SINGAPORE: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has extended its Asia-Pacific
broadcast footprint to include Indochina.
The channel has signed carriage deals with Vietnam's VTV3, Laos' LNTV,
TV5 of Cambodia and Mywaddy TV of Myanmar, paving the way for programmes
such as English Premier League, the Asian X Games and the CGU Asian
Bowling Tour to be screened there. Rik Dovey, ESS managing director,
said: "This represents a tremendous breakthrough in the company's
distribution strategy in IndoChina, especially in the area of
syndication."
He said that ESS has been aggressively pursuing distribution
opportunities.
The Indochina deals give ESS access to another 9.2 million viewers,
raising the number of ESPN subscriber homes to 79 million and to an
estimated 56 million households for Star Sports.