BSI sign five year deal with CANAL+

BSI has agreed a contract with CANAL+ Cyfrowy, the owner of Pay TV CANAL+ Poland, to extend their exclusive live television rights contract for both the FIM Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) Series and the FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) until 2011.

The agreement, negotiated by BSI, replaces the existing contract that was due to expire in 2007 and guarantees the world championships live on CANAL+ Poland for the next five years. Poland's leading pay TV satellite channel has televised all SGP events since BSI took over the commercial rights of the Series in 2000.

As part of the contract, CANAL+ Poland will also be host broadcaster for SGP and SWC events held in Poland and selected Eastern European markets for the duration of the agreement.

Commenting on the new five year agreement, John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, BSI, said: "Poland is an extremely important market for the Grand Prix and World Cup given speedway's position as the number two sport in Poland. The future of the sport is looking very bright in the country as five of the past six world junior champions are Polish.

"We have broadcast live on CANAL+ Poland for the last seven years and both world championship events and the television channel have grown hand-in-glove over this time. We have enjoyed our co-operation with CANAL+ Poland and look forward to working together and continue to promote growth in Poland for world championship speedway over the next five years."

Jacek Okienczyc, Chief of Sports, CANAL+ Poland said: "The extension of our rights to transmit the FIM Speedway Grand Prix is the next step for us on the way to provide our subscribers with long-term access to the most important sporting events. Speedway is very popular in Poland so we are very happy that the deal with BSI gives us the opportunity to transmit the competition with the best riders in the world for the next five years."

The SGP and SWC highlights package, which for three of the past four years has been broadcast on Poland's national broadcaster TVP, has not yet been negotiated beyond 2006 and BSI look forward to announcing who the terrestrial broadcaster will be before the end of the year.