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MUMBAI:
Pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is busy
beefing up its content line-up by acquiring new properties.
It has snapped up exclusive broadcast rights for all Football
Association (FA) Cup matches, The FA Community Shield and
all Senior and Under-21 England Team home matches for the
next six years until 2018 for the South Asia Region including
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Bhutan and
Nepal.
The
rights were earlier held by Sony Pix, the English movie channel
from Multi Screen Media stable.
The
multimedia platform deal, which allows the content to be made
available across television, internet and mobile, was made
with international media rights company MP & Silva. The
FA Cup is recognised as the oldest and most famous domestic
knockout competition, which traditionally begins in November
and culminates with the Final in May.
Starting
from 3 November, ESS will begin broadcast of the first round
of matches all the way up to the Final in May next year. Chelsea
are currently the holders of the FA Cup but are likely to
be challenged for the prestigious title by the other Premier
League teams including Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United
and Manchester City, among others.
With
this acquisition, ESS's football line-up will include the
Barclays Premier League, the Spanish Liga BBVA as well as
the Italian Serie A, whose exclusive broadcast rights were
recently secured from MP & Silva.
ESS
MD Peter Hutton said, "Having a season round offering
of football is at the heart of our dominance of the Indian
sports market, and the unique stories that the FA Cup creates
every year is a very welcome part of our line-up. The FA Cup
was seen in India long before the Premier League and the other
European leagues, and we're very proud to be able to continue
the tradition."
"We
are excited to work with ESPN STAR Sports who will continue
to provide excellent exposure for the England Team and The
FA Cup on a multi-platform basis in key Asian markets. These
markets are important to us and we're going to be putting
together some exciting initiatives in India in particular,
including bringing The FA Cup out to the sub-continent,"
The FA Group Commercial Director Stuart Turner.
Every
year, ESS broadcasts up to 2,500 hours of live football content
for the South Asian region from the world's biggest leagues,
and is supported by ESS-produced football programmes such
as The Verdict, Scorecast, BPL Express, Goals, Full Time Action
and Football Extra, Primetime Premier League, Super Sunday,
catering to the demands of a varied football audience.
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