Owner Peter Ekelund has faith in URHO-TV

New pay-TV channel plans to double the number of subscribers to SM-Liiga telecasts

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By Johannes Laitila
     
      Some of the pet topics of bar-stool conversation in recent years relating to the SM-Liiga, Finland's premier ice hockey league, include the decline of the standard of play, the losing of top players to the better-paid national leagues of other countries, and the continued dire financial straits of most of the domestic teams.
      But in spite of all these manifest difficulties, URHO-TV, a new arrival to the field of pay-TV channels that has already acquired the SM-Liiga screening rights, still has faith in the pulling power of Finnish ice hockey.
     
“The SM-Liiga is one of the most interesting sports products in Finland, and it has great potential for further development”, claims Peter Ekelund, the Swedish principal owner and chairman of the board of Parsifal Sport Ltd, the company behind URHO-TV.
      “Of course I understand the concerns over the state that the league is currently in. However, without a strong domestic league the sport’s attractiveness would suffer, and we too are interested in developing the SM-Liiga.”
     
In February it was announced that as a result of a decision by the Finnish Competition Authority, C More Entertainment - a company behind the Canal+ pay-TV operator - would have to give up its TV rights to the Finnish national ice hockey league. Ekelund seized the opportunity, and just over a week ago it was finally confirmed that the league’s screening rights for the 2009-2010 season now belong to newcomer URHO-TV.
      By the same token, the very existence of the entire channel was ensured.
     
“Looking at the numbers, it became clear that the viewers of SM-Liiga games would form a strong subscriber base”, Ekelund says.
      The Canal+ package currently has 120,000 subscribers. URHO-TV’s aim is to double the figure within the next five years.
      “Currently both the press and television advertising markets are in a slump, and I believe that the number of pay-TV subscribers will rise in Finland from the current 20 per cent to 50-70%, just like elsewhere in Scandinavia, and in fact in Europe as a whole.”
     
The TV revenue received by the league and the teams will remain unchanged, even with the new contract, but from Ekelund’s perspective this is a considerable investment: in practice virtually all the money comes from his own pocket.
      “There are risks attached to all forms of business activities. This is not an exception”, Ekelund admits. “But I firmly believe in the saying that maximising risks is minimising risks. And besides, this is my special area.”
     
The SM-Liiga will become the cornerstone of URHO-TV’s programming.
      In addition, the channel has signed a contract for the Finnish TV rights for England’s second-highest football league, the Championship (the old "Second Division").
      “The Championship is perfect for us in the sense that they often have games when ice hockey is not being played”, Ekelund clarifies. “We are still looking for additions to our sports programming, but I cannot give out too much information to our competitors.”
      The rest of the programming would primarily concentrate on domestic sports and Swedish entertainment programmes.
      “On the political front there has been desire for more Swedish-language programmes on the Finnish television networks. With the help of the Swedish entertainment programmes we could eventually expand URHO-TV into a round-the-clock channel.”
     
At least for the time being airings of no other ice hockey leagues should be expected, however.
      “If TV rights to any other leagues become available we will naturally be interested in them, but right now there are none in sight. Those leagues that might still be on offer would stimulate only marginal interest in Finland.”
      URHO-TV aims to commence its operations at the beginning of September. The SM-Liiga starts its regular season about a week and a half after that.
      “The preparation time is so short that we cannot begin at full capacity. However, I am convinced that as far as the ice hockey broadcasting goes everything should be ready by the start of the SM-Liiga campaign”, Ekelund reckons.
     
The same production company that produced the programmes for Canal+ will continue with URHO-TV, and the realisation of the programmes will remain more or less the same.
      Primarily the aim will be to increase high-definition transmissions, the number of televised matches, the value-added pay-per-view services, and the Net-TV services.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.6.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  JYP Jyväskylä celebrates first-ever Finnish ice hockey title (15.4.2009)

Links:
  SM-Liiga (Wikipedia)
  SM-Liiga Official site (mostly in Finnish)
  URHO-TV (in Finnish)

JOHANNES LAITILA / Helsingin Sanomat
johannes.laitila@hs.fi