The new Russian sports channel featuring games from the Barclays Premier League will officially make its debut this Saturday, August 14.
The news was given by Dmitry Mednikov, the deputy DG of the state broadcaster VGTRK, speaking to Kommersant. He added that the channel, which will be known as Sport-1 and cost an average of R10 (€0.25) a month to receive, would also carry other sports, less appealing to a mass audience, besides all Premier League football games over the next three seasons.
He also said that the broadcaster is in negotiations with cable operators for distribution of Sport-1.
The channel will be carried by the DTH platform NTV-Plus and broadcast over the radio and internet, and perhaps even mobile phones.
VGTRK is understood to have paid around $10 million (€7.6 million) for the rights to the Premier League for three years. It is likely to start negotiations to secure the rights to the Russian (football) Championship this autumn.
