Vietnam’s television channel K+ announced at a press conference yesterday that it holds exclusive rights to air the matches of the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam during the three seasons from 2013 to 2016.

This means that Canal+ Overseas, who had sealed the deal with IMG Media, the sales representative in Asia, has transferred the rights to its member firm K+. K+ is a joint venture between the France-based Canal+ Overseas, which holds a 49 percent stake in the company, and Vietnam Television, which holds a 51 percent stake.

The price of the exclusive packages which Canal+ Overseas purchased from IMG has not yet been revealed. Earlier, IMG offered three packages to local TV stations to show live games with a total price of US$37.5 million for the 2013-2016 seasons, meaning double the $19 million-dollar price for the three previous seasons starting from 2010.

With VTV controlling K+, the company will stop the channel from airing the games exclusively, as VTV and other local TV stations had agreed at a meeting on February 27.

According to Le Dinh Cuong, general secretary of the Vietnam Pay-TV Association (VNPayTV), VTV and other stations issued their announcement after the February 27th meeting, saying that, “No TV agency in Vietnam is allowed to hold the exclusive rights to the EPL from 2013-2016, even as a single exclusive package.”

Last year, when IMG offered the deal, the Vietnamese government instructed all TV stations to join together and set up a negotiation board led by VTV to prevent the local firms from competing with one another and raising the price.

When the board was not established, Canal+ Overseas entered to ink the deal with IMG and has recently transferred the rights to K+.