Russia's Kontinental Hockey League announced on Tuesday morning that the league has come to an agreement with ESPN to broadcast KHL games on the network's digital channel ESPN3 throughout the course of the 2012-13 season. ESPN3, also known as Watch ESPN, is available solely on digital platforms such as computers, smart phones, tablets and other streaming devices.
This will allow hockey fans in the United States to watch NHL players such as Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin while they are locked out by the league as part of the on-going collective bargaining negotiations, via the KHL's official website:
The Kontinental Hockey League has reached an agreement with the US sports TV channel ESPN to broadcast games in the 2012/2013 KHL Championship. The games will be shown on the ESPN3 channel in the United States, Territories of the United States, and also in Great Britain.
ESPN3 reaches 73 million American households and devotes most of its output to live broadcasts of events, including college football, college basketball, the NBA, MLB, ICC (International Cricket Council) competitions and qualifying matches of FIFA tournaments.
Broadcasts are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Yahoo!'s Dmitry Chesnokov tweeted that his sources had informed him that the KHL is actively pursuing a broadcasting deal with Canadian markets.