Football tv channel ready for kick off

Friday 11 July 2008

A number of familiar faces are among the presenters' line-up for the new pay football channel being launched by the premier division on August 29, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

Alongside veteran sports reporters such as Theo Reitsma and Humberto Tan, UK broadcaster Gary Lineker has been drafted in as an analyst.

'The channel will have a positive yet critical voice,' Endemol director Paul Römer told the paper. 'It has to feel fresh and reliable.'

The channel Eredivisie Live is expected to more than triple the 18 league clubs' income from live broadcasts within five years. The league says a subscription will probably cost between €10 and €15 although the fee will be up to the cable companies themselves. The channel expects to start out with 400,000 subscribers this year and hopes the number will rise to 800,000 by 2013.

This is the second attempt to set up a football-only channel in the Netherlands. The station Sport 7, which was founded in 1996, lasted only four months because of disputes over rights and a campaign by viewers who did not want to pay to watch games which had always been offered for free.

The league decided to exploit the broadcasting rights itself after both public and commercial channels failed to come up with enough cash. NOS bought the highlight rights for €21m.

© DutchNews.nl

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