Polish football league applies for TV channel licence

The Polish football league, the Ekstraklasa, has applied for a licence to launch a television channel in Poland.

The league is understood to be considering launching a channel to show its matches if rights fee offers from local broadcasters for its next rights cycle do not meet its expectations.

A tender for the next cycle of domestic media rights, for 2014-15 to 2016-17, is expected in the last quarter of this year.

Pay-television broadcasters Canal Plus Cyfrowy, Polsat and Eurosport share the domestic rights in the current cycle, 2011-12 to 2013-14.

The league is a part-owner of the company that produces all the coverage of its matches, Live Park. The other stakeholder in Live Park is Germany-based media company U.COM Media. Live Park produces all 240 Ekstraklasa matches each season in high definition.