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Fubo TV gets streaming rights to South American soccer matches

Sports-centric streaming television service Fubo TV is adding to its arsenal of athletic matches by grabbing the exclusive live stream rights to qualifying football matches played by teams within the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

The agreement was reached with the broadcast rights holders covering games played by nearly a dozen South American teams, Fubo TV executives said in a statement this week, and comes as teams compete to qualify for the championship World Cup, which is set to begin in 2022.

“By offering the best of South American soccer in advance of Qatar 2022, we are further differentiating Fubo TV’s sports-first content portfolio enabling us to engage with more consumers than ever before,” David Gandler, the co-founder and chief executive of the streaming service, said in a statement.

The company declined to provide financial terms of the deal.

Under the agreement, Fubo TV will be the exclusive U.S.-based streaming home of the remaining 70 CONMEBOL matches, including all broadcasts of World Cup qualifying games.

Those matches are set to start in June, with additional games played through 2021 and in early 2022, executives said.

The rights also include re-broadcasts of games after they’re played, with commentary provided during live and replay games in both English and Spanish.

To bolster its coverage of the games, Fubo TV says it will produce pre- and post-game analysis programs along with half-time shows.

Fubo TV said it would make additional announcement about how subscribers can access the matches through its streaming service in the future, along with details about on-air talent hired to provide commentary and analysis during the events.

Fubo TV is a streaming television service that focuses heavily on sports content, with agreements to distribute live cable sports networks from Comcast (NBCSN, regional NBC Sports, the Olympic Channel, Universo, Golf Network), the Walt Disney Company (ESPN, ESPN 2, ACC Network), Fox Corporation (Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Big 10 Network), ViacomCBS (CBS Sports Network), the National Football League (NFL Network), the National Hockey League (NHL Network), Major League Baseball (MLB Network), the National Basketball Association (NBA TV) and Al Jazeera Media Networks (BeIN Sports).

Some sports broadcasts from its content partners are available to stream in ultra-high definition (4K), making it one of the few premium streaming television services to offer such broadcasts.

In addition to the cable networks, Fubo TV provides access to more than 200 general entertainment, lifestyle, cable news and movie channels from its partner broadcasters, including MSNBC, Fox News, USA, Bravo, the Disney Channel, FX, ABC News Live, the Discovery Channel, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, among others.

Fubo TV’s base package, called Starter, offers more than 100 premium sports, news and general entertainment cable channels for $65 a month plus tax. An upgraded package, called Elite, offers more than 160 channels for $80 a month plus tax. A Spanish-language package with around 30 channels is available to purchase for $33 a month plus tax.

Each package includes access to a cloud digital video recorder (DVR), where users can save movies, TV shows and sports for playback later, as well as the ability to stream programs across three devices simultaneously.

To learn more about Fubo TV, click or tap here.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys covers the business of broadcast and streaming TV, radio broadcasting, social media, technology and telecommunications. A journalist for over 15 years, Matthew previously worked at Thomson Reuters, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTXL in Sacramento and McNaughton Newspapers. He received 9 California Journalism Awards between 2018 and 2020, and is a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors).
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