The Pan American Games are now less than 100 days away, and anticipation is building for all involved. The Organizing Committee has moved into top gear, the athletes are well into their preparation and the spectators are making plans to see the action. Those lucky enough to have the possibility to be in Toronto have bought their tickets (or should do so quickly at http://www.toronto2015.org/tickets !) and those further away are checking the TV and streaming programs to make sure they can catch as much action as possible.

Unfortunately however, and sadly for hockey fans all over the Americas (and elsewhere in the world), the field hockey competitions will not be broadcast or streamed on-line…

This deeply disappointing news has started to spread in the last few weeks and has triggered surprised and angry comments from the field hockey community. Fans are now used to following international competitions from around the world, sometimes on TV, more often on their computer (who has not discreetly watched a match in class or in the office?). How is it possible that our continental quadrennial flagship competition, a direct Olympic Qualifier, will neither be broadcast, nor even streamed?

In the Pan American Games, PAHF only controls the technical aspect of the competition, just like the FIH only controls the field-of-play at the Olympic Games. Everything else is dictated by the “Franchise Holder” (IOC for the Olympics, PASO for the Pan American Games) and by the Organizing Committee (TO2015 for the Games in Toronto). Everything else, including the broadcast rights…

PASO (Pan American Sport Organization) contracted the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to be the “Host Broadcaster”, meaning they are in charge of producing the raw TV feed from the various venues. These feeds are in turn sold to broadcasting companies having paid the broadcast rights.

Most reasonable people understand that, if there is a TV feed produced, it is up to the national broadcasters to pick it up and that it is fair to prevent other type of broadcast (or streaming) to protect the investment of those having paid for the rights.

Regrettably, the agreement between PASO and CBC did not include all sports and no TV feed will be produced for the hockey competitions…

Many continental sport organizations, including PAHF, immediately assumed that they could fill this void, produce their own feed and stream it on their web site. An expensive endeavour but certainly worth it to satisfy the many “fans back home”.

Not so simple, unfortunately, since all the broadcast rights have been sold to a third party, giving them the latitude to resell them to broadcasters across the Americas. This company has no real interest in the Games themselves, in the competitions or in the sports fans; they are a financial institution needing a return on their investment and they categorically refused to let the continental sport organizations stream the competitions not covered by TV, unless they purchase the broadcast rights for every single country where the stream would be accessible…

In other terms, they prefer to protect their rights to nothing (since there is no feed produced) rather than cooperate with the continental sport organizations in the interest of sport and sports fans…

PAHF has tried for months to resolve the situation. Meetings were held with the Organizing Committee, the matter was brought to the attention of the PASO assembly, PAHF President Alberto “Coco” Budeisky has tried to meet with the company holding the rights. The PAHF Board had accepted on principle the budget to contract a streaming company (an expensive proposition for a 48-game competition spanning 12 days) but purchasing the broadcast rights for the Americas is of course well beyond the financial resources of our organization.

In the end, PAHF had to accept that there are too many financial and legal obstacles, and no possible reconciliation between our desire to showcase our sport and the interests of TO2015, PASO and the rights holding company.

PAHF deeply regrets this situation. We are however still working at finding a compromise that could satisfy all parties, with a series of meeting scheduled in the coming weeks to try and find a solution in the best interest of the hockey community.

We have also lined-up an extended Communications team on-site in Toronto (three experienced media officers, two local volunteers and a dedicated photographer) in an effort to cover the hockey competitions on the PAHF web site and social media channels as much as possible, given the constraints of a multisport event such as the Pan American Games.