By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 14 – Poland’s I Liga, the second tier of the country’s professional football league, has signed a new broadcasting rights deal for the 2015/2016 season with Polsat, the country’s leading privately-owned broadcaster.
Local media reports on the deal were confirmed by Zbigniew Boniek, the head of the Polish Football Federation (PZPN), on Twitter.
The rights were previously held by local sports broadcaster Orange Sport.
The amount of the new contract has not been disclosed by the PZPN, but it is reportedly significantly higher than the previous deal, which was worth some PLN 1 million (€240,000) per year.
With the aim of securing a more profitable broadcasting rights deal for the second tier, the PZPN has been pushing local sides to upgrade their stadiums. Starting in the 2015/2016 season, the clubs will be required to install lighting at their sports facilities to enable evening matches.
To ensure the quality of HD broadcasts, of the 18 clubs which currently play in the I Liga, only those whose stadiums will be fitted with lightning are to be allowed by the PZPN to compete in the second tier in the next season.
The TV rights for the Ekstraklasa, the country’s top tier, are held by Polish direct-to-home platform nc+.
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