Melita snaps up FA rights

Maltese pay-television broadcaster Melita has secured an exclusive television rights deal with the English Football Association for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Melita will broadcast the FA Cup, Community Shield and home friendly and qualifier matches of the English national team. The matches will be broadcast within the Melita Sports package.

“These great sporting events will join the other events in our portfolio such as the Uefa Europa League, and (German) Bundesliga,” Michael Darmanin, director of business services and marketing at Melita, said. “We know that the English national team has a great following in Malta and we wanted to ensure that the Maltese TV viewers get access to these events.”

Mark Shannon, head of broadcast at the FA, said: “We are very aware of how popular and well supported both the English national team and the FA Cup are in the country. We are very much looking forward to working with Melita to further enhance both this support and the FA’s competitions, in the years to come.”