Satellite-television broadcaster Australia Plus has acquired rights for the Australian Football League Aussie rules tournament in a deal covering the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia Plus will show six matches per week during the top-tier Premiership’s regular-season campaign plus all matches in the finals series. The broadcaster will also show a weekly highlights programme for 28 weeks of the year.
The AFL said that Australia Plus would also broadcast live 21 matches from the Challenge pre-season series currently being covered by pay-television broadcaster Fox Footy.
One match per week and highlights will also be shown on a delayed basis on pan-regional sports broadcaster Eurosport Asia-Pacific.
Australia Plus’ predecessor, Australia Network, had the rights until the end of the 2014 season.
AFL coverage will reach new markets such as India, South Korea and Japan under the new deal, with other territories including Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Marianas, Palau, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga and Vanuatu.