Polish pay-television operator NC Plus has agreed a four-season extension to its rights deal with Ekstraklasa SA, the governing body of the top division of domestic football, with pan-European broadcaster Eurosport sealing a sublicensing partnership.
NC Plus’s new deal will run from 2015-16 to 2018-19 and is for domestic and international rights to the Ekstraklasa. Comprising live rights to all 296 games across an Ekstraklasa season, NC Plus is set to broadcast six games per round. It has also agreed a sublicensing agreement for Eurosport 2 to offer two matches per round.
The Ekstraklasa had set a deadline of June 3 for final bids from the four parties in contention for its pay-television rights.
In September, the MP & Silva agency agreed an advisory deal with the league for the six seasons from 2015-16 to 2020-21. The 2015-16 campaign is due to begin on July 17.
The Ekstraklasa said a new element to its partnership with its main broadcast partner is the requirement that NC Plus provide games via the internet in Poland for computers and mobile devices.
Bogusław Biszof, chief executive of Ekstraklasa SA, said: “Work on the sale of rights for pay-television was most difficult, because there were a few willing and determined bidders. However, it was the board of NC Plus, directed by Julien Verley – in collaboration with Eurosport under the new leadership of Peter Hutton – that was the most tenacious and showed tremendous professionalism and determination, especially in recent months.
“Therefore, as a result of the process under which it was necessary to establish hundreds of details, we have a very good contract, where all parties, namely Ekstraklasa SA and the platforms NC Plus and Eurosport are winners.”
Polish internet company Onet and the Polish division of media company Ringier Axel Springer last month agreed four-season extensions to their digital rights packages for the Ekstraklasa. Their new contract, which will also run from 2015-16 to 2018-19, represented the first domestic deal agreed under the Ekstraklasa’s next media rights window.
The agreement was reported in the most recent issue of TV Sports Markets, which went to print on Friday (June 26).