The Euroleague Basketball organisation has agreed a five-season extension to its partnership with Viasat, the pay-television broadcaster owned by media conglomerate the Modern Times Group, across multiple Baltic and Nordic markets.
The agreement brokered by the Mediapro agency provides Viasat with pay-television and free-to-air rights to top European club competition the Euroleague from the 2015-16 to 2019-20 seasons.
The licence is granted on an exclusive basis for the territories of Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, along with the Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia.
In Lithuania, a strong market for basketball, Viasat will broadcast live all Euroleague games featuring Lithuanian teams throughout the regular season, along with the Top 16 and playoffs, as well as all Final Four games. The deal also includes the official draws of the competition and all Final Four collateral events.
In markets outside Lithuania, the new deal allows Viasat to broadcast at least one game live per competition week throughout the regular season, Top 16 and playoffs, as well as all Final Four games, the official draws of the competition and all Final Four collateral events.
“Euroleague Basketball and Viasat Broadcasting have a strong partnership, shown by the fact that this is our second five-year contract extension,” Andrea Bassani, director of television for Euroleague Basketball, said.
“This deal guarantees great coverage of our competition in seven countries in which basketball is already very popular and others, like Finland and Sweden, in which it is growing really fast in interesting markets for us.”