By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 27 – Fox Sports is continuing its TV rights acquisition march across Europe into Poland where it is considered as one of the leading contenders to acquire the TV rights for Poland’s top tier Ekstraklasa. If Fox were win the domestic rights the broadcaster would replace Polish direct-to-home platform nc+ for the 2015/2016 season.
To bolster the broadcaster’s efforts in the Polish market, its Warsaw-based branch was recently visited by Kelly Butler, senior vice-president at FOX Sports for Europe and Africa, and Rik Dovey, Deputy Managing Director at Sky Sports, a subsidiary of FOX.
Prior to enter bidding for the Ekstraklasa TV rights, Fox Sports was reportedly interested in securing the rights for Poland’s second tier, the I Liga, in the 2015/2016 season, but this January, the country’s leading privately-owned broadcaster Polsat took the rights from rival sports broadcaster Orange Sport.
The new Ekstraklasa deal is expected to generate about PLN 140 million (€33.5 million) per year in revenues for the 16 clubs which compete in the Polish top tier.
In addition to FOX Sports and nc+, other major competitors aiming to acquire the Ekstraklasa rights for the next season reportedly include Viasat, Discovery Communications and Polsat.
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