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Elite League finals to be streamed LIVE online

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Ice Media Productions have agreed a deal with the Elite League to stream the whole Elite League Playoff weekend live onto it's ice hockey website www.icehockeyleague.co.uk. Heath Rhodes Director of Ice Media Productions said, "We were looking to produce a highlighted programme for TV and realised that there just was no way you could convey the excitement of the weekend into a 40 minute programme. Coupled with the fact that the internet is more readily available to households than SKY or other digital TV stations it seems an obvious choice."

Ice Media Productions has this year produced twenty two programmes of ice hockey for the sports based channel NASN/Setanta. The programme proved to be very popular but unfortunately only available to those that could afford to subscribe to the channel. "My task has really been about trying to find a more accessible route for Ice Hockey fans to watch their sport," commented Heath, "The internet seems to be an obvious choice and as the technology develops so will the subscribers."

The site www.icehockeyleague.co.uk will be live on Friday April 7th. It then will stream two live semi finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday. The cost of the whole weekend will be £9.95. Heath added, "Ice Hockey needs an extra boost in the UK from a media perspective. Pay per view on the internet and subscription based websites offering high quality media to watch and download is the future for most sport and therefore it is important that Ice Hockey gets in early to ensure the fans, teams, and their sponsors benefit from this fast emerging technology."

www.icehockeyleague.co.uk is the first internet product on offer from IMP. After the playoff weekend the site will continue to make the games available to subscribers to download and view as well as interviews and games from throughout the 2005/06 Elite League season.

"The site will take time to develop and get right but we are hoping that hockey fans globally will subscribe, contribute, and enjoy. We hope to make this the definitive media site for Ice Hockey not just in the UK but across the world. We have a three year plan to ensure we deliver the best media whether it be moving or still image regardless of whether it’s delivered to a PC or mobile phone."