Media

Czech league goes to market with domestic media rights

Published

1 year ago

August 25, 2023

The Ligové Fotbalové Asociace, the Czech league football association, has launched its domestic media rights tender for the next five-year cycle, covering the elite Fortuna Liga and second-tier Fortuna National League, as well as betting streaming rights to the top division.

An expression of interest phase has been launched by the LFA for the rights, which covers the 2024-25 to 2028-29 seasons.

Rights to the Fortuna Liga cover both the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia, while the National League and betting streaming packages are only for the Czech Republic.

The LFA will go to market later in the year with its international broadcast rights. Its global data rights from 2022-23 to 2027-28 are currently held by IMG Arena under the centralised deal agreed by European Leagues.

The domestic tender is open to broadcasters as well as agencies.

The Pragosport agency holds global rights to the Fortuna Liga in a four-year deal to 2023-24, and sold the domestic rights onto pay-television broadcaster O2. The value of the current agreement can be read in this SportBusiness Media article.

The LFA said it plans to have two rounds of bidding – the initial deadline for bids to be submitted is 2pm (CET) on September 25, with second bids due 10 days later. However, the league reserves the right to close the process after the first round if the offers are deemed satisfactory.

For the Fortuna Liga, the broadcast rights are divided into three parts:

A: All eight matches per round exclusively
B: The top pick four matches per round (chosen by the winning broadcaster)
C: The remaining four matches each round
The LFA said it will select either option A or B and C.

At present, up to 13 cameras are used for top matches from the league. The LFA said it would like to see an increase in that number. The winning broadcaster(s) must also provide a VAR system for all matches, including the calibrated line technology for assessing offside situations.

For the National League rights, the winning bidder will have the right to stream matches but not for betting purposes. The LFA said it will retain the streaming rights to the National League unless they are exercised in the contract. The betting streaming rights can be acquired either exclusively or non-exclusively.

The competition conditions for individual competitions are available at www.lfafotbal.cz/tendr.

In 2021, O2 exercised a clause in its agreement with Pragosport to secure exclusive rights across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.

In the first two years of the Pragosport contract, O2 sold on free-to-air rights to public broadcaster Česká Televize.

The last tender was the first to be handled by the LFA, which began managing the league’s commercial rights from 2018-19. Previous deals were brokered by Stes, the in-house marketing agency of the Czech Republic Football Association.

Author

Ambrose Ijeh

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Media

How To Stream AC Milan vs Liverpool Match Online For Free

Published

2 months ago

September 17, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

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.

Author

Ambrose Ijeh

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Media

LaLiga Signs 2024-25 Broadcast Deal With China Media Group

Published

2 months ago

September 11, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

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

Author

Ambrose Ijeh

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Media

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

Published

2 months ago

September 11, 2024

Ambrose Ijeh

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.