Mediapro hails launch of Canadian Premier League and OneSoccer

Spanish broadcaster and producer Mediapro said it had contributed to the successful launch of the Canadian Premier League, the new Canadian professional soccer league, with the first two matches played over the weekend.

Mediapro acquired all the media rights within the Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) portfolio for the next 10 years in February, including the domestic and international media rights to the Canadian Premier League (CPL), the new professional soccer league.

The agreement includes the domestic and international media rights to the Canadian Championship, which determines entry to the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League, as well as the media rights to the home games of Canada Soccer Women’s and Men’s National Teams, and to Ontario’s League1 for men and women.

Mediapro will produce live coverage of over 130 Canadian soccer matches this season.

Mediapro. has created a dedicated Canadian soccer channel showing live and video-on-demand coverage that it says will become the new home of Canadian soccer. The channel was launched on the eve of the Canadian Premier League’s opening match between Forge FC and York9FC at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario.

The OneSoccer streaming service was launched on April 26 with a range of subscription options. The 24/7 channel, with both live and VoD content, is free to users through onesoccer.ca for the first month, through to the end of May, offering viewers 25 CPL and Canadian Championship matches as well as the friendly match on May 18 between the Canada Soccer Women’s National Team and the women’s national team of Mexico. During this period, 20 of the 25 matches will be exclusive to OneSoccer.

In addition to the 98 matches in the CPL regular season plus the final, OneSoccer will also offer all the home matches of the Canada Soccer Women’s and Men’s National Teams, and the 24 matches in the expanded Canadian Championship, which involves all professional soccer clubs in Canada, with a package of matches simulcast on a national broadcaster. Some 100 matches will be aired exclusively on the service in 2019. From 2020, OneSoccer will also offer a range of matches involving men’s and women’s teams participating in Ontario’s League1.