Malaysian pay-television operator Astro has expanded a rights deal with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to become the exclusive broadcast partner of the national governing body.
Astro will become the exclusive broadcast rights partner in Malaysia and Brunei for all BAM events. The deal has been backdated to November 2016 and will run for five years, until the end of October 2021.
Astro said that the deal is worth a total of approximately RM66m (€13.8m/$14.8m) over the five-year period.
Subscribers will have access to coverage of major BAM tournaments such as the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold, National Championships, Malaysia Open Super Series, Malaysia International Junior Open and Malaysia International Challenge.
Astro will broadcast coverage on its Astro Supersport and Astro Arena channels on Astro TV. Events will also be streamed live via the Astro on the Go service.
In addition, Astro will have access to all BAM players and events for the purpose of support programming, such as competition highlights.
Tan Sri Mohd Al-Amin, acting president of BAM, said: “We are pleased to extend this partnership we have had with Astro Arena since 2010 and continue to take it to the next level with an exclusive broadcast rights agreement."
Ahmad Khawari Mohd Isa, senior assistant vice-president and chief of staff for news and magazines at Astro Arena, added: “The five-year broadcast agreement with BAM is approximately RM66m, comprising cash investment, athlete incentives, production, promotion and airtime costs. We believe that there is a huge following for badminton as seen in the record 6.5 million Malaysians who tuned into Astro for the men’s singles semi-finals and men’s doubles final during the Rio 2016 Olympics.”