The EBU is continuing discussions with MTV in Hungary to ensure that coverage of this year’s football World Cup stays with the public-service broadcaster. MTV had been looking to sell on some or all of the rights, which it had acquired through the EBU, after government-imposed budget cuts of 30 per cent left it struggling to pay its bills.
But the EBU told TV Sports Markets that, in any case, MTV’s World Cup contract “does not allow it to sublicense any rights”. An EBU spokesman said that “The basis of the World Cup contract is that the rights were acquired to be shown on MTV. We don’t want members to sublicense rights simply to raise money to pay for them. Such actions would set a poor example to other members and send a very bad signal to Fifa.”
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