The Polish Ekstraklasa has finalised domestic rights deals with pay-television broadcaster Platforma Canal Plus and public-service broadcaster TVP in two-season extensions to the current contracts.
The league has existing two-season deals with the two broadcasters, covering 2019-20 and 2020-21 and worth a combined PLN250m (€56.9m/$67.1m) per season in rights fees and production costs.
The financial terms for the extended deals, covering 2021-22 and 2022-23, will remain the same as the broadcasters currently pay.
Along with rights fees from the two broadcasters, the Polish league also generates revenues from the broadcasters through its Live Park host broadcast and production subsidiary.
As part of its renewed deal, TVP has altered the selection of match picks it will hold during the 2020-21 campaign. Initially it acquired rights for non-exclusive free-to-air rights to 37 matches per season, covering the first-pick match in match-week one, the second pick in match-week two, the third pick in match-week three and then resetting.
From 2020-21, TVP will receive the first pick in match-week one, second pick in match-week two, and then it will reset. The broadcaster will not have to make a third pick. However, the broadcaster will only have 30 matches per season, due to the 2020-21 season being reduced from 37 to 30 match weeks as a result of the late start to the new campaign.
Canal Plus will broadcast all matches from the league, also incurring a decrease in match inventory. It will continue to hold rights to digital near live clips for mobile and social media. These clips are also shown on the Ekstraklasa.TV league website and in the Ekstraklasa mobile application.
Both Canal Plus and TVP will continue to air match highlights for news programs and magazine shows as per their initial agreements.
The deals have been approved by the shareholders of the Ekstraklasa, which includes 16 clubs and the Polish Football Association (PZPN).
Marcin Animucki, president of the Ekstraklasa SA board, said today (Monday): “The coronavirus pandemic not only destabilised this year’s games, but also greatly complicated the not very favourable international calendar in the coming years.
“The new arrangements with broadcasters significantly protect the interests of the league, evenly distributing the risk between the parties”
The Ekstraklasa has committed to distributing PLN225m to clubs from its centralised media and marketing revenue – the same as in 2019-20. It could do so due to the hefty increase in media rights revenue it received from the initial deals with Canal Plus and TVP.
The PLN250m-per-season fee for the current cycle was a combined 60-per-cent annual uplift on the previous domestic revenues in the 2015-16 to 2018-19 cycle.