North America, and has a more physical style than that played in other, technically natured European countries. This was demonstrated during the 2004–05 NHL lock-out. Of the NHL players to join Elite League teams, the majority were players noted for physical play rather than puck-handling skills; such as Wade Belak and Eric Cairns. While British players account for a minority of Elite League players, the league supplies the majority of players for the Great Britain team. All 22 players in the Great Britain squad for the 2018 World Championships played for Elite League teams in the preceding season. Media coverage Television broadcast deals In the 1980s and 1990s, Sky Sports and the BBC's Grandstand programme covered the British Hockey League and Superleague and their important games and competitions regularly. However, in 2001 the Superleague sold its broadcasting rights to Premium TV Ltd who planned to set up a new sports channel, which never materialised. British ice hockey was left without coverage from any television network. This situation continued through the final seasons of the Superleague and into the first seasons of the Elite League. In 2005, Elite League officials concluded an agreement with the North American Sports Network to provide a weekly highlights and news programme. These usually provide highlights from a game recorded the previous weekend and are an hour in length. In September 2007, the Elite League announced a deal with Sky Sports for a weekly show of Elite League highlights. In 2010, Sky Sports showed the playoff final between the Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils live, the first time Sky had shown a live game for several years. Sky Sports have recently announced plans to show live games along with a weekly highlight show during the 2010–11 season. In the 2013–14 season, Premier Sports acquired the rights to film and broadcast 23 games from the Elite League with a live game shown every Saturday night from 23 November onwards. On 6 December 2016, it was announced that a new TV show called Facing Off would be broadcast on a UK free-to-air channel called "Front Runner TV" every Thursday, Friday and Saturday to show the highlights of the week's EIHL games. The deal ran to the end of 2016–17 EIHL season. Then, on 20 July 2018, the EIHL agreed a two-year deal with FreeSports to broadcast one live EIHL game every two weeks, alongside a pre-season preview show,