MTG prolongs exclusive broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League football in Scandinavia
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it has prolonged its exclusive live broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League football in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, until the end of the 2014/2015 championship in the Spring of 2015. The rights include, but are not limited to, broadcast coverage on free-TV, pay-TV, mobile devices and the Internet.
MTG will broadcast all of the Champions League matches on its free-TV and pay-TV channels in Scandinavia, and will also make them available on its multi-screen internet-based video streaming service Viaplay, which offers live coverage of premium sports events to personal computers, tablets, smart phones and internet-connected TV’s. MTG already holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to the UEFA Champions League until the end of the 2011/2012 season and has broadcast coverage of the championship since 1993.
Swedish viewers will be able to watch the Tuesday games live on free-TV channel TV10, and Wednesday games live on pay-TV channel Viasat Football. Viasat will also broadcast additional coverage on its portfolio of thematic pay-TV channels.
Norwegian viewers will be able to watch the Tuesday games live on pay-TV channel Viasat Football, while the Wednesday games will be broadcast live on free-TV channel Viasat 4. Additional coverage will be shown on Viasat’s portfolio of thematic pay-TV channels.
Danish viewers will be able to watch the first pick games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on free-TV channel TV3+. Second pick games will be made available on TV2 SPORT, the joint venture sports channel that MTG operates together with TV2 Denmark. Additional coverage will also be made available on Viasat’s satellite pay-TV platform.
All of the UEFA Champions League games will also be made available on Viaplay in each of the three countries.
The rights have been acquired via TEAM Marketing, UEFA’s world wide agent for the exploitation of commercial rights to the UEFA Champions League.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “The UEFA Champions League is the world’s best club football championship and has a dedicated and passionate fanbase across Scandinavia. This is a key right for us, and the extension of our exclusive broadcasting rights to the UEFA Champions League further strengthens our long standing and successful relationship with UEFA and TEAM Marketing, who have made an outstanding job of developing this event. Viasat is the home of sports in Scandinavia, and we have now provided coverage of Champions League matches for eighteen years.”
“We are better positioned than ever today to provide viewers with the very best in sports entertainment across our extensive portfolio of free-TV and pay-TV channels, as well as over the open internet. We continue to focus on the development of our premium content offering, and look forward to bringing our viewers the very best in global sports entertainment.”
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For further information, please visit www.mtg.se or contact:
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO
Tel: +46 (0) 8 562 000 50
Investor & Analyst Enquiries:
Jacob Waern / Matthew Hooper
Tel: +46 (0) 736 992 991 / +44 (0) 7768 440 414
Email: investor.relations@mtg.se
Media Enquiries:
Jacob Waern
Tel: +46 (0) 736 992 991
Email: press@mtg.se
Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting group with the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting operates 28 free-TV channels in 11 countries and 38 pay-tv channels in 32 countries. The pay-tv channels are distributed on Viasat’s own satellite platforms in 9 countries, as well as on third party broadcast networks (including cable, satellite and IPTV) and over the open internet. These free-TV and pay-TV channels and pay-TV platforms attract a total of 125 million viewers in 33 countries. MTG is also the largest shareholder in Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster (CTC Media – Nasdaq: CTCM).
Modern Times Group is a growth company and generated SEK 13.1 billion of sales and SEK 2.4 billion of operating income in 2010. MTG’s Class A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm’s Large Cap index under the symbols ‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’.
The information in this announcement is that which Modern Times Group MTG AB is required to disclose under the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. It was released for publication at 10.00 CET on 21 June 2011.