Det blev under förra veckan klart att Extreme Fighting Championship Africa skrivit ett TV-avtal med CSI Sports vilket innebär att deras galor kommer att finnas tillgängliga i över 65 miljoner hushåll i USA.
Nedan är ett utdrag ur pressmeddelandet.
CSI Sports is a US-based broadcast giant that distributes fight-related content to more than 50 channels worldwide and in the USA. In a landmark deal with EFC AFRICA bouts from the latest and future EFC AFRICA events are being broadcast as part of CSI’s Fight Sports™ programming block, a collection of more than 50 hours per week of world class combat sport action.
EFC AFRICA joins the ranks of other international sporting properties that have been broadcast by CSI SPORTS including the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), HBO’s Championship Boxing, WEC and K-1.
With EFC AFRICA episodes scheduled to flight daily, Africa’s premier MMA action will reach a massive new US audience, ensuring unprecedented growth for the sport promotion and its athletes.
”CSI Sports has a history of introducing and growing some of the top MMA and fight sports brands in the world,” says EFC AFRICA president Cairo Howarth, ”we are very pleased that they have chosen EFC AFRICA to be the next big brand to showcase in the USA.”
International content agent, CONTENT TELEVISION, concluded the deal. ”CSI Sports will help introduce EFC AFRICA to the mainstream in the USA,” says Jonathan Ford, executive vice president of CONTENT TELEVISION. “We are expecting huge growth for 2013 as the Extreme Fighting Championship continues with its rapid worldwide broadcast expansion.”
This latest international television broadcast deal has pushed the total number of homes where the EFC AFRICA episodes are available in to over 130 million worldwide. As well as the 65 million new homes in the USA, the action packed episodes are currently being broadcast every day to over 25 million homes throughout Europe and the Middle East on EXTREME, a premium sport television network available on the Sky and Virgin platforms. The episodes are also flighted throughout Canada on Fight Network, and every day on Fox FX throughout Africa.
“EFC AFRICA is now on television literally every day in at least 130 million homes around the world,” says Howarth. “This is unheard of for a sport promotion from Africa, and on top of all this, every event is broadcast live to hundreds of millions more worldwide. The return on investment for our brand and our sponsors has been phenomenal.”
För Sveriges del så visas repiser av galorna på Eurosport och Extreme Sports Channel men det går även att se galorna live via PPV för $24.99 (ca 160 kr). Nästa gala kommer att ske den 19 april i Carnival City Casino i Johannesburg, Sydafrika. Man kommer då att anordna två titelmatcher, Michiel Opperman (9-6) försvarar i huvudmatchen sitt welterviktsbälte mot Martin van Staden (13-5) medans Demarte Pena (5-0) försvarar fjäderviktstiteln mot Wentzel Nel (8-3).
Rapporten är ett bevis på att vi Sverige har en lång väg att gå innan vi kommer ifatt USA, Afrika m,m. Flera svenska galor går inte att se alls via PPV-stream och om det ens visas på svensk tv så är det flera veckor efteråt.
När tror du att vi får se någon svensk organisation lyckas med ett liknande avtal?
