logo
SDHL Set To Broadcast All Games On YouTube Next Season

SDHL Set To Broadcast All Games On YouTube Next Season

Yahoo6 days ago
Europe's top women's hockey league, the SDHL, will broadcast all games on YouTube next season, a move similar to what the PWHL did in season one. Previously, Swedish networks TV4 and SVT shared the league's broadcasting rights, but the league recognized more young fans are consuming games on social and digital platforms.
"We are incredibly proud to announce that SDHL's matches next season will be broadcast on YouTube," said Angelica Lindeberg, CEO of the SDHL in a translated quote. "This makes the league more accessible than ever, both for fans in Sweden and internationally."
That accessibility will also allow more North American teams from the NCAA to PWHL to regularly watch top players overseas. It's the focus on increasing the league's reach, and allowing for more storytelling controlled by the league that helped drive the decision.
"YouTube as a broadcasting platform is a strategic step in SDHL's continued development," said Lindeberg. We want and need to maximize our reach, improve accessibility and create new opportunities for commercial collaborations – while offering the audience a modern and accessible experience. It is completely in line with our core values: to be brave and innovative."
While marketing and a focus on high quality production are central to the move, the reach is a tremendous benefit, one the PWHL capitalized off during their exclusive run on YouTube.
"It feels very exciting that SDHL will now be available globally on the world's largest video platform," said Viktor Johansson of XVI Sports, who negotiated the broadcast rights for the SDHL. "We see great opportunities to attract new fans, while giving all existing hockey fans a completely new way to experience world-class ice hockey."
The SDHL season is set to begin September 5, 2025, roughly a week earlier than usual. The league will take a month long break for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, with their regular season concluding February 27.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What does Trump's college sports executive order mean? Breaking down the impact
What does Trump's college sports executive order mean? Breaking down the impact

