TV6, IMC strike deal for FIFA programming

Trinidad
Express

CCN TV-6
has an agreement with International Media Content Limited (IMC), parent company
of regional sports cable giant SportsMax, for the television broadcast rights
to a FIFA football programming package from 2007 through 2014.

It
includes coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in
South
Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup and will begin with
the broadcast of this year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup featuring the

Trinidad and Tobago
National Under-17 Team in August and the FIFA Under-20 World Cup next month.

The announcement
was made yesterday at a signing event at TV6 in

Port of Spain which included general manager
of TV6 Shida Bolai and general manager of IMC, Oliver McIntosh.

Bolai
said: “The package of rights that TV6 has purchased from IMC means that
TV6 has maintained its significant and unprecedented stake in major
international football. This will allow us to increase our football catalogue
and continue to provide superior quality sports content to our viewers
islandwide, starting with the Young Soca Warriors battles in the upcoming FIFA
Under-17 World Cup in August. We are particularly pleased to have brought the
fantastic voyage of the Soca Warriors in the 2006 Men’s World Cup and the
Cricket World Cup to Trinidad and Tobago and now, with our exclusive local
broadcast ownership of the greatest show on earth, at the Under-17, Under-20
and Senior level, Trinidad & Tobago will cement its place as Jamaica’s
station for sports.”

The FIFA
properties included in the agreement are the 2010 & 2014 FIFA World Cup finals;
2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 FIFA Men’s U-20 and U-17 World Cups; the FIFA 2009
& 2013 Confederations Cups; as well as the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Oliver
McIntosh said: “The signing with TV6 represents a great continuation of
our transmission plans for bringing even more FIFA football content to the
Caribbean over the next eight years. We were successful
in the transmission of the FIFA 2006 World Cup GermanyTM to approximately 40
million households in the
Caribbean in three
languages and so this time around, IMC is the best positioned to bring high
quality coverage of FIFA’s content to the regional broadcasters and by
extension the regional sports fans.”

Bolai
added: “Today is historic for TV6. It firmly positions us in the sporting
landscape based on the premier football properties worldwide as part of this
deal.

TV6 will
provide exclusive coverage to Trinidad & Tobago of the 2010 and 2014 World
Cup tournaments.