Vietnam-based sports marketing agency Next Media has acquired the media rights for this year’s Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
The deal was brokered by the Lagardère Sports agency, the exclusive commercial agency of the national team tournament. Lagardère is distributing the media and marketing rights under an eight-year deal, covering four editions of the biennial tournament, from 2017 to 2024.
This year’s AFF Suzuki Cup is scheduled to take place between October and December.
Next Media’s rights are exclusive and allow it to broadcast the tournament itself or to sublicense content to free-to-air or pay operators across all types of distribution platform. It also has rights for public screenings.
Nguyen Trung Kien, the general director of Next Media, said: “Everyone knows that the AFF Suzuki Cup receives the most attention from fans in Southeast Asia. To enable football fans to enjoy the tournament to the fullest, we are delighted to provide them with access to the matches in most convenient and efficient way possible, through any platform that is available to them.”
He added: “This affirms our strong partnership with Vietnamese national teams. We are confident that with Next Media’s proven experience in production and marketing, we will be able to bring the best football experiences to these fans.”
Next Media has distributed Vietnam national football team media content in the past, including on its own platforms. Last year, it streamed the King’s Cup invitational tournament on its YouTube and Facebook channels in Vietnam. Also last year, it worked with agency Reddentes Sports to distribute rights for the Asean Football Federation’s U-18 Championship, which took place in Vietnam.
This year’s Suzuki Cup has so far been unaffected by the Covid-19 shutdown. A planned new AFF tournament this year, the AFF Club Championship, fell victim to the sports shutdown in March.
