Portuguese pay-television broadcaster Sport TV has reached an agreement with commercial free-to-air broadcaster TVI for the latter to show 22 matches during this year’s Uefa European Championships national team football tournament.
TVI’s exclusive free-to-air coverage will include all Portugal matches, nine group-stage matches, four round-of-16 fixtures, two quarter-finals, the two semi-finals and the final itself.
TVI will also provide extended highlights on its TVI24 channel as part of the agreement.
The agreement ends Sport TV’s search to recoup some of its investment by selling on free-to-air rights. Sport TV acquired rights to all Euro 2020 matches last February in a deal that marked the first time a Portuguese broadcaster had secured both pay-television and free-to-air rights.
In November, it was reported that Sport TV had received a joint bid from public-service broadcaster RTP and commercial broadcaster SIC for rights to the 22 free-to-air matches.
Sport TV will broadcast all 51 matches, with its free-to-air output showcased on the Sport TV+ channel, which does not require a subscription to access. The channel is available in roughly 92 per cent of Portuguese households.
Euro 2016 was broadcast by RTP as part of its membership of the European Broadcasting Union, which acquired rights across 26 countries in Europe. Sport TV did, however, show all 51 matches from the tournament through a sublicensing deal with RTP.
Portugal won the 2016 tournament and have been drawn alongside France, Germany and a to-be-determined play-off winner in Group F at this year’s competition, which gets underway on June 12.