Polish pay-television broadcaster Polsat has agreed a new deal with the Polish Football Association (PZPN) for rights to the country’s top domestic cup competition and its second-tier league, the 1 Liga.
The new deal will run for three seasons, from 2021-22 to 2023-24. Polsat will broadcast at least 28 lives matches per season from the Polish Cup, including all from the last-16 stage onwards. The semi-finals and final have to be available on free-to-air television.
The PZPN has retained the right to broadcast those matches not aired by Polsat on its own digital streaming platform.
For the 1 Liga, Polsat will broadcast at least 102 matches from the league, including all three promotion playoff matches, per season. Rights to a weekly 30-minute magazine programme, a summary of each match-week, is also included.
As with the Polish Cup, the PZPN and the 1 Liga have retained the right to broadcast those matches not aired by Polsat on their own digital platforms online.
Maciej Sawicki, general secretary of the PZPN, said: “The extension of the contract with Polsat TV guarantees the maintenance of great quality transmission of Fortuna 1 League matches, as well as providing some financial stability for the clubs participating in these competitions in the coming years.”
Polsat currently hold the same set of rights in a three-season deal from 2018-19 to 2020-21.
Domestic rights to the top-tier Ekstraklasa are held by pay-television satellite operator NC Plus and public broadcaster TVP in two-year deals from 2019-20 to 2020-21. The agreements are worth around PLN 250m zlotys (€55.2m/$60.2m) per annum in rights fees and production costs.
Earlier this season, the Lagardère Sports agency, official marketing partner of the PZPN, agreed a deal with Onefootball for the digital platform to offer live streaming of Polish Cup fixtures outside of Poland and Africa.
The Onefootball app offers live streams of Polish Cup matches on a pay-per-view basis with Polish commentary, priced at €1.99 ($2.17) per match.