NHL Secure Chinese Broadcasting Deal

The National Hockey League (NHL) has acquired a rights deal with Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

CCTV will broadcast 119 regular season games from the ongoing 2014-15 campaign on its CCTV 5 channel.

Twenty of these matches will involve the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is promoting the initiative during an official visit to China this week.

In an interview with CCTV he discussed the NHL which will be broadcast during a forthcoming Maple Leafs game.

Harper said: “Modern hockey is something that Canadians not only invented but developed as a sport as a reflection of our values and of our country.

“We’ve never had a proprietary view of it. We have always encouraged the spread of the sport in all countries.”