Yahoo

time4 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

What does Trump's college sports executive order mean? Breaking down the impact

'President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports.' If only it was that simple. The 176th executive order President Trump signed in the past seven months was announced Thursday with an audaciously headlined statement from the White House. We don't know how this will play out long term. But these are the key facts surrounding the executive order and the questions that need to be answered. What's happened in college sports that brought it to the federal government? The NCAA has been under attack on numerous legal fronts for more than a decade, particularly when it comes to paying athletes. Its policy for decades was strict amateurism — any compensation athletes received beyond their scholarships would render them ineligible. The model began cracking through a series of antitrust cases brought by former athletes, most notably Alston vs. NCAA in 2021. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that schools must be allowed to provide additional academic awards. By then, states began passing legislation allowing athletes to earn money from their name, image and likeness — i.e. endorsement deals — in direct opposition to the NCAA's longstanding ban. On July 1, 2021, the NCAA relented and began allowing NIL payments, which touched off another antitrust case, House v. NCAA. A class of former athletes sued for back pay for missing out on NIL opportunities. The defendants agreed to a $2.8 billion settlement, part of which allows schools to pay athletes directly for the first time, up to $20.5 million. A judge approved the settlement on June 6, 2025. But the lack of an organized NIL system has led to chaos, with boosters exploiting the lack of enforcement. And with other legal challenges forcing the NCAA to eliminate its longstanding rules about transfers, athletes now routinely hop from one school to another in search of their next payday. Desperate for regulation, college sports leaders have been lobbying Congress for help in the form of a federal law for years, but not until recently has there been any significant movement on a bill. What are the key takeaways of the executive order? The order essentially makes recommendations for how college athletic departments should operate and directs several government agencies to weigh in on issues that will shape the future of college sports. It also delivers the NCAA and conferences much of what it has been lobbying for on Capitol Hill. However, the order's ability to turn ideas into action is questionable. The order: Gives a nod to protecting women's and Olympic sports by setting benchmarks for scholarships and opportunities based on the amount of money an athletic department makes. Bans 'pay-for-play' to athletes by schools, a bedrock principle of the NCAA and college sports that leaders are still clinging to. The order does try to carve out exceptions for endorsement and sponsorship deals with third-party businesses. Calls on the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the employment status of student-athletes. Under a Republican administration, that likely decreases the chances athletes would have the right to organize. Directs the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to find ways to hand rule-making power back to the NCAA, conferences and other college sports governing bodies and away from courts and state legislatures. Who benefits from this? Considering how much it falls in line with what college sports leaders have been asking for, it would be difficult to call it athlete-friendly. Yes, it tries to protect non-revenue programs and force schools to fund a wide-range of teams for athletes to participate in college sports, but limiting compensation by regulating NIL compensation and banning pay-for-play has been at the root of problems for decades. 'Looks like an NCAA press release,' said Marc Edelman, professor of sports law at Baruch College and antitrust expert who has been a critic of NCAA policies. Several ideas for student-athlete compensation have emerged over the years to help relegate the market, from collective bargaining agreements to defining student-athletes as university employees. Though how much athletes actually want those things is hard to say; with more than 190,000 athletes competing in Division I sports, gauging consensus is tricky. Will this actually change anything? In the short term: no. In the long term: maybe. The biggest possible downside of the executive order is it could create more uncertainty for college sports, creating policies that may or may not hold. 'It very much depends on how this gets enforced moving forward, and whether it gets enforced moving forward,' said Sam Ehrlich, assistant professor at Boise State's college of business and economics. 'Maybe this could just end up being just a statement that goes absolutely nowhere.' What can the executive order do? It's not so much what an executive order can do as what it can't. It can't make a law, it can't provide an antitrust exemption and it can't override state laws. Congress can do that. And that's what college sports needs. Any policies that come from an executive order can either be challenged in court and reversed by the next administration, which means college sports continues to operate under a blanket of uncertainty when it comes to defining the relationship between schools and athletes. That's exactly what college sports leaders are trying to stop. What power does the government have in these situations? The executive branch does not have the authority to provide straightforward solutions to college sports' problems, most importantly some form of antitrust exemption. That has to come from Congress, and right now will require bipartisan support. The president's involvement could prioritize the issues in a way that motivates lawmakers to build on recent momentum in the Republican-controlled House, where a college sports bill made it out of committee for the first time earlier this week. Or maybe pervasive political divisiveness makes Democrats recoil from the idea of giving the president a symbolic victory. While the complicated problems facing college sports now are not quite a matter of life and death, it remains to be seen if presidential involvement makes finding solutions easier or harder. What is The SCORE Act? The SCORE Act is a House bill that would provide the NCAA and conferences some antitrust protection, pre-empt state laws related to NIL compensation and bolster the terms of the House settlement. The SCORE Act made it through two Republican-led House committees on partisan lines earlier this week. No college sports bill has ever gotten so far. When Congress returns for the fall session, the bill could go to the House floor for a vote and it will probably pass. That's meaningful and a positive sign for many in college sports after years of inaction by lawmakers. The bill also has little support from Democrats in the House and stands very little chance of making it through the Senate, where seven Democrats would have to vote with Republicans to get the 60 necessary to pass. What divides Republicans and Democrats? The debate over college sports legislation on Capitol Hill is akin to a labor dispute. Republicans, who currently control both chambers and the White House, are focused on ways to shield the NCAA and college sports conferences from litigation and state laws that make it impossible for them to effectively govern national competition. Democrats are demanding greater protections for the workers (the athletes) and are hesitant to provide the antitrust protections college sports leaders have been lobbying for. The NCAA and conferences want a law that would prevent college athletes from being deemed employees. Democrats want that option left open, along with athletes' rights to organize and maybe even join unions. What precedents are there involving federal legislation and higher education in sports? The president's EO is the most significant and direct entry by the executive branch into college athletics since Teddy Roosevelt's calls for safety reforms in football led to the creation of the NCAA in 1906. Lyndon Johnson's executive order signed in 1967, led to the passage of the federal Title IX gender discrimination law, which has been credited with paving the way for an explosion of opportunities for women in college sports. What does this mean for the NCAA? The NCAA as a governing body is ceding power to conferences and the newly formed College Sports Commission. However, it played a pivotal role in lobbying for federal legislation and has been much better received by lawmakers since former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker took over as NCAA president two years ago. The NCAA's future will ultimately be determined by college sports stakeholders, not politicians. Why is the president getting involved? The White House's announcement hailed Trump's long-held interest in college athletics, including preserving Olympic and women's sports amid the changing landscape. Until now, Trump's engagement with higher education has been adversarial, threatening federal funding and litigation against schools for Title IX violations or allegations of antisemitism and discrimination through the promotion of diversity at universities. Trump came away from a meeting with former Alabama football coach Nick Saban in May motivated to get involved. The formation of a presidential commission led by Saban and billionaire oil businessman Cody Campbell, a former Texas Tech football player and current board chair, was considered then put on hold as lawmakers worked on legislative solutions. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. College Football, Men's College Basketball, Women's College Basketball, College Sports 2025 The Athletic Media Company

