Greek Super League side Panathinaikos has announced that it will broadcast home matches from the 2020-21 season on its own OTT streaming platform after rejecting an offer from pay-television broadcaster Nova.
The Athens-based club said that Nova offered €5.7m ($6.7m) for rights to the side’s home matches for the coming season.
Panathinaikos claimed that Nova’s offer was worth just over half the figure offered to rivals Olympiakos and lower than the figure offered to AEK Athens. The club said those offers totalled €11m and €6.5m for the 2020-21 season, respectively.
With no broadcast deal in place, Panathinaikos will now broadcast its home matches on its Panathinaikos TV OTT platform.
The club will launch Panathinaikos TV with its first broadcast match coming tomorrow in a pre-season friendly match. Registration details and fees have not yet been announced by the club, though it has been confirmed that the friendly match will be streamed free of charge.
The OTT platform is available either online through paotv.gr or through a Smart TV app available on pay-television provider Cosmote’s platform.
Panathinaikos’ move away from a traditional pay-television deal and towards a club-owned OTTs follows a path trodden last year by PAOK which took similar steps.
PAOK was defiant in its rejection of Nova’s offer and was adamant that it saw potential in the OTT solution, rather than an impediment.
Both sides are among the most well-followed in Greek football and attract significant viewing figures. The loss of Panathinaikos from Nova’s offering reduces the number of clubs it holds media rights deals with for the 2020-21 season to seven from the eight it held last season.