ABC to broadcast the Lanco International Super Series LIVE
Outside of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, hockey fans around the world seem to be able to agree on one thing – there isn’t enough hockey on free to air TV!
Hockey Australia is very excited to announce that this is no longer the case! After many, many years since hockey has been live on free to air TV in Australia we are excited to let our fans know that the Lanco International Super Series will be broadcast LIVE on the ABC.
All matches from the Lanco International Super Series will also be shown delayed on Fox Sports.
The ABC will broadcast 1 hour of delayed highlights from the days play on Thursday 20th October and Friday 21st October. They will then show the Hockeyroos and Kookaburra matches v India on Saturday 22nd October LIVE from 5pm – 6.30pm EST. The men’s 3v4 playoff and the women’s and men’s grand finals will also be shown live from 5pm – 7pm EST on Sunday 23rd October.
The Lanco International Super Series is a new tournament created by Hockey Australia which introduces new rules and a new format to make the game of hockey more exciting than ever before.
The tournament will be held in Perth from October 20-23 in conjunction with Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and will see both the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos take on the likes of India, Pakistan, Malaysia and New Zealand.
New rules for the tournament include teams having 9 players a side as opposed to the usual 11, games will be played in 15 minute halves as opposed to 35 minute halves, bigger goals, one player from each team will be required to stay in the forward half to create more space and rules around the ground will be relaxed to encourage continuous play.
For a long period of time we have heard comments from fans regarding more free to air TV coverage for hockey. With coverage in place for the Lanco International Super Series, you all now have a chance to ensure this can happen more regularly and we are calling on all fans to watch these matches, get your friends and family to watch these matches to boost ratings and demonstrate how much interest there is to have more hockey on free to air.
Hockey Australia Chief Executive Mark Anderson reinforced how important it is for the ratings to be strong to allow for further broadcast in the future.
“This announcement along with the recent signing of naming rights sponsor Lanco and the support received by Eventscorp will ensure that the Lanco International Super Series will be the success we all believed it could be when it was being developed. The fact that companies are beginning to realise the commercial value of hockey is a demonstration of the positive direction the sport is heading in Australia. However if people don’t support it and the ratings are low, it will be difficult to attract more free to air coverage in the future. So it is up to each and every hockey fan around the country to get behind this and ensure it rates through the roof,” said Anderson.
ABC Broadcast Schedule (All times are AEDT):
Thursday 20th October: 23:00 - 00:30 - Day 1 action (Highlights) Australia v Malaysia (women) & Australia v Pakistan (men)
Friday 21st October: 23.10 - 00.10 - Day 2 action (Highlights) Australia v India (women) & Australia v New Zealand (men)
Saturday 22nd October: 17:00 - 18:30 - Day 3 action (LIVE) Australia v India (women) & Australia v India (men)
Sunday 23rd October: 17:00 - 19:00 - Day 4 action (LIVE) Play-off 3 v 4 (men), Women's Final & Men's Final.
The Fox Sports schedule is yet to be confirmed.
