Deal kicks off with CPL opener, Canada Soccer Women’s National Team Celebration Tour matches in April
March 23rd, 2022: MEDIAPRO Canada has sealed a media rights agreement with Flow Sports, the Caribbean sports broadcaster owned by British telecoms firm CWI Group, that will bring live coverage of Canadian soccer to households across 22 Caribbean territories.
The deal means that close to 500,000 households across the region will have access to live coverage of the Canadian Premier League (CPL), Canada’s first division men’s profesional league; the Canadian Championship, the tournament for all Canadian profesional men’s soccer clubs, including the three teams that play in Major League Soccer (Toronto FC, CF Montréal and Vancouver Whitecaps); and the home friendlies of Canada Soccer’s Men’s and Women’s national teams. The deal covers the 2022 season with an option to renew.
Matches will be shown on the Group’s main Flow Sports channel, which is carried on all Flow cable systems as well as competitor platforms throughout the Caribbean. All matches will also be available live and on VOD through the Flow Sports App.
“Flow Sports is very excited to broadcast the fast-rising Canadian Premier League. In the past three years we have seen top Caribbean players and coaches join the league and we are thrilled to provide our audience with an opportunity to watch them live. Football fans will be able to watch these exciting matches on the Flow Sports App and TV channel available in 22 countries. We hope this partnership unlocks more talent from our region, and we look forward to a fantastic competition,” stated Michael Look Tong, Director, Entertainment Networks & Media Ops. Cable & Wireless
“We’re delighted to partner with Flow Sports to bring the Canadian game to Caribbean viewers – we’re confident that the CPL will impress with its high level of play, its fierce rivalries and exceptional talent, including a growing number of Caribbean internationals who have made their mark on the Canadian game,” said Oscar López, CEO of MEDIAPRO Canada.
The strong Caribbean talent pool in the CPL includes Alex Marshall, HFX Wanderers (Jamaica, 10 caps), Emery Welshman, Forge FC (Guyana, 19 caps); Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Valour FC (Haiti, 12 caps), and three players form Trinidad & Tobago: Andre Rampersad (HFX Wanderers); Akeem Garcia (HFX Wanderers) and Federico Peña (Valour FC) – as well as highly-regarded HFX Wanderers coach Stephen Hart, also of Trinidad & Tobago.
Flow Sports’ coverage kicks off on April 7th with the opening match of the CPL on April 7th, where Hart’s HFX Wanderers visit York United at their York Lions Stadium in Toronto, followed by the two-game series on April 8th and 11th between Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team, the reigning Olympic gold medallists, and Nigeria’s Super Falcons, 11-time Women’s Africa Cup of Nations Champions.
Flow Sports will air live coverage of all 117 CPL matches as well as 12 Canadian Championship matches, both complemented by a range of studio and panel shows, and up to eight home friendly matches involving Canada Soccer’s Men’s and Women’s National Teams as they prepare for their respective FIFA World Cups; the Men’s National Team are expected to qualify for Qatar 2022 in the upcoming final window of Concacaf Final Round of FIFA World Cup QatarTM Qualifiers, while the Canadian women have already earned their spot in the 8-team Concacaf W Championship in July, which serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
About MEDIAPRO Canada
MEDIAPRO Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of Spain’s Grupo Mediapro, holds a long-term partnership with Canadian Soccer Business for the worldwide media rights to the Canadian Premier League, the country’s first-division men’s professional soccer league; the Canadian Championship, Canada Soccer’s domestic soccer competition involving all professional soccer clubs in Canada; and the home matches of Canada Soccer’s Men’s and Women’s National Teams. It has since launched OneSoccer, a dedicated soccer channel available online and now carried as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch.980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s ‘big three’ telecoms companies, and on streaming service fuboTV Canada.
OneSoccer’s growing stable of leagues and tournaments comprises the rights to all Concacaf national team tournaments through to 2023, including: the Concacaf Final Round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers (13 Canada qualifiers and additional games involving the US, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Panama); the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Concacaf Nations League and the recently-announced Concacaf W Championship and Concacaf W Qualifiers; club tournaments including the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League and the Scotiabank Concacaf League; French Ligue 1 matches featuring Canada Soccer Men’s National Team star Jonathan David’s club, Lille OSC; Liga MX, the top-tier men’s professional soccer league in Mexico; and of course the Canadian Premier League (CPL) and the Canadian Championship.
MEDIAPRO Broadcast Services Canada (MBSC) is a full-service company offering a fleet of seven mobile broadcast units serving all of North America, air-packs, REMI capability, AutomaticTV automated sports production systems, cloud playout, Haivisioni and Dejero remote broadcast solutions, crewing, studios and a complete rentals department. Its newly-expanded fleet of mobile units includes Odyssey, the first mid-size 4K mobile in North America, and Alto, a 53′ fully-equipped expando mobile, with capability for 14 cameras and four EVS systems.
About MEDIAPRO Group
MEDIAPRO Group is a leading global production, distribution and content creation group with 55 offices in 34 countries around the world. It operates a fleet of close to 100 High Definition and 4K Outside Broadcast units and produces live coverage of more than 12,000 events around the world each year.
The Group is currently involved in the production of 14 national soccer leagues around the world, including Spain’s LaLiga, the Belgian ProLeague, the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the Turkish Süper Lig, Italy’s Serie A, the Greek Super League, the Primera División of Chile, Mexico’s LigaMX and the Kenyan Premier League; it also produces events for the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, FIFA Confederations Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations, FIBA events, the EuroLeague and Formula 1. MEDIAPRO manages the global media rights to Spain’s LaLiga Santander and produces and manages 22 TV channels worldwide, including several specialty sports channels. Mediapro is also the official provider of VAR technology for 17
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