TV2 follows Champions League swoop with Faroe Islands football rights deal

Norwegian commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV2 has enhanced its live sport offering during the Covid-19 shutdown by acquiring rights to the Faroe Islands Premier League, the top tier of club football in the country.

TV2 will initially show the first 12 rounds of the 2020 season via its TV2 Sports 1 channel and OTT streaming service TV2 Sumo.

The 2020 Faroe Islands Premier League season was due to commence on March 8, but its start date was put back to May 9 due to the global pandemic.

TV2’s sports editor, Vegard Jansen Hagen, told Norwegian newspaper VG: “In the weeks since sport closed down, there have been a lot of repeats, studio broadcasts, polls and ratings. A lot of talk. This is at least an offer of some action. A little less talk and a little more action – that’s the job I hope the Faroe Islands will do for us.”

TV2 last week acquired Uefa Champions League rights in Norway from 2021-22 onwards, following on from rival Nordic Entertainment (Nent) Group’s announcement earlier in April that it had lost out on retaining the contract.

Jansen Hagen added: “I guess it tells a little about how starved both sports and the public are on live sports. It also tells us that many channels are looking for the opportunity.

“The fact that we buy the Champions League and Faroese league in one week is a good illustration that we are living in an extraordinary time.”

The new three-season Champions League rights deal, from 2021-22 to 2023-24, is for exclusive rights to all 138 matches. Champions League rights in Norway have been held by Nent since the inception of the competition in 1992. TV2 currently sublicenses non-exclusive rights to 30 Champions League matches per season in the current 2018-29 to 2020-21 cycle, from Nent.