Big congratulations to Austrian Hockey who placed third in the European Change Communication Awards 2015 for their innovative project HockeyTV.

HockeyTV is the result of a collaboration between Austrian Hockey and its clubs. The project won third place at the European Change Communication Awards that took place in November 2015 in Salzburg.

Walter Kapounek, President of Austrian Hockey and member of the European Hockey Federation Board said: “We are very proud to have received this award for our performance outside of hockey. Our project ‘HockeyTV’ is very important to us and we are more than happy to see our commitment and effort appreciated on this level. This is also a huge motivation for us and our future.”

HockeyTV is a unique live streaming system that pushes hockey highlights of all top league games to households across the world for a minimal cost. It is not a live-stream as we currently know it, but a new take on the idea. Clubs in the system are equipped with a camera and the necessary hardware and software. This system then automatically filters highlights according to set standards – goals, saves, shots – and then feeds their own club channel with content every week.

In a country that has 4,000 hockey players, Austria is really taking to heart the principles behind the FIH Hockey Revolution. Increased coverage is raising the professionalism of hockey within the country, it's creating an image of hockey that is both exciting and powerful and it's increasing hockey’s popularity and reach, both in Austria and beyond.

Fabian Ringler serves on the Board of the Austrian Hockey Federation and is responsible for strategy, development and marketing. “I think we have a unique solution to dramatically increase hockey video coverage around the world,” he said.

Ringler, who started the project, is proud of the achievement: “This is a great award and nice acknowledgment for the energy and commitment all of us invested in HockeyTV. We are extremely happy, that as a small federation, we are not only moving towards the best teams in the world on a sports level. Also outside the pitch we are – thanks to our partner sportvideos365.com – in a very good way.”

For more information on the Austrian Hockey Federation, click here for their website.

To find out more information about this digital service, visit Fabian Ringler's blog here.