CBS Sports Inks Paramount+ Streaming Rights Deals for Serie A, CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, and Argentine Pro Soccer

CBS Sports Inks Paramount Streaming Rights Deals for Serie A, CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, and Argentine Pro Soccer Paramount continues to build on its stable of international soccer rights By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Friday, March 26, 2021 - 6:24 am

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CBS Sports has announced a slate of new soccer rights deals that will significantly boost ViacomCBS' new subscription steraming serivce Paramount . The deals are led by an agreement with Lega Serie A for exclusive U.S. rights to the Serie A Championship, the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana with Paramount streaming more than 400 club matches live each season through 2024. In separate deals, CBS Sports also announced Paramount will serve as the exclusive English-language home in the US of CONCACAF qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, as well as for Argentina's Liga Profesional de F tbol, Copa de la Liga Profesional, and, beginning in 2022, the Supercopa Argentina.

With the deals in place Paramount continues its push to become a prime destination for U.S. soccer fans with plans to to deliver thousand live matches each year that also include UEFA club competitions and NWSL.

Serie A Heads to Paramount , CBS Sports

The Lega Serie A multi-platform agreement includes exclusive U.S. rights to the Serie A Championship, the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana. Paramount , ViacomCBS' subscription streaming service, will deliver more than 400 club matches live each season through 2024, featuring all 380 Serie A matches, at least 25 Coppa Italia matches including all contests from the fourth knockout round on, and the Supercoppa Italiana match each year between the winners of Serie A and Coppa Italia. Select matches will be televised each year on CBS Sports linear platforms including CBS Sports Network.

We are building critical mass in soccer, and the addition of Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana is another major step in the expansion of CBS Sports' extensive lineup of live soccer coverage on Paramount and across our linear and digital platforms, says Jeffrey Gerttula, Executive Vice President and General Manager, CBS Sports Digital. Showcasing this historic league and some of the world's biggest clubs is a tremendous opportunity to further grow the sport in the U.S. by delivering first-class coverage to a dedicated and passionate audience.

We express great satisfaction for the assignment of the audiovisual rights to Serie A and the Coppa Italia, for the three-year period 21/24, to a major network like CBS Sports, says Lega Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo. In a strategic area like the United States of America this agreement confirms the growth of the international image of the Serie A brand through an important partner like CBS Sports. Today it is not a point of arrival, but rather the beginning of a process of investments in human resources and editorial contents to support the continued growth of Serie A in the North America territory. This is the result of the work of the last 18 months and of the increasing number of American owners who have decided to invest in our teams.

CBS Sports begins coverage in August with the start of the 2021-2022 Serie A season. Additional coverage details will be announced in the coming months in conjunction with the 2021-2022 Serie A and Coppa Italia schedules. CBS Sports Digital will deliver additional coverage and original programming and feature highlights across social channels and CBS Sports HQ, the 24/7 streaming sports news network.

Paramount To Stream Up to 79 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers

As part of the deal singed between CBS Sports and IMG, Paramount will serve as the exclusive English-language home in the US of qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 for the Concacaf region of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The deal includes six away matches for both the United States and Mexico men's national teams as well as the media rights to all other matches played in the region. Up to 79 matches will stream live on Paramount and CBS Sports has the ability to air select matches on linear platforms.

IMG jointly owns the media rights for the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers with Mediapro, who are also the production host broadcaster for the matches.

The first of three rounds of qualifying matches kick off this evening (Wednesday) involving teams ranked 6-35 based on FIFA rankings. Tonight's matches on Paramount feature Dominican Republic vs. Dominica at 7:05 PM, ET and Guatemala vs. Cuba at 8:05 PM, ET. The top five ranked Concacaf teams - Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras - join the action in the Third round.

We're excited to make Paramount the home of Concacaf Men's World Cup Qualifiers and look forward to bringing these intense and competitive national team competitions to fans, says Gerttula. With the addition of these qualifiers, Paramount will be the destination for a diverse and passionate fanbase eager to cheer for their national teams on the road to the FIFA World Cup.

Hillary Mandel, EVP, Head of Americas and Global Partnerships, IMG, says: We are really excited about the distribution commitment and amplification that Paramount and the CBS Sports platforms will provide for the Concacaf qualifiers, and especially English-speaking fans in the United States. They have made a huge commitment to soccer and this deal strengthens their position for delivering quality, premium live action from the very best competitions around the world.

In the First round of matches, teams ranked 6-35 are drawn in six groups of five and play single round-robin matches (two home and two away) with group winners qualifying for the next round. These take place in March and June 2021. In the Second round, the six

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