June 15 – The English Football League (EFL) is expanding its broadcast platform for its three professional from next season with the launch of the iFollow service for overseas markets. Matches already being broadcast outside the UK and Irelands will not be available on iFollow. More than 1,500 games will be streamed digitally.
June 6 – Egyptian giants Al Ahly and Zamalek have announced they will boycott the Qatari-owned television network beIN Sports following the damaging diplomatic rift between Qatar and several Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
June 5 – With less than two weeks to go before the tournament starts, FIFA has secured a domestic TV deal in Russia to broadcast the 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup with national sports channel Match-TV.
By Samindra Kunti
May 31 – Brazilian broadcast giant TV Globo has fallen out with the Brazilian FA (CBF) and will not cover the national team’s two friendly fixtures in June in Australia.
May 17 – CONCACAF has secured another cornerstone broadcast partner for its blue riband Gold Cup and Champions League competitions. Canadian sports network TSN has signed a multi-year rights deal for Canada that begins with the upcoming Gold Cup this July.
May 12 – TEAM Marketing has doubled broadcast revenue from France for the Champions League and Europa League to €350 million for the 2018-21 seasons. The new money comes with a new broadcaster. Telecoms giant SFR takes over from Canal + and BeIN Sports who were paying a combined €140 million.
By Samindra Kunti
May 5 – Telenet and VOO have retained the TV rights to broadcast the Belgian top flight league for the next three seasons. The Belgian clubs will net €75 million per season.
May 1 – The expanded CONCACAF club competitions, including the Champions League, have signed their first major broadcast deal for the new format with FOX Sports Latin America. The five-year deal renews Fox’s existing broadcast deal from 2017/18 to the end of the 2021/2022 season.
By Samindra Kunti
April 27 – Social media platform Twitter has broken into top tier football rights territory with the live-streamed final of the CONCACAF Champions League as part of their partnership with the governing body.
April 7 – The fast growing United Soccer League, awarded Division 2 status in the US professional league hierarchy this season, has boosted its broadcast coverage for the 2017 season just kicked off.
By Samindra Kunti
March 24 – The Italian agency MP & Silva is tendering the TV rights of the Belgian Pro League for the next three seasons. Fast developing broadcaster Eleven Sports is keen on acquiring the rights, a deal which would shake up the market for the league’s rights.
By Paul Nicholson
March 17 – It has been a busy week in the sports broadcast market with UK Culture Secretary Karen Bradley referred 21st Century Fox’s £11.7 billion bid for full control of Sky to communications regulator Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority – Sky are the Premier League’s dominant TV partner. In France, Qatari owners have pumped in another €600 million into beIN Sports to cope with losses believed to at more than 1 billion.
March 7 – Having complained about the ever-inflating cost of broadcast rights to football, BT Sport has stumped up a huge £1.18 billion for UEFA Champions League rights that will see the world’s leading club competition exclusively on the pay broadcaster in the UK for the three seasons from 2018-19 to 2020-21.
February 15 – Mexico’s Liga MX will hit the Facebook Live platform with Univision this weekend at the start of a new broadcast deal that will see 46 matches, including playoff games, streamed live.
February 10 – Manchester United are to launch a premium streaming app targeting fans outside the UK with the club’s MUTV channel. The app will be available in 160 countries with pricing levels between £1.49 and £4.99.