New Zealand-based digital sports broadcaster Coliseum Sports Media has outlined plans to launch in overseas markets next year.
Coliseum chief executive Tim Martin told the Stuff.co.nz website that the company aims to take its service to 25 different countries in 2016. Coliseum holds the rights to English Premier League football in New Zealand and Chinese Taipei, along with French club rugby union league the Top 14 in New Zealand, and golf from the PGA Tour, LPGA and the European Tour.
Martin said expansion overseas would give the company more buying power in the New Zealand market. He added: “I think it would be quite useful for that. The world is such a big place and there are opportunities with this technology. Because of the internet you are not limited by a sales force, or hindered by geography.”
In December, online television service Lightbox linked up with Coliseum to establish a new joint venture in New Zealand called Lightbox Sport. The platform is providing coverage of all Coliseum’s New Zealand sports content, with Lightbox the on-demand service of telco Spark.
Martin said Coliseum would continue to focus on its home market through this venture and added it will seek to target sports rights held by pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand when existing contracts come to an end.
Martin said: “When we set up Coliseum we never did it thinking about Sky, but having said that, now that Spark is involved, they're big and they will look at the $1bn (€608m/$669m) of subscription revenue that Sky generate and they will want a piece of that. They are far more capable of taking on Sky than we are. I would say that is a distinct possibility in time.”