Sports broadcaster ESPN has extended its global rights agreement with the North American Soccer League for the 2015 season.
ESPN will show a minimum of 120 live matches from North America’s second-tier football competition via its ESPN3, ESPN Play and ESPN Player digital and online platforms in 75 countries.
Eight NASL clubs – Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Indy Eleven, Jacksonville Armada, Minnesota United, San Antonio Scorpions, and Tampa Bay Rowdies – will deliver all 15 regular season home matches live on ESPN3 in the US, ESPN Play in Latin America, and ESPN Player in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The league will also benefit from coverage on other ESPN platforms, including ESPNFC.com.
New York Cosmos, Ottawa Fury FC, and FC Edmonton will be offering their home matches on different live streaming platforms in 2015, but the majority of their away games will be shown on ESPN3. Pay-television broadcaster One World Sports will carry Cosmos home games, Ottawa Fury home fixtures will be show on its official website and FC Edmonton will show matches on the website of its television partner City TV Edmonton.
Matches played in Edmonton and Ottawa will be available to US viewers via ESPN3. With the exception of New York, matches played in the US will be available through pay-television broadcaster TSN and its TSN Go service in Canada and ESPN3 in America.
ESPN3 will show all five matches when the 2015 NASL spring season begins on April 4.