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.
