In the latest interactive monthly data report, SportBusiness Media analyses the media rights landscape of the Netherlands.
Further detail on the deals covered in this interactive data report is available with our Rights Tracker tool – click here for more information.
Domestic football
As is the case in many European territories, football plays a leading role in the Dutch sports media rights market and the country’s top-tier domestic league, the Eredivisie, is the country’s most valuable sports media property.
After media group The Walt Disney Co. acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, Disney inherited Fox’s 51-per-cent stake in Eredivisie Media and Marketing (EMM), the holding company created by the Eredivisie in 2008 to administer the league’s media rights. Fox acquired the stake as part of a 12-season joint-venture agreement, from 2013-14 to 2024-25. The Fox Sports channels underwent rebranding in 2019 and were subsequently called ESPN.
Prior to the joint venture, EMM operated its in-house Eredivisie Live pay-television channels for five seasons, showing exclusive live domestic coverage of all Eredivisie matches during the 2008-13 rights cycle.
The Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) has been, and continues to be, the league’s free-to-air partner. The public-service broadcaster holds linear highlights and live radio rights to the league, in a three-season deal from 2019-20 to 2021-22, which is an extension of a more than twenty-year long relationship.
International properties
Although football plays a major role in the Dutch media rights market, the second-most valuable sports media rights deal in the Netherlands will be for Formula One, from 2022 to 2024.
Media group Nent have recently entered the Dutch market and intend to build their subscriber base around key sports properties. Acquiring rights to Formula One – a sport in which Dutch star Max Verstappen is a perennial contender to become world champion – was crucial to help Nent build a base for its Viaplay streaming platform.
Pay-television broadcaster Ziggo Sport currently holds Formula One rights during the 2019-21 cycle, with Nent set to takeover after agreeing a deal for the 2022-24 cycle. Nent’s deal shows an increase in the rights’ value; not only has the price trebled compared to the current cycle, but their value has increased by 1700-per-cent compared to the amount Ziggo paid in the 2016-2018 deal.
The English Premier League has recently agreed a new deal with Nent for six seasons, from 2022-23 to 2027-28. The deal is very similar in structure to Nent’s agreement with the German Bundesliga, as it is a pan-regional deal valid in other European territories. The value for this deal has not been announced yet, but it is expected to strongly increase when compared to the current three-year deal with Ziggo. The English Premier League’s value had plateaued in the Netherlands – the rights dropping in value from an all-time high in the 2013-16 cycle (purchased by Fox Sports), with decreases when also compared to the 2016-19 cycle (rights held by Ziggo).
Uefa club competitions play an important role in the sports broadcasting landscape. The rights are currently held by several broadcasters, with Ziggo, ESPN (ex Fox Sports), Talpa Network and RTL Group all holding various packages.
In the new 2021-24 cycle, Champions League rights are held by RTL and Ziggo, whilst the Europa League/Conference League rights are held by Talpa and ESPN. All the agreements have contributed to increases compared to the 2018-21 cycles.
The German Bundesliga is growing its influence in the Netherlands, agreeing an eight-season deal with Nent from 2021-22 to 2028-29. The pan-regional deal – which was initially a four-season agreement for the Baltics, Nordics and Poland – was subsequently renegotiated and, together with doubling the length, the Netherlands was added.
SportBusiness estimates the Netherlands to be worth between 11-per-cent/13-per-cent of the total Nent deal. This would imply an estimated increase of 100-per-cent in the value compared to the 2015-17 cycle, and a 50-per-cent increase compared to the 2017-21 cycle.
Click on each icon to filter historical media rights value information, which also includes information on the Fifa World Cup and Uefa national team competitions:
[tableau width=1100px height=550px view=Internationalsportpropertiesmedia-rightsintheNetherlands/NetherlandsInternationalProperties?:iid=1]
Broadcaster competition in the market
The main pay-television broadcasters in the market are telco Ziggo, the largest cable operator in the country, and global conglomerate Disney, which operates the ESPN pay-television channels in the country. Both now face the threat of a new market player, Scandinavian media group Nent.
Ziggo has built its sports broadcasting business on the back of international propertied such as the Uefa Champions League, Spanish LaLiga and French Ligue 1, which are all currently broadcast by the telco, together with the English Premier League (until 2022-23) and the FIA Formula One Championship (until the end of 2021). The last two competitions, together with the German Bundesliga, have been part of Nent’s aggressive market entrance and will be broadcast by the Scandinavian media group in long term deals.
Global conglomerate Disney still plays a fundamental part in the broadcasting landscape in the Netherlands. It inherited the majority share in a joint venture controlling the media rights of the Dutch Eredivisie after acquiring 21st Century Fox in 2019. It has historically broadcast some of the most important properties in the Netherlands sports market, however, Disney is now primarily focused on domestic football and has recently relinquished rights to the German Bundesliga, which were taken over by Nent. Among the few international competitions it still broadcasts, the Uefa Europa League and Conference League provide premium midweek football for the ESPN channels. It is also the main broadcaster of American sports, being the home to the NFL, MLB, and MLS in the Netherlands.
With regards to the free-to-air market, public-service broadcaster NOS plays a key role. It holds rights to the Fifa World Cup, Uefa national team competitions and the Olympic Games. It also holds radio and highlights rights to the Dutch Eredivisie, most major cycling events and MotoGP.
Commercial broadcasters Talpa Network and RTL Group complete the free-to-air market in the Netherlands. The former is the current broadcaster of the Uefa Europa League and Conference League (having previously held the rights to the Champions League), the UFC and the WWE. The RTL Group currently owns rights to the Uefa Champions League, Extreme E and Professional Darts Corporation events, the latter of which it will lose to Nent from 2022.
The board of directors at both Talpa and RTL have ratified an agreement that will see the two commercial broadcasters merge to create a ‘strong Dutch cross-media group’. The merger is subject to approval from the Dutch competition authorities and the agreement, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, will see Talpa receive a 30-per-cent stake in the enlarged RTL Nederland Group, whilst RTL will hold the remaining 70-per-cent.
To view the full version with SportBusiness sourced values, please visit: https://media.sportbusiness.com/2021/08/netherlands-market-report-2021/