MP & Silva gets more English football rights

MUMBAI: MP & Silva, the international media rights agency, has further expanded its English football offering with the acquisition of Capital One Cup, formerly known as Carling Cup and Football League rights for the next five seasons until 2017.

The package covers all Asian territories, with the possibility to reach over 110 million households.

With this new package, MP & Silva now owns and manages the Asian broadcast rights for all English football?s Cup competitions. Last month, MP & Silva announced the acquisition of The FA Cup and England National Team matches across the continent. Since 2010-11, MP & Silva has also managed the rights of Premier League in selected territories in Asia.

MP & Silva Group CEO Andrea Radrizzani said, ?Our Capital One Cup and Football League agreement is another demonstration of the significant role MP & Silva is playing to increase the popularity of English football across Asia even further. Given the deal will include so many thrilling live matches and highlights, football fans across Asia will be able to follow all tiers of English football and never miss any of the action.

The Capital One Cup and the nPower Football League Championship rights, together with the Premier League, FA Cup, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Brazilian League and World Cup qualifier matches, ensures MP & Silva is in a very strong position to negotiate with broadcasters and ensure that audience numbers grow in Asia.

The agreement includes 20 live Capital One Cup matches, highlights of each round and 5 minute online match clips. The Cup brings together the 20 Premier League clubs and the 72 Football League clubs to compete for the trophy, with the final taking place at Wembley Stadium in April. With Premier League clubs winning the Cup each year since England?s top division was formed in 1992, the Capital One Cup features the country?s top clubs prominently and in 15 Capital One Cup matches per season on average.

MP & Silva has also acquired the rights to distribute top matches from the nPower Football League Championship, League One and League Two ? the football leagues in England directly below the Premier League ? in Asia. In total, the package will bring up to 90 live matches to fans across Asia, including the Championship play-off matches that decide the final club to win a Premier League place for the next season.