• Multichannel News, Tuesday, April 22, 2008 10:15 AM

Soccer channel Gol TV has inked a deal to broadcast 10 matches featuring 2006 World Cup champion Italy, with coverage to kick off when the team faces Belgium on May 30. The pact is with RAI Trade, which handles international TV distribution rights for Italy and gives Gol exclusive broadcast rights in the U.S. and Canada to five home Italian 2010 World Cup qualifying matches, plus six other matches in the next two years.

Gol, which offers both English- and Spanish-language feeds, reaches some 16 million subscribers and has also nailed down the rights to 2010 World Cup qualifiers for Spain and Germany. Further, it will also have exclusive coverage of other top international soccer championships including Copa Del Rey and Coppa Italia this year.

"We decided to offer the broadcasting rights to Italy's qualifiers to GolTV because of the constant quality of GolTV's soccer program offerings," says RAI Trade CEO Carlo Nardello in a statement.

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