The Infront Sports & Media agency is in talks with Russian football’s Premier League to acquire rights for the country’s top tier of club football in a deal that would allow state-owned broadcaster VGTRK to show games, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
Infront is said to be willing to pay $360 million (€273 million) for the international and domestic rights for 240 games per season for the next six seasons, from 2012-13 to 2017-18.
VGTRK would not pay the league any upfront rights fee to show the games but would pay Infront from advertising revenues from the match broadcasts. VGTRK executive producer Dmitry Mednikov said the broadcaster’s investment in the proposed deal would therefore “depend on the popularity of the championship.”
Under the proposed deal, VGTRK, which operates free-to-air and pay-television channels, would not necessarily be the exclusive broadcaster of the league, Mednikov added.
Pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus is the current rights-holder for league games in Russia, from 2011-12, although it sublicenses some games to free-to-air broadcasters.