Fox Sports, a division of US broadcaster Fox, agreed a carriage deal with Brazil’s largest satellite operator, Sky Brasil, for its recently-launched pay-television channel in the country.
Fox Sports Brasil has initially replaced motorsport channel Speed Channel on Sky’s service in order to show Fox’s coverage of the ongoing Copa Libertadores continental club football competition, which started in January and will run until July.
According to the Jornal do Brasil newspaper, Speed Channel will be retained by Sky Brasil, but it may shift it to another package.
The deal with Sky Brasil means Fox Sports Brasil is available in 45 per cent of cable-television homes in the country. Sky has about 30 per cent of the pay-television market in Brazil. Fox Sports had already agreed carriage deals with smaller operators such as Oi, TVA, GVT, CTBC, Nossa TV, Telefônica, RCA and NeoTV.
Fox, which launched the channel in Brazil on February 5, had struggled initially to agree carriage deals with the country’s largest pay-television operators. Earlier this month, the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said that Fox was holding out for a carriage fee of $1.50 per subscriber per month as well as a place on basic cable-television packages.
The financial details of the deal with Sky Brasil were not disclosed.