Uefa, European football’s governing body, has agreed deals in Germany and Azerbaijan for live free-to-air rights to the Europa League, for three seasons, from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 has acquired rights to the first-pick match each match week, plus a weekly highlights programme, to be shown on free-to-air channel Kabel 1.
The free-to-air rights to the Europa League in Germany were initially put on the market last April, along with the pay-television rights (and all Champions League rights), but failed to entice strong enough bids for Team Marketing, Uefa’s global sales agent for the two competitions, to agree a deal. Pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland did, however, acquire the pay-television to all Europa League matches at that time.
Azerbaijan public-service broadcaster AZTV acquired live free-to-air Europa League rights and will show one live match per match night on the main AZTV channel, plus one live match per kick-off slot on its sports channel Idman Azerbaijan. The live match coverage on Idman Azerbaijan will be followed by a highlights programme.
The deals, both brokered by Team Marketing, also include mobile and internet rights.