MLW announces new UK and Ireland television deal beginning this week

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

MLW issued the following press release to announcer their new television deal with FreeSports in the UK and Ireland.

UNITED KINGDOM – Major League Wrestling, announced today it has entered into an agreement to broadcast its flagship weekly hour-long program MLW Fusion and Special Events nationally across the UK and Ireland on FreeSports, the most widely available Sports Channel in the country.

The partnership will commence with a 2-hour special special this Tuesday evening featuring the 2019 Battle Riot at 10pm.

Starting next week, FUSION will air every Monday at 10pm on FreeSports.

FreeSports is available on Freeview HD channel 64, Sky channel 422, Virgin 553, FreeSat 252, TalkTalk 64 and BT Vision channel 64. FreeSports is available in Ireland on Sky channel 429.

“This is a landmark deal for Major League Wrestling,” said MLW CEO and founder Court Bauer. “FreeSports features some of the premier sports leagues in the world. This partnership is going to take MLW to the next level as we take the league global.”

Richard Webb, COO of FreeSports said: “There is a huge wrestling following in the UK and we are delighted to bring Major League Wrestling, the fastest growing wrestling league to UK viewers. UK wrestling fans will be already familiar with the Hart Foundation, the famous wrestling family as well as Davey Boy Smith Jr.’s father, the British Bulldog who are stars in the promotion.

“MLW already adds to our whole range of sports including – ice hockey, pool, rugby, football, etc. And it’s all free to 18 million homes in the UK on FreeSports.”

Powell’s POV: Dot Net’s UK staffer Haydn Gleed notes that FreeSports covers a lot of what he labels second tier sports leagues. He added that they are located in the same channel area as the bigger Sky Sports and BT Sports networks. For MLW, obviously it’s additional revenue for the television deal along with increased exposure into markets that did not have access to the show beyond Youtube.

Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest John Thorne, who discusses promoting the AIW Slumber Party Massacre from the Thursday of WrestleMania weekend (available via VOD on FITE TV), being a small fish in the big WrestleMania weekend pond, his long history with Johnny Gargano, and much more.