PA Sport Selling Controlling Stake In Sportal Australia To Perform

Aussie Rules football

British digital sports rights distributor Perform is buying a 66 percent stake in Sportal Australia, an Aussie sports news and VOD site. The amount is undisclosed but Perform has bought out Press Association Sport’s 33 percent stake and has the option of buying out the remaining third of the company. It’s a continuation of Perform’s global expansion after it signed a deal to become the exclusive online broadcaster of the US Major League Soccer competition and with Spanish publisher Prisa to show La Liga highlights online.

Perform opened New York and Singapore offices this year and already has rights deals with Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia. Sportal will now get its own version of Perform’s free-to-view ad-funded e-player widget to host on partners’ sites. Perform has bought PA Sport’s stake but will still “work closely” with that company in paying for its content and datafeeds: PA keeps its 33 percent stake in Champion Data, which is the exclusive data partner for Aussie rules football league AFL. Champion Data was majority owned by Sportal but has been separated out as a standalone business as part of this deal.

PA Group keeps its hand in Australasia, but its Sportal divestment is its latest sport business sell-off after it sold PA SportsTicker to US-based Stats LLC in March. PA Group reported a £8.8 million impairment charge on its sports division in its 2008 earnings. The English and Scottish Premier Leagues have renewed PA’s contract to provide real-time match data for the 2009-10 season.

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