Germany’s Handball-Bundesliga (HBL) has opted to take the marketing of its international broadcast rights in-house, with Scandinavia outlined as a key target market under the new approach.
The MP & Silva agency had previously been responsible for marketing the club competition’s overseas rights, but its four-season deal expired after 2016-17.
From 2017-18, the HBL will assume responsibility with pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland set to provide foreign media partners with coverage of 150 games per season.
HBL managing director Frank Bohmann told Sponsors.de: “There are countries that we want to use more as a market in the future. In particular, Scandinavia is an attractive market for us because many professionals from Denmark and Sweden are active in the HBL.”
In April, TV Sports Markets reported the league would take its international media rights in-house.
Last November, the league sold domestic media rights to public-service broadcasters ARD/ZDF and Sky. The ARD/ZDF deal is reported to be for an initial four seasons, from 2017-18 to 2020-21, with Sky’s agreement said to run for six seasons, from 2017-18 to 2022-23.