European agency Mediapro has acquired the global media rights to a suite of Canadian soccer properties, including the soon-to-launch Canadian Premier League (CPL).

Under a wide-ranging deal with Canadian Soccer Business (CSB), the entity set up last year to commercialise the CPL and several other Canadian soccer assets, Mediapro will own the rights to every property within the CSB portfolio for the next ten years.

That includes the global and domestic rights to the CPL, which is due to launch in April, and the Canadian Championship, Canada’s existing professional league which is set to expand to 13 teams this year.

Mediapro has also acquired the media rights for all home games played by the Canadian men’s and women’s national teams, and all League1 Ontario matches.

While terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Mediapro will handle the production of all matches and plans to roll out a new over-the-top (OTT) streaming service dedicated to Canadian soccer. The service will feature thousands of matches over the course of the coming decade, as well as shoulder programming such as magazine shows and documentaries.

The deal marks the first foray into the Canadian market for Mediapro, which boasts annual revenue of €1.649 billion (US$1.87 billion) and already produces more than 6,000 events around the world each year.

Following the deal, the company will open an office in Canada and will work alongside CSB to evaluate distribution opportunities, partnerships and platforms.

The deal was negotiated by ThePostGame, a digital sports content and marketing agency which was appointed last August as the exclusive representative for CSB’s global media rights.

“The reality of media consumption right now is that you can create a streaming platform that is ubiquitous for the consumers and easy to find in a variety of places and on a variety of devices,” said Scott Mitchell, CSB’s chief executive. “That is the primary focus before we turn our attention, with Mediapro’s leadership, to other potential distribution partners.”

Mediapro’s entry into the Canadian OTT market will provide competition for sports streaming subscription platform DAZN, which launched in Canada in 2017 and has already acquired rights to an array of soccer coverage including England’s Premier League.

“Soccer is our cornerstone,” added Oscar Lopez, chief executive of Mediapro Canada. “For us, it’s part of our DNA. We breathe soccer. This is special, because this is a ten-year project.

“Usually in Europe, the period that you can have the rights is three years. It’s not enough time to develop a product or a story. But here, it’s ten years, and for us, this fits perfectly with our philosophy and our ideas.”