Liberty Global’s MySports launches new channel

Liberty Global-owned UPC Switzerland’s sports broadcast unit MySports is launching a new sports channel, MySports One,

ahead of the upcoming hockey season – a key event in the Swiss sporting calendar.

The channel, which goes live today, will be distributed via UPC and other operators to digital TV customers.

MySports One will be serve as a ‘best of’ channel, while the MySports 2-9 channels will serve customers of the MySports Pro offering looking for the complete range of sport.

Steffi Buchli

The new channel will show three games a week from the Swiss Ice Hockey National League, plus multi-game broadcasts, talks with experts and background reports, magazine programmes and documentaries.

Selected live Bundesliga games will also be shown via Sky.

The channel will also air Swiss handball, volleyball, basketball and equestrian sport, along with eSports formats and motor sports ­ –Formula E and DTM – to appeal to gamers and fans of motor racing.

Director of programming Steffi Buchli said: “Our programming and our content is very popular with MySports Pro customers. We are proud of our productions and happy that we can now delight even more people with our content thanks to the new channel. We are taking our ‘home of sports’ up another notch, which is just what we like to do.”

UPC Switzerland offers two versions of MySports – a basic offering that is available to all customers and Mysport Pro, a premium version that is also distributed via third parties.

Speaking on Liberty Global’s Q2 earnings call last week central Europe group CEO Eric Tveter said that UPC Switzerland was “planning improvements to MySports” for the new season. The company’s results were hit by competitive pressures during the quarter, offsetting an increase in revenues from MySports distribution fees. Costs of developing the platform meanwhile had a negative impact on UPC Switzerland’s operating cash-flow.