New Zealand public-service broadcaster TVNZ has confirmed a partnership with the Coliseum Sports Media company to acquire rights to English Premier League football for the three seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
Under the deal, Coliseum will show all games online and TVNZ will broadcast selected matches and weekly highlights on television.
TVNZ’s flagship channel TV One will broadcast a ‘match of the week’ every Sunday from the start of the 2013-14 season. The channel will also broadcast an hour-long highlights show on Monday nights.
The Fairfax NZ News agency said that Coliseum's dedicated pay-per-view online platform PremierLeaguePass.com would launch on August 1, showing all 380 games of the 2013-14 season live, with 250 of those matches available on demand for just under NZ$150 (€90/$120) per year.
The newly-formed company's chief executive, Tim Martin, said that Coliseum had acquired rights for the EPL across all platforms and had secured partners in specific platform areas, with TVNZ acting as the free-to-air partner.
“This gives a chance for all of New Zealand to see English Premier League and not only half of it,” Martin said. “We've got three years and we're going to give it a real go. Over the next few weeks we will have more announcements. We want to make access to these sorts of sports more accessible for New Zealanders. This will be a new experience for Kiwis. The advances in technology allow us to achieve this. It's been a long time coming.”
Coliseum outbid incumbent rights-holder, pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand, and online platform Sommet Sports for the rights.