Football

The Premier League, the top division of English club football, could merge its two remaining domestic rights packages into a ‘super pack’, according to multiple reports.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said the organisation which oversees the top two divisions of Spanish club football will convert its LaLigaTV service into an OTT platform in August, with the new product to offer sports content aside from football.

After successive 70-per-cent rises in the last two cycles there were only two sets of circumstances in which the Premier League was likely to secure another increase in the value of its domestic live rights.

Competition between sports-rights agencies has helped Spain’s LaLiga grow the value of its media rights in several new deals across Europe.

Spanish agency Mediapro said this week it wanted to create and distribute a Serie A league channel on the same model as the LaLiga channel it distributes in Spain. But Italian law may make this impossible.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s new 10-season deal with Saudi Telecom will see the Saudi Professional League return to free-to-air television – a key step in the government’s plan to transform the league into a powerful pan-regional marketing platform.

The Asian Football Confederation’s media and marketing rights tenders – sent out earlier this month – do not cover the Middle East and North Africa, TV Sports Markets has learned.

The Football Association of Malaysia has earned a significant sum for its media rights after opting to split them between online streaming service iflix and telco Telekom Malaysia.

Rights in Greece to Spain’s LaLiga have increased in value by about 50 per cent, while German Bundesliga rights have stayed flat in deals this month with Asset Ogilvy and Cosmote respectively.

The Greek Superleague has said it will hold a meeting on February 20 after telco Forthnet, owner of pay-television broadcast Nova, opted for an early termination of its rights deal for the top division of domestic football.

Ukrainian public-service broadcaster UA:PBC has said it will not broadcast the 2018 Fifa World Cup, despite holding rights to the national team football tournament.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has retained the bulk of live domestic rights to the English Premier League, with the award of contracts signifying a reversal in the trend of sky-rocketing fees from recent tenders, albeit with two packages left on the table.

North America’s Major League Soccer has said it will move its MLS Live out-of-market streaming package to ESPN Plus, the new OTT service being launched by US sports broadcaster ESPN.

The Asset OgilvyEntertainment agency has extended its agreement for broadcast rights in Greece and Cyprus to LaLiga, the top division of Spanish club football.

UK DTT channel Quest has dislodged commercial broadcaster Channel Five as the free-to-air highlights rights-holder for the English Football League, which operates the three divisions of football below the top-tier Premier League, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has held “extremely positive” talks to extend its rights deal with the Scottish Professional Football League, according to the Daily Express.