By Paul Nicholson
April 12 – The first TV deal by CAA Eleven, the newly formed rights company representing UEFA’s national federations for their World Cup and European Championship qualifiers has been announced with the European Broadcast Union (EBU).
The deal covers 30 of the UEFA’s 53 national association members with the larger broadcast markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK (which covers four UEFA federations) not included.
The EBU package is for television rights to qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup and to the European Broadcasting Union. The EBU will now split the games with its member broadcasters.
It’s the first major sale since UEFA centralised rights to all qualifying matches with one sales agency. Previously each national federation had the rights to their own home games, with the smaller federations hoping they would be drawn in the same group as one of the larger nations, increasing the opportunity of a TV pay day. The collective sales process is designed to even out the revenue imbalances across all new nations.
TV insiders are sceptical as to whether UEFA will achieve the budget targets promised to their federations from the new rights sales – some saying the numbers could be as much as 40% off budget target. If this is the case UEFA will need to redistribute from other activity to make up the shortfall in the guarantees. The TV sales market has hardened since the original budgets and internal deals were made.
The EBU and its participating members will guarantee substantial free-to-air coverage for the matches. The broadcast organisation says the agreement reinforces their argument that they are the natural broadcast partner for national team football in Europe.
EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot said: “We are delighted that the EBU – on behalf of its members – is one of the first UEFA broadcast partners for this ambitious new European Qualifiers competition. We are especially proud that European public service media continue to be the partner of choice for UEFA, UEFA’s national associations and their national teams, thus bringing the passion and excitement of national team football to the widest possible audience.”
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