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- New Zealand company Sky TV has secured the broadcast rights for the 2022 and 2026 Commonwealth Games
- This deal sees Sky build on its relationship with the New Zealand Olympic Committee
- Sky will deliver all the Birmingham 2022 events live on multiple Sky Sports channels, and streamed on Sky Go and Sky Sport Now
- The company’s share price is up 4.79 per cent with shares trading for 87.5 cents apiece
New Zealand company Sky TV has secured the broadcast rights for the 2022 and 2026 Commonwealth Games.
This deal sees Sky build on its relationship with the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC).
“It is our privilege to have the Summer, Winter and Youth Olympic Games, and we’re delighted to now have the Commonwealth Games returning to Sky and Prime,” Sky CEO Martin Stewart said.
“This deal also enables us to strengthen our longstanding partnership with the NZOC, and we look forward to working together to deliver these special events to New Zealanders,” he added.
As the rights-holder, Sky will deliver all the Birmingham 2022 events live on multiple Sky Sports channels, and streamed on Sky Go and Sky Sport Now.
The Birmingham Commonwealth Games is the first to have more women’s medal events than men’s and youth, equality and diversity are key themes for the event.
“Under the partnership between Sky and NZOC, we have committed to working together to increase women’s participation and visibility across key aspects of the Games, including our reporting of women’s events on Sky Sports News,” Martin said.
Sky is looking forward to delivering innovative options for New Zealanders to follow the sports and athletes both in the lead-up and during the games.
This deal comes after Sky acquired the rights to air the Rugby World Cup, and continued netball coverage until 2024.
However, in October Sky lost the rights to air New Zealand cricket after a fierce battle with Spark Sport.
Sky estimates that 2.5 million New Zealanders watched its free coverage of the Rio Olympics in 2016 and 2.4 million watched the Rugby World Cup in 2015.
“There will be a significant number of hours of live and curated coverage on Prime everyday of the Commonwealth Games, including special action involving New Zealand athletes,” Martin added.
“This commitment is consistent with Sky’s delivery of free-to-air coverage for previous international events,” he concluded.
Sky’s share price is up 4.79 per cent today with shares trading for 87.5 cents apiece at 3:22 pm AEDT.
