Pay-television broadcaster SportsMax and telco Digicel have secured rights to the 2018 Fifa World Cup national team football tournament across the Caribbean through a sublicensing deal with pan-regional pay-television broadcaster DirecTV.
The agreement follows similar deals for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups and comprises English and Spanish language media rights for all 64 matches during this year’s tournament, which is being hosted in Russia from June 14 to July 15.
In addition to the World Cup being broadcast on free-to-air television, where available, SportsMax will have a dedicated tournament channel available online with over 700 hours of live programming and analysis.
The countries included in the rights agreement are: Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Suriname, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Guyana, Dominican Republic, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Haiti, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, US Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Dominica, Montserrat, and Turks & Caicos.
“Broadcast rights vary in each of the countries, but altogether include free-to-air, broadband, pay-tv, radio and mobile platforms, offering more people, more options to support their team,” Olly McIntosh, chief executive of SportsMax, said.
Under a deal struck in December 2014, DirecTV holds rights in the Caribbean for events operated by football’s global governing body from 2015 to 2022.