ELTA TV Acquires Rights To Broadcast 2014 Brazil World Cup In Taiwan

ELTA TV on Tuesday announced that "it has obtained the exclusive rights to broadcast all of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches" across Taiwan this summer, while Chunghwa Telecom is to air the games online, according to Jason Pan of the TAIPEI TIMES. An ELTA TV exec said that "the network inked a deal to secure all the media rights to air the tournament taking place in Brazil in Taiwan" with FIFA, and that it will collaborate with Chunghwa Telecom to make matches available on mobile devices and computers. Although the pricing of the deal was not disclosed, "the telecom expects the games to raise revenue" from its MOD service to NT$2.6B ($86M) this year from NT$2.2B last year. Ratings figures show that 10.06 million people in Taiwan watched the World Cup games beamed from South Africa in '10 and officials "expect that number to rise dramatically this year due to increased interest in the sport in Taiwan and the proliferation of Internet-capable cellphones and tablets" (TAIPEI TIMES, 1/22).