BT Vision has confirmed it has acquired broadcast rights to the top tier football leagues in Italy, France, Brazil and USA, reports SportsPro. Having bought Premier League rights in the summer, BT's new deals with Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France, Brasileirão in Brazil and the USA's Major League Soccer (MLS) effectively see its new BT Sport channel taking over ESPN's soccer coverage in the UK.
All four deals will run for multiyear periods from next season.
"We are delighted to announce that we will be adding to the Barclays Premier League live games with more top quality live coverage of games from some of the top leagues in the world," said BT Vision chief executive Marc Watson.
"We believe this extra depth of live matches will help us in our aim to develop an absolutely cracking sports channel, with fantastic live action, across the top football leagues, plus rugby union and other sports to come. We've hired the best talent behind the camera to bring to viewers the first rate production that they've come to expect from a sports channel in the UK."
Watson recently hired ex-Sky Sports executive Simon Green to head up BT Sport.