Fox Sports Holds On to Italy’s Serie A

LOS ANGELES: Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Sports en Español have retained the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to Italy’s soccer league Serie A for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.

The renewal agreement was secured through MP & Silva, an international sports agency that owns and distributes Italian Serie A media rights worldwide. Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus combined will air around 187 games in high definition per season. Fox Sports en Español also has access to 187 matches per season. All three networks also retain the rights to weekly 30-minute Serie A preview and review shows. A selection of live and on-demand Serie A matches will be streamed each week through Fox Soccer Channel’s broadband video service, Foxsoccer.tv.

“Serie A features some of the most competitive soccer in the world with many of Europe’s most successful clubs,” said David Nathanson, the general manager of Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus. “This renewal of our long-standing partnership with Serie A represents our continued commitment to delivering the world’s greatest soccer competitions across our portfolio of networks year round.”

“In recent years we’ve seen a tremendous growth of interest for Italian soccer within United States,” added Carlo Pozzali, the CEO of MP & Silva America. “We are so glad to continue our partnership with Fox, a leading media group capable of guaranteeing tremendous exposure for Serie A games through its English- and Spanish-language networks.”