Spain's La Liga on ESPN-Star Sports from 2012 onwards

ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) has bought the rights for La Liga, the Spanish Football League, for a three year period from 2012 to 2015 to broadcast it across 18 Asian countries amongst them India.

ESS Asia Managing Director Manu Sawhney said in a statement, "This acquisition underlines our commitment to football fans in the region as we continue providing the most compelling content to our viewers, and an excellent promotional platform for our business partners. We have established a strong tradition in building and strengthening top-class football properties on our networks with the reach of our networks, multiple media platforms, world-class match presentation and our continued focus towards original, localized football programming and innovative marketing campaigns."

"The presence of the La Liga on our networks positions us as a leader in football content in Asia, and this programming is undoubtedly a tremendous value to our affiliate partners, advertisers and viewers," added Sawhney.

ESS has acquired the rights from Mediapro, the global broadcasting rights holders for the Spanish La Liga. Commenting on the development Mediapro Managing Director Gerard Romy said, "We are pleased with their commitment to showcase La Liga across new media platforms in order to extend the profile of this great football league."

ESS will broadcast La Liga from the 2012-13 to the 2014-15 season in 18 countries across the continent which includes India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Philippines.

ESS has bought the rights on multiple distribution platforms - television, mobile and online for these countries as they will not only focus on the TV market but over forms of media too.

ESS also happens to be the rights holders of the English Premier League and from 2012 onwards they will be showing over 600 matches from two of Europe's top football leagues. This means that ESS will be showing matches involving iconic clubs like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The next 2011/12 season the rights stay with Ten Sports, who will be showing La Liga until it returns to ESPN-Star Sports.