An invitation to submit offers has been launched in Russia for broadcast rights to the Uefa Champions League, the Europa League and the new third-tier Europa Conference League covering the 2021-22 to 2023-24 cycle.
The ISO has been launched this week by the Team Marketing agency, Uefa’s exclusive sales agent for its club competition rights. The agency has set a first-round bid deadline of November 25.
Rights to the Champions League and Europa League were acquired exclusively during the current three-season cycle (from 2018-19 to 2020-21) by Gazprom Media-owned Match TV.
In selling the rights for the three-season period, Team has packaged the Europa League together with the new Europa Conference League. Rights to the top-tier Champions League are being sold separately, but simultaneously, along with the Uefa Super Cup (in 2021, 2022 and 2023).
Team has already launched the sales processes in three of its most important markets, the UK, France and the US, and will launch imminently in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
There has been an intensification of competition for sports rights in Russia over the last six months. Along with incumbent Match TV, Team can expect competition from internet company Rambler, which acquired English Premier League rights earlier this year, and its rival Yandex, which picked up National Hockey League rights last month.
Russian OTT streaming service ivi last week sublicensed digital Uefa club competition rights from Match TV to exploit on pay-per-view basis and could also be another interested party.