EURO 2008 has large potential audience

EURO 2008 will have its largest potential audience ever after UEFA announced it sold broadcast rights to areas including the United States and Asia.

"We will have coverage of the European Championship which we have never had before," UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson said.

After putting the broadcast rights up, UEFA decided to have direct negotiations with certain broadcasters in because of the quality of offers.

"We invited in August to tender for the rights for the European Championship outside Europe and we got some very positive proposals from some individual markets," Olsson said. "We decided to make direct contracts in certain territories – the United States, India, the Middle East, North Africa and Hong Kong."

ESPN has the North American rights, including pay rights in Latin America. The deal guarantees extensive coverage of EURO 2008 on the ESPN network, and also two matches on ABC.

ESPN Star took the Indian subcontinent. Included is the ability to sub-license to terrestrial networks.

Al Jazeera has rights for the Middle East and North Africa.

PCCW has been selected for Hong Kong.

SPORTFIVE represented the media rights for EURO 200 in all markets outside Europe.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.