BBC lands rights to ISL London, finals deal struck in Japan

This weekend’s final regular-season event from the International Swimming League, the new franchise-based competition, is to be streamed live by the BBC, the UK public-service broadcaster.

Both days of the ISL London match, which will take places at the London Aquatics Centre, will be shown across the BBC iPlayer, website and app. The agreement is for the London match only.

SportBusiness Media also understands that an agreement for next month’s finals in Las Vegas has been struck with DAZN, the OTT subscription platform, for rights in Japan.

Commenting on the UK rights agreement, ISL president Konstantin Grigorishin said: “We are very pleased to secure streaming coverage with the BBC for the ISL London match. This agreement shows the great interest that is developing around our ground-breaking professional league that regularly showcases our sport’s stars.

“We have partnered with premium networks in six continents for the first season of the ISL, and we expect more to come on board as awareness of the league grows amongst sports fans who enjoy this revolutionary competition.”

Over 10 broadcasters will show the action from London, including Eurosport, which acquired ISL broadcast rights across Europe (excluding the UK) and the Asia-Pacific region in a two-year deal. Eurosport’s rights exclude Australia and New Zealand, where standalone deals were signed with Seven Network and Spark, respectively. The Discovery-owned broadcaster also picked up exclusive sublicensing rights worldwide (excluding Australia and USA).

Deals are also in place across Latin America (Claro Sports), Brazil (Globosat’s SportTV), the Caribbean (FlowSports), the Middle East and North Africa (beIN Sports), Israel (Charlton’s Sport1), USA (ESPN) and Canada (CBC).

Broadcast agreements for the nascent series are being negotiated by In&OutStories, the Paris-based media rights consultancy launched by former Eurosport executive Arnaud Simon.

Along with the UK’s London Roar, which is led by star swimmer Adam Peaty, the ISL includes three other teams from Europe and four from USA.