Ilves: Building a club-owned media and streaming service with ILVES+

Ilves launched ILVES+ on Icareus Video Cloud for Sports OTT to bring ice hockey and football media into one branded service, enabling the club to manage, distribute and monetise live and on-demand content while strengthening its direct relationship with supporters.

ILVES+ brings together video, live broadcasts and other media content from Ilves’ top-level ice hockey and football teams in one branded digital service, giving the club a platform for developing its own media, strengthening supporter relationships and monetising content.

Summary

Tampereen Ilves is one of Finland’s best-known and largest sports communities, with successful first teams in both ice hockey and football and a large, highly engaged supporter base.

To further develop its digital media operations, Ilves wanted to bring audiovisual content from both sports together while gaining greater control over how that content is managed, distributed and monetised.

Built on Icareus Video Cloud for Sports OTT, ILVES+ provides supporters with one destination for videos, live broadcasts, replays and audio content. The service is available through the ILVES+ web service and integrated into Ilves’ existing mobile applications.

Product

Challenge

Ilves produces a broad range of media content throughout the year across both ice hockey and football. The club needed a scalable platform that could support different content formats, audiences, access rights and commercial models while fitting into its existing digital environment.

Ilves wanted to:

Bring ice hockey and football media content together under one service
Support live broadcasts, on-demand video and audio content
Offer both free and premium content
Enable subscriptions and pay-per-view access
Integrate the service into existing web and mobile channels
Centrally manage content, users and access rights
Create new opportunities to monetise club-owned media
Build a platform that could evolve as audiences and commercial requirements grow

The service also needed to be launched quickly, with upcoming European football matches creating an immediate opportunity to offer live content directly to supporters.

“It’s great that we can now offer the entire Ilves community in Finland an exceptionally comprehensive content service run by the sports club itself. ILVES+ brings hockey and soccer fans closer together than ever before and offers the opportunity to follow Ilves year-round, even outside of game days. At the same time, we’re taking a significant step forward in developing our own media and in how we tell the story of Ilves.”

Solution

Icareus implemented ILVES+ using Icareus Video Cloud for Sports OTT, providing Ilves with a central environment for managing, distributing and monetising its media content.

The service was built and launched in four weeks, allowing Ilves to stream six European football matches ahead of its official launch on 14 August 2026.

Through the platform, Ilves can manage live broadcasts, on-demand video and audio content, users, access rights and commercial models from one place.

ILVES+ supports multiple monetisation options. Ilves can create separate subscription packages for ice hockey and football supporters, offer a combined package covering both sports, and sell access to individual live events on a pay-per-view basis.

The platform is also integrated into Ilves’ existing digital channels. Ice hockey content is available through the Ilves Liiga mobile application developed by Digia, while football content is integrated into the first team’s mobile application developed by Choicely.

This allows supporters to access content through familiar Ilves channels while the club manages the underlying media operations centrally through Icareus Video Cloud.

“Icareus provides us with a solid foundation for developing our digital business, streamlining the management of our media productions, and finding new ways to utilize and monetize the media content we produce. It’s important that the new platform isn’t a standalone system but can operate seamlessly as part of our existing technical environment and enable its further development in the future.”

Results

ILVES+ had already attracted thousands of registered users before its official launch, demonstrating strong supporter interest in live and premium content delivered through the club’s own digital environment.

The new service gives Ilves:

One platform for media content from both ice hockey and football
Centralised management of content, users and access rights
Flexible subscription and pay-per-view models
A more consistent digital experience across its channels
A direct relationship with supporters through club-owned media
First-party insights into content consumption and audience interests

By bringing its media operations together, Ilves can offer supporters more year-round content beyond match days while creating new opportunities to develop its digital business.

"Ilves is one of the great institutions of Finnish sports, so it has been an honor for us to build ILVES+ together with the club. We’re seeing a strong international trend where clubs are building their own media platforms and strengthening their direct relationships with fans. Ilves is a pioneer of this development in Finland, and we believe ILVES+ will lay a strong foundation for growing the club’s digital community in the coming years.”

Looking ahead

ILVES+ provides Ilves with a foundation for continuing to develop its club-owned media as its audience, content offering and commercial requirements grow.

The platform can be expanded step by step, enabling Ilves to introduce new content, services and monetisation models while continuing to strengthen its direct relationship with supporters.

With Icareus Video Cloud for Sports OTT as its technology foundation, Ilves can continue developing ILVES+ as an integrated part of its wider digital ecosystem and year-round supporter experience.