April 20, 2011

i-CABLE renews UEFA Champions League, Europa League rights to 2015

i-CABLE Communications Ltd. announced today it has successfully renewed its exclusive broadcasting rights (including new media rights) of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League in Hong Kong for three soccer seasons until 2015.

This reaffirms the Group's commitment in bringing top programming from around the world to subscribers, and reinforces its position as the leading sports platform in Hong Kong.

With the successful renewal, CABLE TV subscribers will without interruption continue to enjoy over 200 live UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches per season, from playoff rounds through to the finals, in both SD and HD format, over CABLE TV's comprehensive 16-channel sports platform.

CABLE TV will also live telecast the annual season opener UEFA Super Cup - Europe's top league award - to be played between the reigning champions of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

The programmes will continue to be offered with no additional charge to CABLE TV Basic Package subscribers, and will also be carried on i-CABLE's official portal, i-cable.com on a pay-per-view basis.

Commenting on the renewal, Executive Director, i-CABLE Sports Limited, Mr Ronald Chiu said: "We are very pleased that we have again been awarded the prestigious exclusive broadcast rights of the top soccer actions in Europe.

"The continuing partnership with UEFA is a vote of confidence on the quality of our production and carriage of major events as the leading sports broadcaster in town. It also reflects our commitment in acquiring worthy content at a reasonable cost to cater to the appetite of our viewers for premier sports actions.

"UEFA actions have always been very popular among our viewers, and I am sure that they will be thrilled by the news that we have secured the rights for these tournaments for another three year term until 2015.

"We also expect more matches to be broadcast in HD format on our expanded HD sports platform which comprises five channels."

Commenting on the award of the rights, UEFA said: "We are delighted to extend our relationship with i-CABLE who have proven their dedication and commitment to the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League throughout the current rights cycle."