The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has brought on board BG Sports as a YouTube broadcast partner in Thailand for the next five years.
The deal, unveiled today, runs through 2029 and covers both national and club competitions organized by the soccer body.
Specifically, it will provide BG Sports customers with access to the next five seasons of the men’s Champions League Elite and Champions League Two club competitions, as well as coverage of the 2024-25 Women’s Champions League (that competition’s inaugural edition). In addition, Asian national team qualifiers for the 2026 men’s FIFA World Cup will be shown.
All games involving Thai teams will be aired, as well as select other fixtures of the aforementioned competitions. BG Sports (owned by the Singha Corporation) will cover the majority of games via its YouTube channel, while select matches will also be “broadcast live on linear free TV.”
The deal has been put together by Asia Football Group (AFG), the commercial partner of the AFC. AFG holds exclusive commercial rights for AFC properties across the 2023-28 cycle.
The agreement has been unveiled in advance of the 2024-25 Champions League Elite, which gets underway on Monday (September 16).
During 2023-24, there was no mainstream broadcast home for AFC Champions League action in Thailand.
Buriam United will be the sole Thai team participating in the competition’s first stage, which will run through mid-February.
Earlier this month, the AFC announced the extension of its media rights tie-up in Indonesia with the MNC media group, for the 2025-28 competitions cycle.
Through the deal, all major AFC competitions - men’s and women’s, club and national team - will be shown live by MNC during the next four years, in the territories of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste.
Late August saw the AFC renew a tie-up with the Football Australia governing body (with that organization having in turn renewed with the Australian broadcast arm of the Paramount media giant).
BG Sports, meanwhile, adds these rights to a soccer portfolio that features action from Japan’s J.League, England’s second-tier EFL, and various competitions run by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
