Slovenian public sports channel Šport TV has agreed a deal with the United Media Group for exclusive 2020 Uefa European Championship rights and all matches involving the Slovenian national football team in qualifiers for the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Šport TV, which said it won the rights after submitting the best bid in a competitive battle, will air all 51 matches from the tournament.
United Media acquired all Uefa national-team rights across all six Balkan markets (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia), from 2018-19 to 2021-22, in 2017.
The media group had previously sold rights to all matches involving the Slovenian national football team in the 2018-19 Nations League tournament and Euro 2020 qualifiers to public-service broadcaster RTV Slovenija.
RTV also held rights to the Euro 2016 finals as part of a wider agreement with the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters.
United Media has no obligation to sublicense its rights to free-to-air broadcasters, as it is capable of meeting Uefa’s distribution requirements on its own channels across the region. It owns pay-television broadcaster Sportklub, as well as a host of commercial and free-to-air channels in the Balkans.
The media group has, however, agreed sublicensing deals in several markets for its Uefa rights, including Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.