Top-tier North Macedonian football league, the First League, has announced its first ever pan-Balkan media rights deal, with pay-television broadcaster Arena Sports.
The two-season deal, covering 2019-20 and 2020-21, across the Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) is for rights to two matches per match-week and the domestic cup competition.
Arena will broadcast one league match on the Saturday and one on the Sunday. North Macedonian public-service broadcaster MRT will also broadcast both matches in the country with Macedonian commentary.
Macedoniafootball.com reported the deal will be worth a total of €150,000 to the league. The league has said the funds received will be used to cover the costs of the clubs’ registration fee to the league.
Football Federation of Macedonia president Muamed Sejdini, said: “This is a great opportunity for the clubs, not only because they are now free from paying the registration fee for the domestic championship, but much more, because of the attention they will receive and the opportunity for their own promotion in every sense.”