Bidding war escalates for Ekstraklasa €34 million TV rights deal

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By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 3 – A new competitor has reportedly entered the ongoing race to secure the broadcasting rights for Poland’s Ekstraklasa, with Polish direct-to-home platform nc+ and Eurosport competing against a new broadcaster, Eleven.
The Polish top tier is aiming to sign a new six-year deal worth at least PLN 140 million (€34 million), which would represent an increase of about PLN 15 million (€3.7 million) compared with the current contract with nc+, reports local daily Przeglad Sportowy.

The 2015/2016 season of the Ekstraklasa starts July 17 and the new TV contract would start then.
Eleven is headed by Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani. To date, the broadcaster has entered a number of international markets, including Belgium, Malaysia and Singapore, and Poland is set to be its next destination, with football rights spearheading his entry to the market.

Radrizzani co-founded international media rights company MP & Silva in 2004 with Riccardo Silva, and is one of the firm’s main shareholders. He served as the chief executive of MP & Silva Group until 2013, and was involved in most of the company’s rights acquisition contracts with major rights holders, including the English Premier League, FIFA World Cup, UEFA, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Formula One, Olympic Council of Asia and others.

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