October 11 – Dentsu will replace French agency Lagardere Sports as the sales agency for Japan’s J-League international broadcast rights between 2020 and 2022.
Dentsu has been a marketing partner of the Japanese league since 2014 and will formally take over TV sales from Lagardere at the end of the 2019 J-League season.
At present, J League’s exposure internationally is limited with broadcast by SportKlub in the Balkans, Hong Kong Cable Television, Thai satellite operator TrueVision and DAZN, which also has domestic Japanese rights.
While that list of international broadcasters looks short, the league’s distribution is much wider via a deal with the Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten for the duration of the 2019 season. That saw the J-league streamed on Rakuten’s platforms in 140 territories including southeast Asia where it has a strong presence.
China Sports Media has extended its deal in China with subsidiary Win Power set to broadcast all 306 games from the top-tier J1 League and 462 games from the second-tier J2 League via its K-Ball streaming service.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1713880644labto1713880644ofdlr1713880644owedi1713880644sni@o1713880644fni1713880644