England World Cup Qualifier Set For Landmark Internet Broadcast
LONDON: 7th September 2009. Following the collapse of Setanta UK earlier this year, plans are now being made to broadcast the Ukraine Vs England Fifa World Cup 2010 qualifying game, exclusively live on the internet.
International football agency Kentaro had sold the broadcast rights of the fixture to the Pay TV operator in December 2007. However Setanta went into administration on June 23rd this year leaving the key match without a UK broadcaster.
The Kiev clash scheduled for Saturday 10th October could decide England's qualification for the tournament and marks one of the toughest competitive matches that the national team will have faced to date. England have won all seven of the qualifying games in this world cup campaign - the best ever performance by The Three Lions, scoring 26 goals and conceding just 4 under Coach Fabio Capello.
Philipp Grothe, CEO of the Kentaro Group said; "We have spoken to every traditional UK broadcaster and currently have no offer on the table. We therefore feel the internet delivers the most viable option to deliver an important England game directly to the fans. It will be the first time in history that an England game has had an exclusive web broadcast."
Kentaro have now instructed digital sport specialist Perform, to market and stream the match online, on a pay-per-view basis.
Andrew Croker, Executive Chairman of Perform said; "We have pioneered sports coverage on the internet for the last ten years and currently have 20 million football fans using our online services every month. We're very excited about working with Kentaro to deliver this landmark event."
Perform is a leading digital sport business who currently stream over 15,000 live events each year across the internet and provide web, mobile or online video services to 13 official Barclays Premier League and 67 official Coca-Cola Football League club websites.
In November and December 2008, Perform stepped in when traditional TV deals did not materialise for UEFA Cup away matches featuring Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, streaming them live on a pay-per-view basis through
www.mcfc.co.uk and
www.tottenhamhotspur.com.