Uefa and Team Marketing are close to finding a new home for the Champions League and Europa League in Indonesia.
Uefa and Team, its exclusive commercial rights agency for club competitions, are looking to replace agency Futbal Momentum Asia for the remaining two seasons, 2019-20 and 2020-21, of the sales cycle, after FMA failed to make rights fee payments.
TEAM put the rights back on the market several weeks ago and received bids from several parties, understood to include local broadcasters Emtek and MNC as well as international pay-television operator beIN Sports.
Several sources say a deal is being finalised with Emtek. BeIN Sports is understood to be out of the running.
Emtek is one of Indonesia’s biggest media companies. It operates two of the country’s biggest free-to-air channels, SCTV and Indosiar, as well as pay-television channels. MNC is a rival media group, also operating free-to-air and pay-television channels.
FMA has been active in the Indonesian sports media business since at least 2014. It previously acquired and sold on to local broadcasters rights for the 2018 Fifa World Cup, among other properties. It aired Champions League and Europa League matches last season on its own pay-television and OTT sports channels, branded Total Sports Blast.