Our take...
The live rights expand the offering on Perform's Omnisport.tv portal, where it will leverage them internationally on a pay-per-view and subscription basis. The UK-based company's business is built around the aggregation of out-of-market rights to live sports – one of the few online propositions for which users are willing to pay.

The deal is also designed to extend the reach of Perform's ad-supported e-player platform. Perform recently opened a US office and is in talks with potential platform partners to introduce a US version of e-player on a revenue-sharing basis. MLS is also seeking affiliates for the video player.

Perform's video player was launched in 2007 as 'VPlayer' in partnership with Virgin Media. The latter licensed its online rights to football highlights from the English Premier League and the Football League in exchange for a share of the ad revenue generated. The platform was re-launched as 'e-player' in August 2008, with Perform adding other sports clips to which it holds online rights such as tennis, golf and rugby. The player, which continues to be Virgin Media Sport-branded, is already syndicated across all the major newspaper websites in the UK as well as several sports and lifestyle portals, streaming over 25m videos a month according to Perform.