M7 inks satellite distribution agreement with Sport Extra
Luxembourg/Bucharest, 15 July 2021 – Luxembourg-based M7 Group, owned by Canal+ and one of Europe’s leading pay TV providers, has concluded a satellite capacity and distribution agreement with Bucharest-based Television Services Europe for the carriage of Romanian sports channel Sport Extra. While M7 Platform Services provides end-to-end satellite distribution services via Thor 6 at 1 degree West, Sport Extra is carried via Focus Sat, M7’s Direct-to-Home TV platform for Romania.
Sport Extra provides Focus Sat subscribers with an attractive mix of live sports events and background features with focus on car racing, martial arts and football. The sports events line-up includes IndyCar Series, Nascar racing, GT World Challenge, IMSA SportsCar Championship, as well as leading martial arts events ONE Championship and Ballator MMA. Sport Extra also broadcasts matches of Serie B, the second-highest division in the Italian football league system.
The agreement for Sport Extra follows satellite distribution agreements closed last year by M7 with MOOZ TV and Bollywood, both co-owned by Television Services Europe.
Bill Wijdeveld, VP Platform Content Services at M7 Group says: “We are very pleased with this new agreement for Sport Extra, further strengthening our satellite distribution partnership with Television Services Europe. For our Focus Sat subscribers, the addition of TV Extra brings a whole range of exciting additional sports content, available via the main screen as well as via mobile devices.”
Ionut Samoila, CEO Sport Extra, adds: “Our agreement with M7 Group greatly enlarges our household reach in Romania, allowing even more sports fans to enjoy an exciting and varied range of sports content. While already having a fruitful cooperation with M7 for the satellite distribution of MOOZ TV and Bollywood, we look forward to a great new partnership for Sport Extra.”
About M7
M7 Group is brand of Canal+ Luxembourg S. à r.l., a CANAL+ Group company, one of Europe’s largest operators of satellite and IP-based TV platforms based in Luxembourg. M7 Group uses different brands in different countries: Skylink and freeSAT in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Canal Digitaal in the Netherlands, TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat in Belgium, HD Austria in Austria, Direct One in Hungary and Focus Sat in Romania. All brands offer tailor made packages for clients adapted to the local culture and language in these countries. Today, M7 Group provides more than 3 million subscribers with hundreds of satellite and IP-based radio and television services in digital and HD quality. Since 2011, M7 Group also provides broadband and telephony services to its customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. M7 Platform Services provides broadcasters with end-to-end distribution solutions for DTH, cable and IPTV reception. www.m7group.eu.
Television Services Europe (TSE) provides comprehensive play-out, content production, management and transmission services for the Central and Eastern Europe operators and television broadcasters including MTV Networks, Vodafone, Disney and Discovery. TSE is also the holding company for several technological and content production companies and is the licensee from Ofcom UK for the channel SPORT EXTRA HD and co-owns MOOZ TV and Bollywood.