The Team Marketing agency has said it expects to generate around €5bn ($5.6bn) in revenue through the marketing of media rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League across the European club football competitions’ next three-year window.
Speaking at the Sponsors Sports Media Summit in Cologne, Thomas Schmidt, managing director of media rights at Team, said the agency is expecting considerably higher revenue across the 2015-16 to 2017-18 seasons of Uefa’s premier club competitions.
“Between 2015 and 2018 we will import almost €5bn through the media rights of the Uefa Champions League and Europa League,” Schmidt said. “About 75 per cent of this revenue will come from the pay-TV field.”
Schmidt added that the split between pay-television and free-to-air was 50-50 around 10 years ago. In order to continue growing in the long term and to develop new markets, Schmidt said Team and European football’s governing body will forgo extra revenue in certain territories to secure key strategic partnerships, citing China and state-owned broadcaster CCTV as an example.
He said: “For the long-term growth of the product in China, we are ready to bite the bullet and accept the terms of CCTV.” Schmidt stated collaboration with the Chinese state broadcaster was “important for us, the clubs and sponsors. Therefore, we are ready in this case to dispense with a lot of money.”
In March, Team Marketing reached a long-term agreement with Uefa under which it will continue as the exclusive agent for the global marketing of commercial rights relating to the Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup club competitions.
The term of the new agency agreement covers Uefa club competitions from the 2015-16 season to the end of the 2020-21 campaign and, subject to Team’s ongoing performance, will also include seasons 2021-22 to 2023-24.
Team is responsible for the world-wide marketing of media, sponsorship and licensing rights to the three competitions.