Danish public-service broadcaster DR has for the first time acquired a share of live rights to the Danish Cup, the country’s knockout clubs tournament, in a deal with rights-holder Nordic Entertainment (Nent) Group, the Nordic pay-television and commercial broadcaster.
The agreement runs from 2020-21 to 2023-24 and was announced to coincide with last night’s 2019-20 Danish Cup final between Sønderjyske and Aalborg.
The deal means that the public broadcaster can broadcast the next four Danish Cup finals on its main DR1 channel. The competition is known as the Sydbank Cup as a result of the title sponsorship deal with the Danish bank.
In addition, DR has secured the first- and third-pick selections from the other rounds of the tournament, with the exception of the semi-finals, where Nent will have the first choice. The matches aired by DR and Nent will also be able to broadcast by Viaplay, Nent’s online streaming service.
Divisionsforeningen, the Danish clubs body that owns the commercial rights, has approved the agreement.
Claus Thomsen, the Divisionsforeningen chief executive, said: “It will provide an even greater coverage of the Sydbank Cup. Both because even more matches will be produced in the future, but also because the tournament will in future enjoy DR’s wide coverage on several platforms. With two such strong partners as Nent Group and DR, it is a clear reinforcement of Sydbank Cup.”
DR already holds highlights and radio rights to the Danish Superliga. Its current agreement runs until the end of the 2020-21 season but DR has already secured the same rights from 2021-22 to 2023-24.
Nent and Discovery, the international media group that owns Eurosport, also renewed their live Danish Superliga rights for the new cycle in record deals.
In 2018, Nent picked up rights to the Uefa Euro 2020 tournament but sold some rights on to DR. Nent will broadcast all matches on Viaplay and will sublicense matches involving the Danish team to DR.
The Euro 2020 finals will now take place in the summer of 2021 after being postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.