How to Watch IIHF World Championship 2023 Live Online?

Are you ready for some back-and-forth hockey action? Well then, you’re in luck as the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is kicking off from 12 to 28 May 2023. As usual, the tournament can be streamed on multiple platforms and services. However, these live stream hubs are subject to geo-restrictions.

In other words, hockey fans willing to stream the tournament are blocked based on their location. That will change now. Here, you can find easy-to-follow instructions on how to bypass regional restrictions and watch the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2023 anywhere.

The Comprehensive Guide

There’s a lot more. We’ve rounded up all the information you need to know about the IIHF championship in this in-depth guide.

IIHF 2023 Streaming Channels

In 2020, the IIHF Ice Hockey Championship was supposed to be hosted from 8 to 24 May 2020 by Switzerland, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, a lot of fans around the world were excited to see the return of the historic championship. The tournament is quite popular and has reached a global state ever since its inception in 1930 as an individual championship.

In fact, the 2019 tournament that was hosted in Slovakia reached a cumulative audience of over 1.6 billion, which shows how big the championship is across the globe.

This popularity is all thanks to the dozens of official broadcasters the sport has. However, each and every single channel is restricted to its own region.

Streaming services/websites apply geo-blocking to protect their content. That’s mainly for copyright reasons. We’ll take a look at the later on.

For now, check out the channels broadcasting the official live stream of the Ice Hockey World Championship:

Channel	Country
ESPN+/NHL Network	The United States
ORF (Free)	Austria
TSN	Canada
TV2 Play	Denmark
L’Equipe	France
DAZN	Italy
Sport TV	Portugal
SVT	Sweden
FreeSports	The United Kingdom
Match TV (Free)	Russia

As mentioned, your IP address is mainly responsible for the block you’re getting when you try to stream IIHF matches from abroad.

But that won’t be an issue anymore as we’ve already given you the solution in the form of a quick guide above.

Aside from that, we’ll be shedding more light on what geo-blocking is and how it operates. Scroll a bit further to find out.

The Geo-blocking Predicament

The IIHF World Championship is one of the most popular tournaments in sports history. Back in 2017, the championship broke a viewing record as it generated more than 8,300 hours of TV coverage.

Even its Junior counterpart has millions of viewers across the globe, that’s mainly thanks to TV partners in several countries.

Now, despite its global reach, viewing is still limited due to geo-restrictions. You see, these channels apply geo-blocking, where they restrict users’ access based on their location.

They can pinpoint their whereabouts by examining their IP address. Once determined to be outside their area of coverage, the users are instantly blocked.

For instance, back in 2019, IIHF’s Youtube channel offered live broadcasts globally, except in specific locations. We decided to try and watch a video in one of these regions and the following error popped up:

“Video Unavailable. The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”

The image above represents the error we got back in 2019 when we tried to watch a match between Norway and Sweden. We wanted to address the issue with examples of several channels, and here’s one from the French broadcaster, L’Equipe:

“This video is not available in your region.”

This is what geo-blocking looks like, and after you’re done with this guide, you don’t have to see it again. Not only will you be able to watch the IIHF World Championship, but other top sports wherever you may be.

A VPN’s Benefits

A VPN or virtual private network is the best way to bypass the issue. By connecting to a VPN server in a specific country, you get to be treated like a local in that country.

You see, thanks to the VPN, you get to take the IP address of that server. The server in the country you connect to carries the IP address of that country.

After connecting to it, your IP address will change to match that of the server as well. The content providers in that country will be tricked into thinking that you are an actual local (when you’re halfway across the globe).

This technique helps you gain access to geo-blocked streaming channels, websites, and services. To watch the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship online for free, you’ll need to search for the right VPN for the task.

However, if you choose not to go through the trouble of research, you can take our word for it and subscribe to ExpressVPN.

There’s a reason why it’s at the top of the table below; it’s been in the lead for quite some time now. From a large and fast server network to a highly secure encryption system, ExpressVPN is a solid choice for a provider. The other options are also considered to be the best in the industry.

IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Groups

The 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship will take place from 12 May to 28 May 2023 in Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Latvia. The two groups are all set for competition and we have all the information about them:

IIHF World Championship 2023 – FAQ

Is there anything you need to know that we haven’t covered above? Alright then, make sure to check the following section as it includes answered inquiries that’ll help you out:

 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2023 – Conclusion

Every channel on our list created its own perfect platform for live streaming. Just make sure you’re using a VPN to watch the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship free live in any country. Have you thought of how you’ll watch the event? If so, let us know in the comments.