage of the end-of-season play-offs.
Coverage begins on Saturday, November 23, at the Skydome as Coventry Blaze host Belfast Giants.
The league leading Giants travel to Coventry to take on the Blaze who have recently brought back stars Shea Guthrie and Mike Egener.
Premier’s live match coverage will be on air from 6:15pm with a highlights roundup from other games played earlier this week.
It takes the amount of ice hockey on Premier Sports to 45 hours per week, with the channel also home to regular live NHL matches.
Aaron Murphy is to join the Premier Sports team to present and do play-by-play commentary on the EIHL Game of the Week every Saturday, and will be joined by a different expert each week to add local flavour to broadcasts.
He was the lead commentator for Premier Sports’ coverage of Great Britain’s matches at the World Championships earlier this year in Budapest.
Murphy has also covered NHL, KHL and the EIHL during his ice hockey broadcasting career.
Injured Blaze defenseman Benn Olson will handle the commentary alongside Murphy for the channel’s first live match.
Premier Sports will have a live Game of the Week for the remainder of the EIHL season, and will include playoffs, and the Championship Final from the NIC in Nottingham in the coverage.
Elite League Ice Hockey has been shown on Sky Sports for the past decade, but the new TV deal with Premier Sports ensures regular weekly live coverage of the competition’s top games.
Tony Smith, chairman of the EIHL, said: “The Elite League is thrilled to have live coverage on UK television.
“We would like to thank Premier Sports for joining us to provide this fantastic coverage for supporters.
“We hope that fans support the commitment and investment from Premier Sports into the Elite League.
“The league believes this will help grow our fan base across the UK and Ireland.”
Richard Sweeney, general manager of Premier Sports, said: “We are delighted to be able to support UK ice hockey by covering the Elite League.
“With 15 games a week from the NHL, NHL Tonight and now a primetime Saturday evening game of the week from the UK, we can now officially say to fans that we are your home for hockey in the UK.
Games will be available on Sky channel 428, Virgin channel 551 and around the world via the Premier Player.
Premier Sports has been running since 2010 and offers sports fans in the UK an opportunity to receive wall-to-wall coverage of variety of niche events.
Its current portfolio is made up of over 1,000 live events per year and includes rugby league for the UK and Australia – including every game from the 2013 Rugby League World Cup – as well as regular ice hockey, motorsports and South American football.
For further information on how to subscribe to Premier Sports, please visit www.premiersports.tv.
