Taiwanese cable-television sports broadcaster Videoland has been awarded rights for the debut edition of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 national team competition.
The first edition of the new Premier12 will take place in Japan and Taiwan from November 8-21 this year. The top 12 countries in the WBSC world rankings will take part.
Videoland will serve as host broadcaster for the event and will produce all 33 opening round and quarter-final matches that are due to take place in Taiwan.
The deal will cover up to six matches per day, with games being simulcast across the Videoland network.
Videoland president Jay Cheng said: “The production of the WBSC Premier12 will represent the largest-scale operation in Videoland's history, and this agreement also ensures that Videoland's programming will exclusively feature the live, premium content that is in high demand by audiences across Taiwan.”
The deal comes after the WSBC last month announced that Japanese commercial broadcasters TV Asahi and Tokyo Broadcasting System had been awarded rights in Japan.