TAIPEI CITY -- The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today announced that broadcast rights have been awarded in territories across the world for the first-ever WBSC Premier12â„¢ global baseball championship, which will be staged from 8-21 November in Japan and Taiwan and will feature the National Teams of the Top 12 countries in the world.
In Europe, cable giant Fox Sports has been awarded the rights to broadcast the new international baseball flagship tournament in Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Netherlands and Turkey.
NOS, the Dutch free-to-air public broadcaster, has also been awarded Premier12 broadcast rights in the Netherlands, the No. 5 country in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings, while Eleven Sports Network has obtained broadcast rights across Belgium and Poland, as well as Singapore and Malaysia in Asia.
WBSC Premier12 broadcast distribution across Asia also includes beIN Sports (Indonesia and the Philippines), LeTV and PPTV (China), Macau Cable, Sky Net (Myanmar), Solar (Philippines), i-Cable (Hong Kong) and Vietnam Digital Television (VTC).
Japanese satellite TV network J-Sports has also acquired broadcast rights for the WBSC Premier12, adding to the already announced agreements with TV Asahi and the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in Japan.
Camerabay.tv has obtained online broadcast rights in Taiwan, which complements host broadcaster Videoland's television rights in the nation. Videoland will be producing 33 (of the 38) games of the 2015 WBSC Premier12 within the span of a week, marking the most intense operation in history for the premier sports network in Taiwan.
It was already announced that SBS in South Korea has been awarded the exclusive broadcast rights in that nation for Premier12.
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Dubai-based OSN added the WBSC Premier12 to its broadcast portfolio.
In Oceania, global sports network beIN Sports has been awarded Premier12 broadcast rights in Australia.
In the Americas, Rogers' Sportsnet (Canada) and the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) have been awarded exclusive rights in their respective territories.
"WBSC is proud to partner with some of the world's premier broadcasters to showcase this new crown jewel event and deliver all the excitement of Premier12 to potentially hundreds of millions of households and mobile users," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. "These partnerships not only highlight the global appeal of this new WBSC flagship baseball product, but also demonstrate baseball's expanding worldwide position in an extremely competitive environment."
WBSC Premier12 Live-Streaming on Youtube
All 38 games of the 2015 WBSC Premier12 will be live-streamed and free-to-view on the WBSC YouTube channel for those territories not covered by WBSC's broadcast partners. Following each game, highlights and video-on-demand will be available to worldwide audiences via WBSC's YouTube channel.
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Contact: media@wbsc.org.
About WBSC Premier12
The WBSC Premier12 has been established to help determine the best overall ("global") National Team programme in baseball. Nations have qualified for the inaugural 2015 WBSC Premier12 based on their Top 12 finish in the final 2014 WBSC Baseball World Rankings, which are based on the performance of each country's U-12, U-15, U-18, U-21 and Professional National Teams in official international competitions (2011-2014) sanctioned by WBSC.
Official Hashtag: #Premier12
About World Baseball Softball Confederation
Headquartered in the Olympic Capital city of Lausanne, Switzerland, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) was established in April 2013 and granted recognition as the sole competent authority in baseball and softball by the International Olympic Committee at the 125th IOC Session in September 2013. The WBSC represents a united baseball/softball sports movement that encompasses over 65 million athletes worldwide and attract approximately 150 million fans annually to stadiums worldwide..
The WBSC governs all international competitions involving any of the National Teams of its 141 National Federation members. The WBSC oversees the Softball World Championships (Men, Women, U-19 Men, and U-19 Women), Premier12, World Baseball Classic, and the U-12, U-15, U-18, U-21 and Women's Baseball World Cups.
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