Zug, Switzerland, 5 May 2006 – With the face-off of the 70th IIHF World Championship, Infront Sports & Media, the exclusive commercial partner of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), has announced the key highlights of the Official Sponsorship and Marketing Programme and details of media coverage.

The 2006 IIHF World Championship is taking place from 5-21 May 2006 in Riga (Latvia).

A comprehensive marketing programme
The marketing programme for the 2006 IIHF World Championships has been developed to provide enhanced visibility for all brands to re-enforce their association with the tournament through integration into the various communication elements. Infront has introduced a consistent onsite advertising programme, including rink boards, under ice advertising, penalty and team benches, team advertising, product placement, media backdrops and presentation stands.

For the first time in the Championship’s history the VIP hospitality programme is exclusively reserved for the Official Sponsors and Official Partners during the eight final games.

The 2006 sponsor group is led by long-term partner Škoda as the Official Main Sponsor. The involvement of the brand dates back to 1992, when Škoda joined the sponsor family as “Official Car” of the Championship. It has been an Official Main Sponsor since 1993, one of the longest standing partnerships in ice hockey sponsorship history.

The contract provides Škoda with a comprehensive package of rights, including, rink board advertising, centre circle under ice advertising, exclusive car product placement in each arena as well as the provision of the Official Car Service. The sponsorship also includes team sponsorship of the Czech Republic and Slovakian teams.

The Official Sponsors consist of nine well-known companies: AJ (Home and office furniture; Sweden), Bauhaus (Homestores; Germany), BetandWin (Sport gambling, Austria), Intersport (Sports retailing, Switzerland), Konica Minolta (Copies and document solutions, Japan), Nike (Sports apparel, USA/Canada), Soyuz Victan (Beverages, Ukraine), Tissot (Watches/Timing, Switzerland), and Zepter (Home and kitchen ware, Cosmetics, Health Lamps; France).

Infront has also concluded an exclusive license agreement with Ochsner Hockey and Inline AG for all IIHF World Championship merchandising activities. This Swiss-based company is entitled to produce, market, distribute and sell official merchandise incorporating the Official Emblem and/or Mascot of the Championship. The distribution of the merchandising programme will be done via sales stands onsite, retail partners and the official IIHF website (http://www.ihwc.net/).

Extensive Broadcast Coverage
Distribution of the media rights for the Championships has been very successful. Infront has signed agreements for 70 territories worldwide. The matches will be transmitted by more than 50 broadcasters. Most of these broadcasters will provide live or near-live transmissions, depending on the time zones and broadcaster schedules. In addition, there is a high level of news access interest. News coverage will be available additionally worldwide through broadcast partners with international television stations, like Deutsche Welle or RTR-Planeta.

On behalf of Infront, Viasat / TV3 Latvia, the dedicated Host Broadcaster for 2006 IIHF World Championship, will provide a state-of-the-art multi-and unilateral broadcast production and a highquality TV feed. This includes filming and transmitting the signal, as well as supporting broadcasters in their unilateral
production, transmission and commentary facilities and services. Viasat / TV3 Latvia will be using more than 20 multilateral cameras in each arena and for each game.

Television audiences and spectator totals for the IIHF World Championship — the biggest annual winter sport event in the world — are rising year on year. The event will attract a world-wide television audience from the global community of ice hockey fans. Cumulative viewer totals for the previous event in Austria(2005) reached a new record of 750 Million. The total worldwide broadcast time amounted 2.100 hours, an average of 37.5 hours per game.

Information for Online Community
IHWC.NET will again be provided by the IIHF and Infront throughout this year’s event. This platform offers fans extensive information about the event, participating nations, players and live game statistics. In 2005 it received 70 million page views from the launch of the site at the beginning of the 2005 IIHF World Championship Division I tournaments until the final day in Vienna. With features such as the live score applet, global experts, fan forum, statistics, game stories and feature articles, IHWC.NET has become one of the most successful event websites in the world.

IIHF and Infront – Extending the relationship to a 30 year partnership
Infront Sports & Media’s relationship with ice hockey was extended in 2004. The Swiss-based sports marketing agency is responsible for the worldwide marketing of the annual IIHF World Championship until 2011. The company also markets all forms of electronic media rights including television, radio and new media broadcast rights for the IIHF World Championships on an open-market basis. Infront offered the rights including live, delayed, highlight and news coverage rights.

Its relationship with the federation is one of the longest in sports history and Infront has helped to develop the tournament into one of the world’s biggest and most commercially successful annual winter sports events.

Oscar Frei, CEO of Infront said, “The IIHF World Championships are one of the most exciting sports events in the world. The success of the marketing programme is a tribute to the sport’s wide appeal and the effective marketing platform that has been developed over the course of the IIHF and Infront’s long-standing partnership.”

More than 550.000 spectators followed the event in Prague (2004) and the stadium capacity Vienna/Innsbruck (2005) was 82 percent full (almost 325.000 spectators). A clear upward trend has emerged, indicating that enhanced facilities, organisation and promotion and the growing popularity of the sport are all contributing to the future success of the event.

For further information, please contact:
Jörg Polzer
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax. +41-41-723-1516
info@infrontsports.com
http://www.infrontsports.com/