MUMBAI: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced that it has improved its television distribution and television ratings for its major events in 2006 compared to previous years.

This improvement, which resulted to good figures, was achieved since the FIH decided to take the television distribution ‘in-house’.

The Champions Trophies, besides the two World Cups two other major FIH events played in 2006, achieved a strong rating. The Rabobank Champions Trophy Women, played in Amstelveen, Netherlands, was shown for the first time on the Chinese terrestrial channel CCTV5.

The Sahara Champions Trophy men, which took place in Terrassa, Spain, achieved high figures in Pakistan. The national channel PTV1 broadcasted four matches at prime time and achieved a TV rating of 44 per cent from an average of 12.95 million viewers.

The BDO World Cup Men, played in Monchengladbach, Germany early September, was shown in 150 countries worldwide. This is an increase of 54 countries compared to the previous World Cup in 2002. The Samsung World Cup Women, which took place in Madrid, Spain from 24 September until 8 October, was also shown in 150 countries

This is an increase of almost 100 percent. The final of the Samsung World Cup was watched live by more than 1.5 million Dutch hockey fans through the national broadcaster of Netherlands NOS. This is a market share of 33 percent, while almost ten percent of the entire Dutch population was watching the final.