Modern Times Group, the multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster, has acquired free-to-air and pay-television rights in the Baltics for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games in a deal with the Sportfive agency.
MTG will have the free-to-air rights to the first pick of one discipline from the 2014 winter Games and the 2016 summer Games in each of the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Additionally, MTG has acquired the exclusive pay-television, pay-per-view and internet rights to the entirety of the 2014 and 2016 Games across all three countries.
The agreement marks the first time live coverage of all events from the Games will be shown on pay-television in the region.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, president and chief executive officer of MTG, said: “The Olympics are quite simply the most popular and most celebrated events in world sport, attracting huge audiences around the world. This is therefore a major step for us and follows our acquisition of the exclusive Swedish broadcasting rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games last year. Our range of channels and services across multiple distribution platforms will ensure that the Games get more coverage than ever before in the Baltics – this is the first time in Olympic history that viewers will be able to see live TV coverage of all events on a pay-TV platform.”
MTG will broadcast its exclusive first-pick discipline in each country across its bouquet of free-to-air channels. MTG’s exclusive live pay-television coverage in the region will be shown with local language commentary across the Viasat family of channels.