Connect with us

Media

Fox Sports, DAZN deals bolster IMG’s Saudi Pro League distribution

Saudi Pro League rights deals with Fox Sports in the US, Canal Plus in France and sub-Saharan Africa, Sport TV in Portugal and a multi-territory agreement with DAZN are the standout agreements secured by IMG ahead of the 2023-24 season.

The agency has distributed the international rights in over 130 territories ahead of this weekend’s opening fixtures with the slew of star players boosting the global footprint and rights fee returns.

Fox Sports has signed off on an agreement in recent days to ensure mainstream broadcast coverage in the US market, SportBusiness understands.

DAZN also this week finalised a two-year agreement for rights in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Canada and Belgium. IMG benefited from stiff competition in France to land a two-year deal with pay-TV broadcaster Canal Plus. The agreement also extends to sub-Saharan Africa.

In Portugal, the only market in which IMG delivered a rights fee of substance during the 2022-23 sales process given local interest in Cristiano Ronaldo, pay-TV broadcaster Sport TV announced its extension earlier this month.

Elsewhere in Europe, IMG has secured deals with La7 (Italy), Marca.com (Spain), Cosmote (Greece), Prima Sports (Romania), Setanta (CIS countries, Baltics and Ukraine), A1 Bulgaria / Max Sport (Bulgaria) and Supersport (Albania and Kosovo).

The inventory on offer to global broadcasters has increased from two games per matchweek last season to three this season.

IMG recently extended its international sales remit to cover the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. It has also taken on the production of the live world feed, including graphics and English commentary. The IMG-owned Seven League is managing the SPL’s social channels and digital content.

Following Ronaldo’s arrival at Al Nassr, IMG secured distribution through 48 broadcasters in over 170 countries for the remainder of the 2022-23 season. The agency was encouraged to maximise distribution over rights fees in a bid to build exposure for the league ahead of the surge of high-profile player arrivals.

Elsewhere, broadcasters to have secured rights ahead of the 2023-24 season also include:

  • Azam (East Africa)
  • Azteca (Central America and Mexico)
  • Band and Goat (Brazil)
  • Bilibili, K-Ball, Migu, Tencent and Zhibo8 (China)
  • Ten (Australia)
  • Sony/Culver (Indian subcontinent)
  • SPO TV (Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan)
  • Sporty TV (Nigeria and Ghana)
  • StarTimes (Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa)
  • Zap (Angola and Mozambique)

Ronaldo’s arrival in January sparked the first wave of international rights deals, albeit none particularly lucrative. IMG’s agreement for the second half of last season was a revenue share, and rights fees were modest.

In the UK and Ireland, IMG dealt with pay-TV broadcaster Sky, which streamed matches on its YouTube channel, and paid no more than $10,000 (€9,000) in total, while a non-exclusive approach was adopted in Germany, with agreements with ARD and ZDF, Bild, Sky and Sportdigital Fussball totalling no more than $20,000.

A full breakdown from SportBusiness Media of SPL rights fees for last season can be read here.

This summer there has been a dramatic transformation, with the SPL moving from a regional league with little international interest into a major player in the global football transfer market. Spending on high-profile players over the summer is in excess of $450m (€408m), with one month of business still to be done, albeit the investment has largely been targeted on a handful of the 18 top-flight clubs and as such there is little demand as yet for all matches to be made available internationally to broadcasters.

Major players to have moved from European leagues to the SPL this summer include: Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté and Fabinho (Al-Ittihad); Roberto Firmino, Allan Saint-Maximin and Riyad Mahrez (Al-Ahli); Jordan Henderson (Al-Ettifaq); Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Malcolm (Al-Hilal); and Sadio Mané and Marcelo Brozovic (Al-Nassr).

IMG’s agreement with the SPL excludes the Middle East and North Africa, where the league has a deal with the Saudi Sports Company. Viewers in the Mena region plus Chad, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, and Sudan can still watch SPL matches via local channels on the Arabsat platform.

Before Ronaldo’s competitive debut, the SPL had been streaming matches globally on Twitter. However, that service was then restricted to just dark markets in which IMG had not sold the rights.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Media

How To Stream AC Milan vs Liverpool Match Online For Free

How To Stream AC Milan vs Liverpool Match Online For Free

An online streaming service has exclusive rights to the big Champions League match – but it’s easy to watch it for free.

Liverpool will be returning to the Champions League on Tuesday night, hoping to get back to winning ways on the opening night of the new campaign, facing old foes AC Milan.

The side, who previously faced Milan in the 2005 and 2007, suffered a 1-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, so they will be hoping to get back to winning ways this week.

However, Milan have also had a tumultuous ride so far, with the team currently in 9th after four games, despite a solid 4-0 win over Venezia at the weekend.

It’s shaping up to be a thrilling match, then, with both teams having plenty to prove, and you can watch it for free on Amazon Prime Video.

 

Continue Reading

Media

LaLiga Signs 2024-25 Broadcast Deal With China Media Group

LaLiga Signs 2024-25 Broadcast Deal With China Media Group

Spanish soccer’s top-tier LaLiga has unveiled state-run China Media Group (CMG) as its official broadcast partner in the country.

Through a deal announced today, CMG returns as a Chinese broadcaster of the 20-team Spanish league.

The tie-up has come with the 2024-25 campaign already four matchdays in and follows a memorandum of understanding between the two parties in late July.

Last season (2023-24), LaLiga action was shown in China by the Migu streaming service, while rights for 2024-25 have also been snapped up by the iQiyi digital broadcaster.

Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, has said: “China remains a key market for LaLiga, and we are thrilled to bring our league’s unique passion and excitement to Chinese fans through one of the most influential media platforms in the country.”

Over the last few weeks, LaLiga has been scrambling to add more partners to its stable of broadcasters for this season.

Earlier this month, a significant deal across numerous African markets was unveiled with SportyTV, while mid-August saw BeIN Sports extend its exclusive rights deals across the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Domestically, DAZN and Movistar are the main rights-holders through deals running between 2022 and 2027.

Sportcal

Continue Reading

Media

Belgium’s Pro League Launches Five-Season Domestic Rights Tender

Belgium’s Pro League Launches Five-Season Domestic Rights Tender

Belgian soccer’s top-tier Pro League has gone to market with a domestic media rights tender for the five seasons between 2025 and 2030.

The tender was launched recently (September 9), and the Pro League is being strategically supported by the heavyweight IMG agency – through a deal unveiled last October – during the process.

The deadline for prospective rights-holders to submit bids is October 16, with a Pro League general assembly to then evaluate the bids on October 18.

Interested parties can obtain the tender documents by contacting tender2025@proleague.be.

The 16-team Pro League’s domestic and international rights are currently held by global sports streaming service DAZN – which acquired previous rights-holder Eleven Sports in 2023 – in a five-year deal running through the 2024-25 season. Eleven tapped sports agency Mediapro to distribute international rights in partnership with the league.

In total, eight rights packages are available for purchase – three specifically for the Pro League (others cover the second-tier Challenger Pro League and various domestic cup competitions).

A new development in this tender is that the packages are platform-neutral, meaning they cover both linear and streaming rights.

In terms of kick-off times for games across the five seasons covered by the tender, meanwhile, the Pro League has said these “remain virtually unchanged.”

IMG, meanwhile, also has a contract in place to collect and commercialize the Pro League’s fastpath data in a five-year agreement with European Leagues running from 2022-23 to 2027-28.

 

Continue Reading

Trending