MTG to kick off Scandi sports net
Launch is latest salvo against rival Canal
The channel ViaSat Sports will be launched in the second quarter of 1999, to be carried across MTG's analog pay TV platform ViaSat, Hans Holger Albrecht, CEO of MTG's pay TV division, told Daily Variety.
The new sports outlet will boost to 32 the number of analog channels ViaSat has on its pay TV platform.
The sports channel is the latest salvo fired by MTG against fierce rival Canal Digital, the Nordic TV platform owned by Canal Plus and Norwegian telecom TeleNor.
Viewership increase
ViaSat last week announced that it had boosted its number of cardholders to the platform to over 1 million, and that its multiplexed pay TV channels TV1000 and TV1000 Cinema now had more than 300,000 subscribing households.
The new sports channel will broadcast 12 hours a day initially. Some 30% of its programming will be new, the rest will be moved over from TV1000 and TV1000 Cinema, allowing those services to focus on film and TV series.
ViaSat has long-standing agreements with TWI, Team, Fox Sports and other sports distributors, as well as exclusive rights to the European PGA and Champion League soccer. It also has exclusive rights to some boxing matches, including the upcoming Mike Tyson fight, and to the World Championship Ice Hockey and Women's Handball European Championship.
Canal Digital has over 800,000 cardholders to its analog services. Last fall it threw its biggest challenge yet to ViaSat with the full scale consumer launch of its digital platform, which offers a potential total of 20 TV channels, 24 pay per view channels and 20 audio channels.
