Sky New Zealand has furthered its relationship with fellow pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports by agreeing a four-year deal to launch a co-branded football channel.
The agreement will see the existing Sky Sport 7 relaunched as Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports from today (Tuesday).
The new channel will combine Sky and beIN’s football offerings to include Wellington Phoenix’s matches in the Australian A-League and international content such as Fifa national team tournaments and Uefa club and national team competitions.
The channel will also provide the following football content: LaLiga; Serie A; the Bundesliga; Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue; FA Cup, Community Shield, EFL Cup and Championship; Scottish Premiership, Scottish Cup and League Cup; South America’s Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and Recopa Sudamericana; Turkish Super Lig and North America’s Major League Soccer.
Sky and beIN have a prior relationship following an agreement struck in August 2016. That carriage deal resulted in the English Premier League returning to television screens in the country ahead of the 2016-17 season. Telco Spark now holds the Premier League rights (from 2019-20 to 2021-22) after ousting beIN in last year’s rights sales process.
Sky’s director of sport, Tex Teixeira, said: “The biggest stars, teams and nations in the world are now available in one home, across all Sky platforms. We’d like to thank beIN Sports for their brilliant cooperation in getting this channel off the ground and we look forward to many years of great football action on Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports.”
The Sky Sport 7 BeIN sports channel is available to satellite viewers as part of Sky’s sports package, which is priced at NZ$31.99 (€18.27/$19.98) per month (in addition to the monthly NZ$25.99 cost for Sky’s entry-level package).