Digital media company Perform has said it elected not to renew its streaming rights to Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 football for its WatchAndBet.tv online television service for the 2012-13 season onwards.
The company said the decision was made because of “the commercial terms offered by the rights holder”, and because it felt it had a strong enough portfolio of rights for the service already.
“Due to the improved level of contracted events, the strong pipeline of better timed content for WatchandBet’s 24 hour schedule and the commercial terms offered by the rights holder, Perform has not renewed its rights to Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 from the start of the 2012/13 season,” the company said in a statement. “The content costs saved by this decision will be allocated to the acquisition of new rights across the business.”
The company at the same time announced the renewal of a rights deal covering “650 Asian football matches per year for Perform’s core products over the next 5 years”.
The iGamingBusiness.com website reported that Perform has rights for around 13,000 live events over 2012 and 2013.
Oliver Slipper, co-chief executive officer for Perform, said: “Our focus is to provide content to our customers 24-hours a day, 365 days a year and this Asian football renewal and recent rights deals with the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), Wimbledon and South American football shows our commitment to this.”