December 13 – Online retail and delivery business turned entertainment streaming giant Amazon has taken another step into the live football rights market securing the rights to show selected Champions League matches in Germany.
By Paul Nicholson
December 12 – The five-year deal between Scotland’s SPFL and sports betting content hub IMG Arena will see a big step forward for sports broadcast technology company Pixellot in the European football market.
December 10 – With the threat of broadcast disruption from the broadcast streaming giants and sports ambitious social networks looming over the traditional broadcast industry, and pay tv networks in particular, a distribution deal between Canal+ Group and beIN Sports in France could indicate a trend towards a new pathway for established rights holders.
December 10 – The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has acquired the rights to the Women’s Euro 2021 for more than 50 European territories.
December 5 – Spanish TV group Mediapro are taking UEFA to court for allegedly altering submission bids for the Champions League for 2021-2024 in favour of France’s Canal Plus and Middle East broadcasting giant beIN Sports.
November 28 – Qatar-owned broadcaster beIN Sports has bought the TV rights for the next two editions of the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar.
November 27 – Serie A’s decision to take its Super Cup to Saudi Arabia could cost the Italian league $500 million in TV rights if beIN Sport follows through on its threat to drop the league from its schedules when the broadcast rights agreement comes up for renewal for the 2021-2024 cycle next year.
November 21 – beIN Sports is to add a new free live streaming channel to its US stable with the launch of beIN Sports XTRA which will debut with selected live games from Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1 and Turkey’s Super Lig.
November 19 – The broadcast market may be disrupted by piracy and challenger broadcast platforms, but big money for premium product is still available if the £1.2 billion UK pay TV broadcaster BT Sport is paying for the next cycle of Europe’s Champions League is an indicator.
November 14 – The Spanish Football Federation’s (RFEF) who are controversially taking their Super Cup to Saudi in January for the first season of a €120 million three-year deal, have now fallen foul of Spain’s competition authorities over its invitation to tender for rights to the competition.
October 23 – The sports rights geo-political battle being waged in the middle east between Qatari broadcaster beIN Sport and Saudi Arabian-supported channels and broadcast rights interests, has taken a new twist.
By David Owen
October 21 – India’s Reliance Industries is mulling bidding for Indian streaming rights for the English Premier League and other top-notch sports competitions in future. Nita Ambani, a Reliance board member, told the Financial Times: “I would be very interested to get the digital rights of some of these games to be shown on digital in India.”
October 14 – The revelation last week that middle eastern broadcaster beIN Sport will now, as a result of piracy, be treating all its sports rights acquisitions as non-exclusive, and will be dropping prices accordingly, is a wake-up call to football’s rights owners.
By Paul Nicholson
October 8 – The warning signs have been there for a while, the reality may only just be starting to hit home to a football business that is “still sleep-walking to a financial cliff”. Broadcast and media rights revenues that underpinned football’s massive growth are about to burst, and spectacularly so.
October 5 – US broadcast giant ESPN are set to carry a record amount of coverage this weekend for the final round of the regular MLS season.