Rights Tracker FAQ

Where is your deal information sourced from?

Our deal information comes from a range of sources, identified when clicking on the value of the deal:

SB Source – information independently sourced and verified by our team of journalists and analysts from the SportBusiness Media and news service
Third-party Source – information which has been collected via a third-party source and then verified by our SportBusiness Media and news services.

How accurate are your values?

While we cannot always guarantee 100% accuracy, we believe our values represent the best independent benchmarks in the business – deals are updated as we learn new information and continue talking to the market.

How are your values displayed?

You can select the way you want to display deal value information (yearly/total) on top of the search bar, as well as the currency selected, either USD, EUR or GBP. The conversion rate is calculated by the exchange rate on the day of the deal announcement. When that is not available the deal start date is used.

What is the difference between ‘Annual Value’ and ‘Rights Cycle’?

Annual Value – The value is divided by the number of years across which the deal spans
Rights Cycle – The value is the total amount paid by the buyer to acquire the rights across the duration of the entire deal.

Deals for competitions whose seasons span calendar years – such as most European soccer leagues – are inputted within our database starting on the 1st of July and ending on the 30th of June, unless differently specified.

Deals for competitions whose seasons terminate within a calendar year – such as Formula One – are inputted within our database starting on the 1st of January and ending on the 31st of December, unless differently specified. For the purpose of this product, the National Football League season is taken as running within the calendar year, given the regular season runs from September to December. The Playoffs and Super Bowl, played in January and February of the subsequent year, are included in the previous year’s season.

Deals for quadrennial or biannual events – such as the Olympic Games or Fifa World Cup – are inputted within our database spanning over four or two years, respectively. The values for these deals are equally split across the years comprising the cycle rather than to the single year in which the event is held.

What does ‘Deal type’ mean?

We use a three-step categorisation, to identify the deal type:

Broadcasting – The buyer broadcasts the rights on its platforms
Distribution – The buyer distributes the rights to another buyer to be broadcasted on its platforms
Production – The buyer produces the live coverage of the property acquired.

Note: Due to the large scope that the database covers, our deal type categories and their descriptions may not apply to each rights-holder or may differ to the specifics of each individual rights-holder.

What does the colour code in the timeline mean?

We use a two-step categorisation, to identify the deals:

Blue – The deal is agreed directly by the buyer with the rightsholder or the distributor.
Green – The deal is sublicensed, thus agreed between two broadcasters or two distributors.

How often do you update this information?

New deals are added to the database daily. Where deals are announced within our main research scope, we will upload them to the database within 48 hours after they are announced. However, deals can be updated spontaneously when we source any new information as part of our ongoing research schedule looking at portfolios of properties and organisations.

Our data export explained

The “Annual Value” and the “Total Value” of the deal will be exported in the currency selected in the database application – USD, GBP, EUR.
Rights Tracker converts deal values into GBP, USD, and EUR using historical analysis from the Reported Date.
The “Annual Value” and the “Total Value” should always be viewed with the “Currency” as it is always in the original currency of the deal as agreed by Buyer and Seller parties.

Covid-19 Disclaimer

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, rights-holders worldwide have had to negotiate rebates with broadcasters and agencies in 2020. SportBusiness recognises that the impacts of the pandemic – and many rebate negotiations – are ongoing. The Rights Tracker data considers the specific value of rebates where they have been uncovered by our reporters and analysts. But in many cases, the size of rebates is unknown or has been internally agreed.

The pandemic also forced many events of 2020 to be cancelled, such as March Madness and Wimbledon, or to be rescheduled in the future years, such as the Olympic Games and the Uefa European Championship. However, due to the way Rights Tracker calculates the value of tournaments that recur every two or four years (see above, “What is the difference between ‘Annual Value’ and ‘Rights Cycle’?”), the value of those postponed from this year until 2021 remains attributed to 2020.

SportBusiness Disclaimer

SportBusiness Media will provide the majority of the data using its existing proprietary databases and will supplement this by using its industry network to find and verify any other media rights fees which do not already sit in our databases.

In all cases the data will have been compiled by the SportBusiness team of reporters and analysts; each rights fee has been verified by numerous sources, and does not contain estimates unless absolutely necessary, and where this is explicitly stated. SportBusiness has a strict internal policy governing the collection, analysis and cleansing of data. This involves the application of a proprietary set of rigorous data standards, involving vetting by trusted experts to ensure unparalleled data quality and accuracy.

Moreover, SportBusiness does not use any web scraping, therein lies our USP and why we are a valuable service provider to all the major rights holders, broadcasters, agencies, sponsor/brands and professional services, that rely on our information, intelligence and data.

While care has been taken to ensure that the information is accurate, SportBusiness Media accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for changes to the details given.

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For help with any or all these enquiries, please email webhelp@sportbusiness.com or call customer & marketing manager Matt Storey on +44 (0) 2072 654114 for urgent assistance.