Russian sports media platform Match TV is set to launch a number of new television channels, along with closing or renaming other channels within its structure.
The sovsport.ru website said Match TV plans to create three new channels. Match Our Sport will mainly showcase domestic Russian sport. Match Game will offer international competitions in team sports such as basketball, handball and volleyball. Meanwhile, Match Arena will broadcast tennis, gymnastics, skiing, biathlon and other sports.
Sovsport added that pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus’s Football 1, 2 and 3 channels will be rebranded under the Match banner, along with the combat sports channel, Fighter. The Sport, Sport 1, NTV Plus Sport and Sport Plus channels will be closed.
Match TV, which is backed by Russian media group Gazprom Media Holding, the entity that also controls NTV Plus, began broadcasting on a free-to-air basis on November 1.
Match TV holds live rights for a number of leading sports events. It broadcasts Russian Premier League football and other major European leagues, along with domestic basketball, Formula One motor racing, American football league the NFL and leading boxing events.