The IMG agency has sold a package of Spain’s LaLiga and Italy’s Serie A rights to Norwegian commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV2, further increasing its income from the Nordic region.
TV2’s deal is for rights to a total of four games per match-week from the two leagues in the 2019-20 season. It will broadcast all four matches on its premium sports channels, but the deal also allows the broadcaster to show two of those matches on it free-to-air TV2 Sumo channel.
IMG’s OTT platform Strive will continue to broadcast all matches in Norway from both LaLiga and Serie A. It will also be broadcasting a combined total of up to 10 matches per match-week on its linear Strive Sport channel. The Strive Sport channel is only available in Norway and is distributed via the IPTV platform Altibox.
This latest agreement follows IMG’s announcement earlier this month that it will be ceasing the operation of Strive in Sweden having agreed to sell rights to LaLiga, Serie A and the US Major League Soccer to media group Bonnier.
That deal afforded Bonnier exclusive rights to all three leagues and, following a short changeover period, there will be no coverage on Strive from October.
The agency’s deal in Norway is similar to its agreement in Denmark with Danish commercial broadcaster TV2, which gives the broadcaster the right to show one match from LaLiga or Serie A per match-week.
IMG hold rights to LaLiga (across Scandinavia) and Serie A (internationally) in separate three-season contracts, from 2018-19 to 2020-21.