By Paul Nicholson
May 15 – The battle for premium broadcast football rights continues in the UK with ITV picking up the rights to England Euro 2016 and 2018 World Cup qualifying competitions.
The deal is the first major European broadcast market concluded by CAA Eleven, UEFA’s new sales agency for the consolidated rights to European and World Cup qualifying tournaments. In the past federations sold their own home matches.
The ITV win adds to its European football footprint, it is the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster for the Champions League. It also marks a change in the rights allocation. ITV had previously only had the rights to England’s home games and the team’s friendly matches both at home and away. Now, for the first time in recent years, all England matches will be on one channel live for two consecutive tournaments.
Sky has not been completely excluded from the domestic picture. It will have highlights for England games but has also picked up the rights to the other Home nations qualifiers (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) as well as the Republic of Ireland. Sky will have live coverage of England’s away matches if they are drawn against another Home nation.
Alongside this Sky has picked up the rights to all other UEFA federation qualifiers, up to 500 international matches over the course of three years. ITV’s deal includes the rights to broadcast 20 non-home nation qualifying games on ITV4.
Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis said: “Both the UEFA European Championship and FIFA World Cup are football’s most important international tournaments and this deal offers Sky Sports viewers the complete qualification story. We’ve been broadcasting international football since the beginning of Sky Sports and this deal means our viewers can enjoy watching some of the best players and nations over the next four years.
Sky Sports will also broadcast all 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship matches exclusively live. The tournament in Israel kicks off June 5, concluding June 18
Activity in the UK broadcast market has been accelerating in recent weeks as BT Sport prepares for the launch of its two sports channels in August. BT Sport is starting to look like a credible challenger to the dominance of Sky even though the number of live matches in its Premier League live rights package is small in comparison. BT has the marketing muscle to push the channel and the cashflow to challenge Sky. It announced last week that its Premier League coverage will be free to all its broadband subscribers.
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