As part of its ongoing commitment to be the centre of people''s online lives, Yahoo! Canada (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced its partnership with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to provide hockey fans with live streaming video of the network''s popular CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts starting Saturday, March 13 until the 2010 Stanley Cup champions are crowned in June.
For the first time ever, the more than 16 million Canadians who visit Yahoo! Canada every month can access the new CBC & Yahoo! Canada site at http://yahoo.cbc.ca and catch their favourite hockey teams on CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada each week. CBC will be responsible for all sales and marketing initiatives on the new site.
"It''s no secret Canadians love hockey, and as part of the company''s focus on delivering ''wow'' consumer experiences, Yahoo! Canada wanted to make the experience of watching games even better," says Gina Cothey, director, audience, Yahoo! Canada. "Hockey fans can watch their favourite teams in action and catch up on all the news and analysis from the hockey world just by visiting Yahoo! Canada. CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada is an important part of Canadian culture, and Yahoo! Canada is excited to partner with the CBC to offer NHL fans this unique online viewing experience."
"CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada is pleased to be working with Yahoo! Canada on this initiative," says Scott Moore, executive director, CBC Sports. "Yahoo! Canada provides a unique platform for CBC to extend the best in CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada programming to Canadians. In addition to our complete line-up at CBCSports.ca, we''re ensuring that Canadians can experience Canada''s number one weekly sports program whenever and wherever they choose."
CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada content featured at Yahoo.cbc.ca will include:
- CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts live and on demand
- Hot Stove – Ron MacLean''s second intermission feature focusing on the latest news and developments from around the hockey world
- Coast to Coast – CBC''s expert analysts break down the evening''s action
- Top 5''s – A list of all the top hockey events of the night
- Peter Puck – A 26-part animated series featuring the legendary Peter Puck, focusing on interesting and unique stories of players and remarkable moments in hockey
- The Opens – Popular show openings from CBC''s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts
- Game In An Hour – Games condensed into an hour-long format
- Player stats and profiles and game highlights
Today''s announcement further reflects Yahoo! Canada''s commitment to bring all the latest sporting news and information to Canadians. During last month''s Games in Vancouver, Yahoo! experts and athletes Elvis Stojko (figure skating), Jennifer Jones (curling) and Ken Daneyko (men''s hockey) provided popular insights and analysis around the competitions and competitors.
Canadians came to Yahoo! Canada Sports in record numbers during the Games in Vancouver, with more than 1.7 million unique visitors during the week of February 15th to the 21st alone (comScore Media Metrics), making Yahoo! Canada Sports one of the most visited online destinations during the Games. This represents almost a doubling of the number of unique visitors to Yahoo! Canada Sports in the earlier weeks of February 1st to the 14th.
To support the company''s continued focus on hockey, Yahoo! Canada recently hired Sam McCaig, formerly with The Hockey News, into the role as hockey editor where he is responsible for delivering the best hockey content to users for all of North America. Yahoo! Canada Sports will continue to invest in and increase its hockey coverage with a junior hockey site launching in April.
About Yahoo! Canada
Yahoo! Canada Co. is a leading Internet destination that provides online products and services to meet the needs of Canadians and offers a range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users. Yahoo! Canada services Canadians in both English and in French through its sites, www.yahoo.ca and www.qc.yahoo.ca. In Canada, Yahoo! sites were visited by more than 16 million Canadians in December, 2009 (comScore Media Metrix). Yahoo! mobile sites were visited by more than 1 million unique mobile users in December, 2009 (Yahoo! Canada). Yahoo! Canada is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Environics Communications for Yahoo! Canada
Briana D''Archi,
416-969-2671
bdarchi@environicspr.com
Gema
Rayo, 416-969-2665
grayo@environicspr.com
or
CBC
Media Relations
Jeff Keay, 416-205-3987
jeff.keay@cbc.ca