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ICYMI: WSL eyeing enormous 150% increase to broadcast rights deal: In a historic first for football in the UK, every single Women's Super League match is set to be broadcasted live from next season across multiple channels. The WSL tender document issued to broadcasters this month features all 132 league games, with 56 to be sold exclusively and the remaining 76 available on a non-exclusive basis. Under the terms of the existing deal that expires at the end of the current season, Sky broadcast 35 matches-a-season and the BBC 22, with the rest streamed for free on the FA's website. The tender document is asking for a huge £20 million ($38.48 million) a year TV deal and this 150% increase to the value of its broadcasting deal is far from surprising following the explosion of the women's game. This figure is set to be confirmed as soon as they can find the right suitors. In an attempt to gain an increase from the existing £7.75 million ($14.91 million) a year deal, the WSL have responded by making every match available for broadcast, which the league hoped would attract bids from beyond current rights holders Sky Sports and the BBC, It looks to be working. Sky Sports and the BBC are set to bid again on the rights and extend the current partnership whilst it is said that this potential deal is also attracting networks like TNT Sports and DAZN. The Premier League and EFL have stood firm on the UEFA blackout that suggests all 3pm Saturday matches are not shown on TV, to encourage locals to attend matches in person. This means the WSL will have to work around it and it is likely that Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoons remain as the most common kick-off times. There is little the WSL are having to do to persuade broadcasters into putting their hands up for these rights, which is a testament to the sport's current growth and upward trajectory it is trending towards. FA Director of Women’s football, Kelly Simmons, explained how important it was to secure this monumental broadcast deal. “While we’ve been developing this it’s been so hard to sit on it because it’s so exciting for the women’s game. It is transformational,” Simmons said in an interview with Guardian Sport. “When I first came into this role, we said that we really thought women’s football could really break into the mainstream and this is mainstream, this is prime slots on television, big audiences, week in week out.” This deal in particular launches women’s football into the mainstream and helps improve the quality of the product which goes a long way to opening the eyes of a huge audience to its impact as a sport and socially. The post WSL eyeing enormous 150% increase to broadcast rights deal appeared first on Soccerscene. #Football #Soccer #FootballNews

MUST READ: WSL eyeing enormous 150% increase to broadcast rights deal: In a historic first for football in the UK, every single Women's Super League match is set to be broadcasted live from next season across multiple channels. The WSL tender document issued to broadcasters this month features all 132 league games, with 56 to be sold exclusively and the remaining 76 available on a non-exclusive basis. Under the terms of the existing deal that expires at the end of the current season, Sky broadcast 35 matches-a-season and the BBC 22, with the rest streamed for free on the FA's website. The tender document is asking for a huge £20 million ($38.48 million) a year TV deal and this 150% increase to the value of its broadcasting deal is far from surprising following the explosion of the women's game. This figure is set to be confirmed as soon as they can find the right suitors. In an attempt to gain an increase from the existing £7.75 million ($14.91 million) a year deal, the WSL have responded by making every match available for broadcast, which the league hoped would attract bids from beyond current rights holders Sky Sports and the BBC, It looks to be working. Sky Sports and the BBC are set to bid again on the rights and extend the current partnership whilst it is said that this potential deal is also attracting networks like TNT Sports and DAZN. The Premier League and EFL have stood firm on the UEFA blackout that suggests all 3pm Saturday matches are not shown on TV, to encourage locals to attend matches in person. This means the WSL will have to work around it and it is likely that Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoons remain as the most common kick-off times. There is little the WSL are having to do to persuade broadcasters into putting their hands up for these rights, which is a testament to the sport's current growth and upward trajectory it is trending towards. FA Director of Women’s football, Kelly Simmons, explained how important it was to secure this monumental broadcast deal. “While we’ve been developing this it’s been so hard to sit on it because it’s so exciting for the women’s game. It is transformational,” Simmons said in an interview with Guardian Sport. “When I first came into this role, we said that we really thought women’s football could really break into the mainstream and this is mainstream, this is prime slots on television, big audiences, week in week out.” This deal in particular launches women’s football into the mainstream and helps improve the quality of the product which goes a long way to opening the eyes of a huge audience to its impact as a sport and socially. The post WSL eyeing enormous 150% increase to broadcast rights deal appeared first on Soccerscene. #Football #Soccer #FootballNews

