Bulgaria set for new sports channel

Nova Broadcasting Group, part of multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster Modern Times Group, will launch a new HD sports channel in Bulgaria next month.

Bulgarian newspaper Capital said Diema Sport 2 will be placed in the pay-television package Diema Extra, which also includes the Diema Sport and Trace Sports Stars channels, from August 8.

Didier Stoessel, chief executive and vice-chairman of Nova Broadcasting Group, told Capital that English Premier League football would be a key part of the new channel’s content output.

“As a first step we will begin to broadcast again one of the afternoon matches of the Premier League on Saturday, live at 5pm local time,” Stoessel said.

Nova has not broadcast Premier League games in this time-slot for nearly 18 months as it backed the English league’s crackdown on UK piracy of its rights to Saturday 3pm games via overseas broadcast feeds.