A Vietnamese cable TV station has acquired the rights to broadcast live UEFA Champions League matches for the 2016-2018 period, its general director said on Friday.

Vietnam Cable Television, or VTVcab, concluded negotiations and inked a deal with South Korea-based KJ Investment Group Inc. to be entitled to the live broadcasting of UEFA Champions League matches within Vietnam during that time frame.

The deal includes broadcast rights for two seasons, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, according to the television’s announcement.

The UEFA Champions League is an annual continental club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs.

Earlier this month, Vietnam’s huge base of European football fans were disappointed to learn they would not be able to enjoy live matches of the league since no Vietnamese television stations had been able to secure exclusive live rights to any matches for the 2016-17 season.

In August 2015, VTVcab announced at a press conference that they had acquired the live rights for three consecutive Champions League seasons ending in 2018, making it the only Vietnamese entity to have the rights to broadcast the league legally between 2015 and 2018.

However, on March 10, 2016, during the 2015-16 season, the telecast rights holder abruptly disconnected signal to VTVcab, saying that the Vietnamese channel had allowed their copyrighted footage to be “stolen and illegally reproduced across Vietnam.”

“I’m glad we finally landed the deal with KJ Investment Group Inc., and that VTVcab will continue to service Champions League fans [on its channels],” VTVcab General Director Hoang Ngoc Tuan told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.

“In order to avoid future copyright infringements like in the 2015-2016 season which had led to the premature termination of the contract, we have purchased not only television rights but also rights over Internet and mobile broadcasts,” Tuan said.

With this new update, football fans in Vietnam will be able to enjoy live Champions League matches, starting next Wednesday.

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