Watching IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Using a VPN

The 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships are already well under way, as the best teams from North America and Europe compete to earn the title of world champion. The tournament represents the pinnacle of international competition for the sport and is a calendar event for hockey fans throughout the world.

This year’s tournament is held in the Czech Republic and features sixteen teams split into two groups, with the top four teams in each group advancing to the quarter finals. The tournament has been dominated by European teams in recent years; Canada is the last North American team to secure a title, doing so in 2007. They rank among the favorites, alongside Sweden and defending champions Russia. The tournament began on May 1st and will feature games on nearly a daily basis until May 18th. Luckily for hockey fans, if you have a VPN service and a working internet connection, you can catch all the action from almost anywhere in the world.

Watching the games from anywhere with a VPN

Firstly, you must subscribe to a VPN service that allows you to connect to the internet using an IP address from other countries. There are many of these services out there, most of which offer subscriptions at a nominal price. Secondly, you need to find an online broadcaster of the event and use your VPN to connect to them. These channels restrict access to their content to those who live in the same country or region they operate in. The VPN allows you to connect through a server located in the same region, giving you access to their content.

Foreign channels broadcasting the games

For English speakers who want English commentary, NBC Sports, Premier Sports and TSN are all streaming the tournament. These operate out of the US, the UK, and Canada, respectively. For European countries, Ceske Televize of the Czech Republic, MTV3 of Finland, XSport of the Ukraine, and Sport1 US of Germany are also broadcasting the tournament. You can also check out Viasat Sport, which is streaming in other European countries.

IIHF YouTube channel with live streaming

The games can also be watched from the IIHF’s official YouTube channel. The channel features live streaming of matches and has English commentary. It should be noted that this channel is using geo restriction to block certain countries. To bypass this, it is recommended that you use your VPN to connect from either Switzerland or Sweden for instance to gain access. You might have to try switching between different countries to see which country is allowed access and which one gets you the best streaming speed.

Once you connect through your VPN and sign up for the channels listed above, you will be free to watch the World Championships over the internet whenever and wherever you please. Need your VPN to watch just a few games while the World Championships are on? With the free trials offered by some of the respected VPN providers you might not even need to reach out to your credit card to unlock the games so you can enjoy all of this entirely for free.