The European Broadcasting Union has finalised a deal for rights to “other Fifa events” until 2022 in 38 territories.
The EBU, the consortium of Europe’s public-service broadcasters, has acquired rights to the women’s World Cup in 2019 as well as other women’s and youth Fifa World Cups.
The deal will cover: Albania (RTSH), Armenia (Public Television of Armenia), Austria (ORF), Azerbaijan (İTV), Belarus (Belarus National State Broadcasting), Belgium (RTBF/VRT), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT), Bulgaria (BNT), Croatia (HRT), Cyprus (CYBC), Czech Republic (Česká Televize), Estonia (ERR), Georgia (Georgian Public Broadcasting), Greece (ERT), Hungary (MTVA), Iceland (RÚV), Ireland (RTÉ), Israel (Kan), Kazakhstan (RTRK), Kosovo (RTK), Latvia (LTV), Liechtenstein (1FLTV), Lithuania (LRT), Luxembourg (CLT-UFA), Macedonia (MKRTV), Malta (Public Broadcasting Services), Moldova (Teleradio-Moldova), Montenegro (RTCG), Netherlands (NOS), Poland (TVP), Portugal (RTP), Romania (TVR), Serbia (RTS), Slovakia (RTVS), Slovenia (RTV Slovenija), Switzerland (SRG), Turkey (TRT) and Ukraine (UA:PBC).
EBU members have provided coverage of these Fifa national-team competitions since 2007. The EBU has said the new deal contains a “wider scope of rights” than previous agreements. The women’s World Cup in 2019 will be the most valuable component of the deal.
The new EBU deal excludes rights in: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Deals have already been struck with Finnish public-service broadcaster YLE, French commercial broadcaster TF1 (which has subsequently sublicensed rights to pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus), and UK public-service broadcaster the BBC.
The EBU has a separate deal with Fifa for rights to the men’s World Cup in 2022 as part of a two-tournament deal (covering 2018 and 2022) struck in March 2012.