February 1 – Portugal’s Primeira Liga is to centralise its domestic broadcast rights from 2027/28, forming a company with the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) to sell media rights.
January 13 – In another major blow to French football, broadcaster Canal+ will return the Ligue 1 media rights to the LFP, demanding a new tender is issued.
By Paul Nicholson
December 18 – The Premier League has renewed its broadcast rights partnership with beIN SPORTS for the Middle East and North Africa region for a new three-year terms running through to 2025.
November 11 – Following widespread accusations of greed and self-interest from fans’ groups, the English Premier League has finally agreed to scrap its controversial pay-per-view scheme imminently.
November 6 – The English Premier League’s controversial pay-per-view model that has caused outrage amongst fans’ groups has moved a step closer to being scrapped after this weekend.
October 21 – LaLiga has become the first European sports league to open an official account on the Twitch streaming platform.
August 28 – The Premier League is coming under government pressure to make more live games available to fans while stadia remain closed.
July 6 – Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica has signed an exclusive broadcast rights deal for UEFA’s flagship club competitions for the 2021-24 cycle covering the Spanish territory.
June 22 – The Bundesliga has become the first major European league to negotiate a new TV rights deal in the coronavirus age. While the new deal shows a reduction on the previous broadcast money achieved, it nevertheless suggests that there is still some life left in the market.
June 2 – French professional football will return in August with a large bulk of matches broadcast on a dedicated football channel – Telefoot – as Mediapro Group makes its debut in France in a joint venture with TF1 Group.
May 26 – The Champions League broadcast bubble took a pin prick at the end of last week when French telecoms giant Altice said it was demanding a rebate on its broadcast rights.
March 4 – The opening weekend of the Major League Soccer (MLS) season delivered record TV ratings across the US for a league that is pushing to take a bigger slice of the broadcast rights revenue cake.
February 13 – The Belgian Pro League has awarded its new TV rights deal to Eleven Sports for a record €103 million in a five-year deal, but not all the clubs are happy with the proposed income distribution from the new agreement with both Antwerp and AA Gent opposing.
January 24 – Manchester City has launched an new content service across its digital platforms. Branded CITY+, it is the described as the ‘evolution’ of the club’s OTT offering launched last July.
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.