Aidan Hutchinson already looking like his old self: Lions training camp news and notes
Aidan Hutchinson already looking like his old self: Lions training camp news and notes

New York Times

time6 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Aidan Hutchinson already looking like his old self: Lions training camp news and notes

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — On Friday, the Detroit Lions were in full pads for the first time this training camp. Also known as Dan Campbell's favorite day of the summer. 'This is where you find out who's who,' Campbell said Friday morning. This is when the real evaluation begins. It's when players distance themselves and the physicality Campbell has had to temper can be unleashed. Advertisement So, then, who's who? Let's discuss. The last time we saw Aidan Hutchinson in an NFL game, he was the frontrunner for defensive player of the year. He was the league leader in sacks, pressures, pass-rush win rate — pretty much any metric designed to tell you how good an edge rusher is. His team was up big against the Dallas Cowboys. It was a statement game for a team that had everything it needed to win a Super Bowl. Hutchinson was turning into a star before our very eyes. Then, in the blink of one, it all ended with a major leg injury. It has Hutchinson thinking about Sept. 7 already. 'In these hard days, you look forward to September and opening up with Green Bay,' Hutchinson said, speaking for the first time this training camp. 'So that's kind of the thought pattern. Everything is to be ready for that game.' There is little doubt that Hutchinson will be ready for that game. He thought he'd be ready for the Super Bowl if the Lions made it. He was ready in OTAs, taking the field for the first time since his injury without restriction. And he's certainly ready for training camp, especially now that the mental hurdle has been cleared. 'I would say the first day of OTAs, I went out there, I got kicked, stepped on, you can think of everything under the sun, on this leg,' Hutchinson said Friday, 'And after practice, I got up and I was like, 'All right. We're good.' I think it takes those physical things to happen to you to mentally solidify where you're at and the confidence and moving faster.' That's paved the way for this portion of the schedule. All eyes have been on Hutchinson. Recapturing the level of play he attained last season is one of the most fascinating storylines heading into 2025, and we won't truly know until the games begin. But the expectations are there. The Lions need him. Advertisement 'It's amazing to have Aidan back, man,' Lions defensive tackle DJ Reader said. 'He's one of the best in the game, so it's good to have him back and just keep building confidence for him.' 'He's trying to put himself in a position to have an All-Pro year,' Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said of Hutchinson. Hutchinson is already looking like Hutchinson. During one-on-one drills between the offensive line and defensive line, Hutchinson unleashed a nasty spin move — a staple of his repertoire — on Dan Skipper. Perfectly in stride, no wasted movement, right to the QB. Gotta feel for Skip. It was the quickest rush win I've ever seen in this drill. In a team period late in practice, the No. 1 offense was facing the No. 1 defense. Hutchinson won his rep against tackle Penei Sewell and would've put Jared Goff in the dirt if he were allowed to. He's making it look easier than he should for a player still shaking off the rust — if there was any. No coincidence his best practice of training camp just so happened to be the first time he's worn full pads in nine months. Hutchinson doesn't look or sound like a player with anything to prove, like he did in his first couple of seasons. He doesn't sound like a player still regaining confidence after a devastating injury. When Hutchinson obtains a certain level of play, that's the new bar to clear. He sounds like a player who believes he's found his standard. 'I'm at a point now in my career where it's like, you're shooting for the stars every year,' Hutchinson said. 'And if that's not the expectation or standard you put to yourself, it's got to be that way. I think from here on out, those first couple of years, you're getting in the league and figuring it out. But now, it's every year. The standard is what it is.' Earlier this week, Dan Campbell revealed a conversation he had with his young linebacker — Jack Campbell. Though there's no relation, these two share the same football DNA. Campbell was selected 18th two years ago to one day anchor this defense. That time is now. 'This is his defense,' the coach said. 