EHF Marketing, the marketing arm of the European Handball Federation governing body, has struck new rights deals in France, the US, Canada, Slovenia, Belarus, FYR Macedonia and sub-Saharan Africa ahead of the start of the new men’s Champions League season tonight.
The governing body said that Al Jazeera-owned pay-television broadcaster beIN Sport had acquired rights in France, the US and Canada through the MP & Silva agency, which distributes the federation’s media rights in those countries. The broadcaster will show live games and highlights from the men’s competition and also the women’s Champions League, which starts on October 13.
EHF Marketing has sold packages of live rights and highlights to pay-television broadcaster Sportklub in Slovenia, FYR Macedonian public-service broadcaster MRT and state-owned Belarusian broadcaster ONT, which will show games involving HC Dinamo Minsk.
SuperSport, the pay-television broadcaster in sub-Saharan Africa, will show highlights of the Champions League and the season-ending EHF Final4 tournament after reaching a deal with the Sportsman agency, which represented the governing body in the region.
Rights deals have also been extended with pay-television broadcaster Setanta in Ireland and Africa, public-service broadcaster RTS 2 and pay-television broadcaster Arena Sport in Serbia for all Partizan Beograd games, Croatian public-service broadcaster Hrvatska Radiotelevizija for all HC Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb matches, and media group NTV and online streaming company Start TV in Russia.
The lengths of the new deals and extensions have not been disclosed.
The federation-owned EHFTV.com website will also stream live coverage of games.
EHF Marketing managing director Peter Vargo said that this season’s men’s and women’s Champions League competitions would be shown in more than 130 countries worldwide to a “bigger audience than ever before.”