One Worlds Sports Secure North America Rights for Japan’s Premier Rugby League

ONE World Sports (OWS), North America’s leading Asian sports provider, has signed an exclusive agreement with World Sport Group (WSG) to distribute Japan’s premier rugby division Top League on a multi-screen basis in North America.

OWS will present one rugby match per week for the entire season. OWS kicks off the 2011-2012 season on November 2 and concludes with the Grand Final in January 2012.  The Top League is a popular professional rugby union league in Japan, and has some of the best rugby players from around the world. Founded in 2003, Top League is comprised of 14 corporate sponsored teams.

Top League joins OWS’ large series of professional sports leagues including Asia’s major soccer leagues: Australian A-League, Japan J-League, Korean K-League and the Chinese Super League. In addition, OWS has exclusive rights to the One Asia golf tour, and the world’s major table tennis, badminton and squash events. The Top League and other great sports from Asia are exclusively on OWS, which is available on DISH Network.

Preston Bornman, Chief Operating Officer, ONE World Sports, said: “OWS is excited to expand our Asian sports offering with the addition of the Japan Top League Rugby. Rugby union is extremely popular worldwide and we are proud to offer Top League to our American audiences. One exclusive game per week is a perfect complement to our top Asian sports that includes soccer, basketball, golf and racquet sports coverage.”

Tom Smith, Senior Vice-President, East Asia, World Sport Group, added: “We are delighted that One World Sports is making Japan Top League Rugby available to American audiences. Rugby’s popularity is growing around the world and we expect that American sports fans will welcome the addition of this exciting league to One World Sports’ growing roster of some of the top sports events and sports programming from Asia.”

The Japan Top League begins on OWS November 2 with the Panasonic Wild Knights taking on Suntory Sungoliath