'He's taken ownership and sets the tone for everybody.' Advertisement This wasn't always the case, but Campbell's tremendous growth from Year 1 to Year 2 paved the way for this moment — and anyone paying attention could've seen it coming. The tools that made Campbell a first-round pick never went away despite a rocky rookie season in 2023. Back then, Campbell was playing out of position and going through typical first-year struggles. The speed of the game and the mental requirements of playing multiple positions as a rookie showed up in his film. But toward the end of the season, Campbell was playing better football, looking more and more like the player he has become after a move to middle linebacker. That's what he was drafted to be. The Lions didn't toy with him in his second year. It led to a breakout season — leading the team in tackles, playing every game in the heart of an injured unit and making the calls for the defense. He has the look of one of the NFL's best young linebackers. He's positioned himself for this opportunity. 'When I came back, we talked individually and he just let me know that,' Jack Campbell said, when asked his reaction to Dan Campbell's words. 'And it definitely means a lot. I take pride in that, but it's not going to change who I am. … I'm not going to change who I am, but it's an honor. But it also takes 10 other guys on the field with me to be able to produce what we want to do. It takes all of the other guys who aren't on the field, it takes all the assistant coaches, it takes all the coaches to make one big group, one heartbeat, and that's what we're working towards right now.' Campbell is the man in the middle during training camp. He's leading every huddle and directing traffic on the field. Veteran Alex Anzalone isn't practicing right now, so Campbell has taken it upon himself to be that guy for this defense. He's off to a strong start, based on the first few practices. A few days ago, he made a diving play on a pass to tight end Sam LaPorta during a team period. He scooped up a fumble forced by cornerback Terrion Arnold and ran it back for a would-be touchdown. He's seeing run plays at a lightning-quick pace, and even when the tackle isn't there to be made, he's redirecting ball carriers by being one of the first to break through. Campbell said his focus is on eliminating mental errors. It also feels like he has more playmaking upside in his game, and if he can take another step in man coverage, he'll be recognized as one of the game's best. If this is his floor, Campbell is going to be a very good player in this league for years to come. But he has a chance to be discussed among the best in the game with another leap. He has a different approach, however. Advertisement 'I'm just out there playing football,' Campbell said. 'I'm trying to be the best Jack Campbell I can be every single day, nobody else. Whatever I got to do to make this defense the best it can be, I'm going to do it.' • Arnold (leg) and Derrick Barnes (finger) returned to practice Friday after exiting Thursday. No issues there. • Defensive tackle Tyleik Williams didn't practice Friday. It looked like wide receiver Tim Patrick was limited. • I caught up with defensive tackle Roy Lopez (foot) and cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. (bruised chest) briefly after practice. They're still out, but both said they expect to be back soon. • A couple of highlights from the one-on-one tackling drills: Arnold and wide receiver Jameson Williams were the first pairing. Williams got the best of Arnold with a spin move. Arnold came right back on the next matchup and stonewalled Williams upon first contact. These two are fun to watch. • Campbell and running back David Montgomery were also paired up on a rep. This drill hasn't always been too kind to Campbell — mostly because they almost always pair him against Montgomery. On the first rep, Montgomery won easily. On the second, though, Campbell laid down a huge hit that fired up the defense. It was the last rep of the drill. Great win, great way to end. • Here's Jack Campbell on Montgomery: 'David, in my opinion, is one of the hardest backs to tackle just because he can put his foot in the ground and his one-cut and his burst is insane, and he can also run you over. … He got me earlier and then I kind of went back to the line, thought about how it happened and then the next play I just let it rip and it all worked out.' • Wide receiver Dominic Lovett tried to hurdle cornerback Amik Robertson during the open-field tackling drill. It went about as well for him as you'd expect. Robertson put him in the dirt. Advertisement • Wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa was ready for the moment. He was physical in the tackling drill and used to his size to 'Moss' cornerback Avonte Maddox during a team period. • LaPorta's blocking looks like it has improved tremendously. The Lions had offensive players blocking blitzing defenders in a one-on-one drill and LaPorta won each of the two reps I saw without trouble. It was impressive stuff. • Guard Christian Mahogany just looks like a seasoned veteran. He made quick work of defensive tackle Chris Smith in the OL-DL drill. Didn't look like he broke a sweat. • The Lions spent a good portion of their team periods running the ball. Graham Glasgow handled center reps, with Tate Ratledge at right guard. The results were mixed. • Defensive lineman Keith Cooper, an undrafted free agent, got some first-team reps in the team period. Coaches are giving him opportunities.

