Belgian pay-television operator Telenet has said it will expand its Play Sports service to customers who do not have a television subscription with the company.
Telenet product manager Matthias Lehaen said the company will utilise its rights to the Pro League, the top division of domestic football, to open up Play Sports.
Telenet agreed a new three-season rights deal for the Pro League in May, covering the 2017-18 to 2019-20 seasons.
“Telenet will innovate again next year with the Play Sports app,” Lehaen said, according to Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. “This phase mainly works around the term out of footprint, or outside the coverage area.
“We have won the overarching rights to the Jupiler Pro League. This means that with our product we can almost go all the way over the top and offer it via the internet and not tied to a specific operator. So we will do that too. In concrete terms, we are going to launch Play Sports as an internet product for which you no longer have to be a Telenet digital TV customer. That opens up a lot of new markets for us.”
Lehaen also said that in 2018, Telenet will launch a new section of the Play Sports app to exploit rights it is not showing on television. “Research shows that young people really appreciate this multitude of matches,” he said.
Play Sports currently offers coverage of multiple football leagues, including the Pro League, as well as the likes of the Formula One motor-racing championship and the NBA.