Proximus Media House, an arm of the Belgian telecoms operator, is to be responsible for the production of the new Belgian football channels launched by international broadcaster Eleven Sports as part of a wider tie-up between the two media companies.
The announcement was made today (Friday) on the back of Proximus’ non-exclusive five-year distribution deal for Eleven’s Pro League channels that was unveiled a week ago.
The production agreement, which will also run for five years, involves a “strategic partnership” for the production of the new Eleven/Pro League 1, Eleven/Pro League 2, and Eleven/Pro League 3 channels.
In addition, PMH will also handle the automated broadcast production for matches from Belgium’s second-tier 1B league as it reprises a role it has carried out for the last four years via a remote, IP production.
At the start of the month, Eleven announced that it is working with Mediapro, the broadcast production and rights agency, on a “series of strategic international projects”, including production support for its Belgian football coverage.
The Proximus Group will use its optical fibre network to provide connectivity between the 23 stadiums in the top two divisions and the PMH production facilities in Evere on the outskirts of Brussels.
Eleven Sports, which acquired the Belgian football rights from 2020-21 to 2024-25, will also make use of the PMH studios.
The domestic and international rights deal is worth €103m ($120m) per season and, along with the top two Belgian divisions, also includes the Belgian Cup, the Belgian Super Cup, the women’s Super League and the E-Pro League.
Proximus and telecoms duo Telenet and Voo are the outgoing Pro-League rights-holders, having shared non-exclusive live rights from 2017-18 to 2019-20 in deals worth around €80m per season. Proximus had broadcast – and given its name to – the second-tier 1B league since the inception of the competition in 2016.
Eleven recently unveiled the subscription plans for its new Belgian football channels. Viewers can pay €10.99 per month or they can pay €14.99 per month to access both the Belgian football package and the ‘international sports’ package.
A distribution agreement is also in place with the telco Orange.
Guillaume Collard, managing director of Eleven Sports in Belgium and Luxembourg and head of acquisitions at the Eleven Sports Group, said: “With Proximus we’re involving a production partner in our “Home of Belgian Football’” project which, for 15 years already, has been ensuring a high-quality production of live broadcasts of Belgian football.
“This new collaboration with Proximus is also fully in line with the strategic partnership we entered into in 2015 with the launch of the international Eleven Sports channels. With this collaboration we are once again underlining our explicit wish to work together with local partners and staff who guarantee high quality standards in production.”