JuJu Watkins, Azzi Fudd among 14 NCAA basketball stars to ink Unrivaled NIL deals
JuJu Watkins, Azzi Fudd among 14 NCAA basketball stars to ink Unrivaled NIL deals

Yahoo

time9 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

JuJu Watkins, Azzi Fudd among 14 NCAA basketball stars to ink Unrivaled NIL deals

The post JuJu Watkins, Azzi Fudd among 14 NCAA basketball stars to ink Unrivaled NIL deals appeared first on ClutchPoints. Fourteen standout NCAA women's basketball players, including JuJu Watkins, Azzi Fudd and Flau'Jae Johnson, have signed NIL deals with Unrivaled, the women's 3-on-3 basketball league announced Saturday. Unrivaled, co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, is entering its second season and continuing its college outreach initiative after inking similar NIL deals last year with players like Paige Bueckers and Johnson. The latest class features athletes ranging from sophomores to seniors and includes top talent from across the country. 'Just seeing from the first year what (the league) was able to build, you know it's only going to get better,' said UConn guard Fudd, as reported by Alyce Brown of the Associated Press. 'I'm super excited.' Watkins, the USC sophomore who is currently recovering from an ACL injury, previously invested in Unrivaled during its Series A funding round. Johnson, a junior at LSU, praised the league's role in elevating women's sports. 'They're doing it in the W and really giving us a chance in college to really go at it,' she said during Saturday's announcement at a pop-up event in Indianapolis. Unrivaled's NIL class to attend event in Miami ahead January season start Other signees include Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, UConn's Sarah Strong, TCU's Olivia Miles, UCLA's Kiki Rice and sisters Lauren and Sienna Betts. Texas' Madison Booker, Iowa State's Audi Crooks, LSU's MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina's Ta'Niya Latson and Michigan's Syla Swords round out the group. The NIL class will attend a multi-day event at Unrivaled's headquarters in Miami that includes skill development and content creation. The league's second season is set to begin in January. 'Our job is to try to bridge the gap between the current stars that are in Unrivaled and the future stars sitting on the stage right now,' said Luke Cooper, president of basketball operations. Unrivaled completed its inaugural season in March and aims to further grow its platform in year two. Related: Michigan State basketball's Tom Izzo calls for 'guardrails' in transfer portal Related: Louisville basketball's Pat Kelsey gives 'great' Kasean Pryor injury update

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store