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For the olympic sports: international ice hockey -How many country federations exist? Who are the heads of the international federations for this sport? What are the top 10 sources of media/news?
Hello! Thank you for your question about the international hockey federations. The short answer is that there are 77 country members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, which feeds the Olympics, and there are 6 other continental federations that offer championships at the amateur level beyond the Olympics. Of the top 10 hockey media sources, The Hockey Writers is the largest.
METHODOLOGY
I started this question by identifying the main governing bodies for international ice hockey. The International Ice Hockey Federation has a list of its 77 country members, which they categorize as "full members", "affiliate members", and "associate members" based on how the individual country organizes its teams. The IIHF has numbers for the magnitude of the sport in each nation, and the name of the country's federation president. I cross referenced the member list with lists of hockey federations for each region of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and South America to consolidate and complete the list. To ensure that these were amateur athletes, not of NHL fame for example, I checked the Olympic ice hockey registry . I investigated each federation to see if they had competitions beyond the Olympics at the amateur level.
Once a list of federations was compiled, I researched the overarching officials for international hockey play on the level of the Olympics. For this, I considered both regional heads of the areas mentioned above, as well as members of the IIHF for overlap.
The IIHF makes a distinction between full membership, associate, and affiliate membership. This relates to the size of national teams and the support the teams receive from their governments. Where applicable, I noted if a country is an associate or affiliate member of the IIHF to give an indication of the size of the federation.
For the teams from the IIHF that are participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics, I included the number of players in each country to give an idea of the magnitude of the sport in each region.
Finally, I researched ice hockey news sources, ranked by applicable content (hockey only first), and number of views.
TOP TEN ICE HOCKEY NEWS SOURCES
1. The Hockey Writers: This website offers NHL and international hockey news. It was founded in 2009 and is now ranked 3rd in world for ice hockey news. It has 2 million monthly readers.
2. The Hockey News: This is a magazine published in Canada that puts out 18 issues a year. The website garners 2 million views a day and the magazine has 225,000 annual subscribers. It offers ice hockey news for the NHL and abroad, and a podcast.
3. NY Times Hockey Corner: This hockey-central corner of the trusted news outlet contains news, opinion articles, and predictions for ice hockey. There was no information on how many viewers the hockey page has, but the NY Times has 1.2 million digital subscribers.
4. Eurosport Ice Hockey: A leader in sports news, Eurosport has a page dedicated to ice hockey. The latest news, NHL standings, and world competitions are all available on the website. Eurosport as a whole has 11 million viewers on average per year.
5. Hockey World Blog: This dedicated hockey blog has a wide selection of hockey news, equipment reviews, and more. During the hockey season, it has 200,000 views per month.
6. Sports Blog- International Ice Hockey: This sports blog contains opinion articles and international news stories in the ice hockey world. The writer is popular in his field, and has upwards of 100,000 view per month during the hockey season.
7. British Ice Hockey Blogs: Though specific to the British ice hockey team, this section of the British ice hockey website offers up to date information on the national team, as well as international standings and competitions. The viewership of this page is unknown, but it is mentioned in many British news articles and is affiliated with the national team.
8. BBC Sports: A section of the BBC news corporation, this subset of BBC Sports highlights international ice hockey news, standings, and statistics with the backing of a trusted outlet. Interviews and opinion articles are common, and clips of great moments are embedded in articles. The BBC Sports website has 6 million views annually.
9. ESPN: For most of the year, this news source pertains only to the NHL. I mention it here, however, because it covers the World Hockey Cup, USA Hockey, and the Olympic Games. ESPN has an annual viewership of 20.6 million.
10. Olympics Ice Hockey: Relevant only to the Olympics, this web page contains all the standings, brackets, and news of the ice hockey competition. It also has links back to team websites and news. There is no direct number for viewership of this page, but the Olympic games and its affiliated sites had an audience of 25.6 million in 2016.
CONCLUSIONS
The International Ice Hockey Federation is the main governing body for amateur ice hockey teams. These teams are grouped by region and by country. Each region generally has its own competitions, and the IIHF standings are used by the Olympic committee. There are 77 members of the IIHF, and 6 main regional ice hockey federations across the globe. To cover all this hockey news, The Hockey Writers and The Hockey News are the top hockey-specific news sources.
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