15-07-2009

Digi Sport TV receives license

By Iulia Blaga

    Digi Sport TV channel has received a license to launch a sports channel from the Romanian National Audiovisual Council (CNA), two months after the launch of another Romanian sports channel, RCS &RDS, on April 28.

    Digi Sport will be launched on July 23, broadcasting live and exclusively the football game between Ujpest Budapest and Steaua Bucharest, in the qualifications for Champions League.

    Digi Sport will air its own productions for 50% of its broadcast schedule, on two or three channels, Digi Sport 2, 3 and 4. The general manager of RCS &RDS (www.rcs-rds.ro) Alexandru Oprea said at the CNA (www.cna.ro) session that his company had already bought the rights for three years for the football Spanish league and for one year for the German football league. As Oprea said, competition rights will cover the biggest part of the programme.

    Digi Sport has the rights for the German football league from Eurosport, and is planning to keep the partnership with Antena 1 (www.antena1.ro) TV channel for the Romanian football league.

    The channel will be available in the basic package through cable and Digit TV, and also in Central and Eastern Europe through Digi TV digital platform.

    The operational expenses for launching Digi Sport are €1.4 million for 2009, €1.8 million for 2010 and €1.5 million for 2011.