WSL domestic broadcast rights are valued at UK£15.6m a year as TV audiences could grow by up to 18% with optimised scheduling. 🔔 The Women’s Super League (WSL) commands significant attention with domestic media rights estimated at £15.6 million ($19.6 million) annually, as per a recent report by Nielsen and Prospect. 📌 The current broadcast deal with Sky Sports and BBC stands at £8 million ($10.1 million) a season, featuring 44 live games on Sky and 22 on BBC, with additional streaming on FA Player. 😳 Nielsen's analysis suggests that both broadcasters are paying considerably below market value for the WSL's rights. 📈 Live audience figures surged to 14.8 million for the 2022/23 season, marking a 37% increase from the previous year and a significant rise from the 900,000 viewers in the 2020/21 season. 💶 WSL's upcoming media rights negotiations aim for increased revenue, with more games slated for broadcast to entice higher offers. 📡 The shift towards free-to-air coverage through BBC underscores the importance of maximising reach alongside revenue for the league's growth. 📺 Sky's prominence in football broadcasting facilitated WSL visibility but challenges exist with the Sunday primetime evening slot, warranting a potential rethink. 💡 Suggestions to exempt WSL from the traditional 3 pm blackout seek to enhance audience engagement but face opposition. 🙌🏼 As the WSL positions itself for a lucrative media rights deal, understanding audience preferences and optimising broadcasting strategies emerge as pivotal factors in driving sustained growth and engagement. Source: SportsPro ------ The world of sports is evolving digitally and streaming continues to revolutionise sports broadcasting. 🌍📡 🔗 Who - Stream7 is an Event Broadcasting & Streaming company. 💼 Work - We work alongside brands, partners, rights holders and broadcasters to elevate the streaming tech. 📬 Get in touch or Drop a DM if you are looking to broadcast/stream your sports event. #sportsstreaming #sportsmarketing #sportsbiz #womensfootball #wsl

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is currently assessing broadcast rights bids from major players like Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and Amazon, prompting keen interest from marketers and media agencies eager to see how this could reshape the league’s media landscape. Details remain uncertain regarding which broadcaster will secure weeknight fixtures, underscoring potential implications for current NBA sponsors and opportunities for brands yet to tap into its vast audience. Currently, NBA broadcast rights are divided between Disney-owned ABC and ESPN, and Warner Bros' TNT, with ABC exclusively airing the NBA Finals. Proposals for a 10-year renewal from ABC, TNT, and ESPN are under consideration, alongside competitive bids from Comcast's NBC and Amazon. The introduction of Amazon Prime Video could potentially lead to a three-package system, while NBC’s proposal includes moving some games to its Peacock platform, adding complexity with two streaming services potentially in play. Streaming platforms could open up new NBA audiences, offering fresh opportunities for advertisers previously excluded from traditional broadcasts, according to media agency experts. As the NBA navigates these bids, the question for brands and agencies is: How can your strategy adapt to leverage the expanding reach and evolving dynamics of NBA broadcasting? https://lnkd.in/gdwzQXqi

Value of Premier League media rights in India over the years: 1. $145 million (2013/14-2015/16) 2. $100 million (2016/17-2018/19) 3. $81 million (2019/20-2021/22) 4. $60 million (2022/23-2024/25) The sharp decline in media rights value can be attributed to factors like low TV viewership, monetisation challenges, drop in star players quality and a lack of interest from rival broadcasters. The existing deal of Premier League with Star India is set to conclude at the end of the 2024-25 season and the broadcaster has not shown any inclination to renew the deal. Premier League has reached out to other players in the market like Sony Sports Network, Warner Bros. Discovery's Eurosport and Fancode. According to sources, Premier League has also shown an indication to sell specific kinds of packages if the broadcaster does not want to feature all the matches. It is believed that both Star and Sony are currently focused on securing the Asian Cricket Council (ACC ) media rights and hence have put the Premier League media rights proposal on the back burner.

SportsInvest Advisory Insights © A lot has been said on the new domestic media rights deal closed by The Premier League last week. The 4-year deal spanning until the conclusion of the 2028/29 season reached £6.7 billion, with historical broadcasters Sky and TNT Sports (formerly known as BT Sport). Amazon Prime, which currently broadcasts 20 games, has not retained the rights for the new domestic cycle. ✅ On one side: Excellent news, record-breaking deal, Europe’s most lucrative sports franchise. 🛑 On the other: Concerning, worrying news for media rights outlook and the future of the sports industry. A few thoughts to hopefully help navigating your way into this debate: ➡️ First, the +4% growth rate announced by the EPL for the next cycle compares it to the previous two 3-year cycles (2019-22 and 2022-25). When comparing it to the £5.1 billion 3-year deal of the 2022-25 period, the £6.7 billion 4-year deal actually shows a slight drop. Not to mention that the +4% growth rate should be a decrease when accounting for the inflation rate over the last years. ➡️ Second, the # of live televised games per season has been drastically increased, from 200 historically to 267 for the 2025-29 period (i.e., from c.53% to 70% of the total 380 games per season). That means that the actual value per live game shows a significant decrease from c.£8.5 million per game for 2022-25 to c.£6.3 million for 2025-29. ➡️ Third, this deal has to be looked at in the context of a flattening (if not decreasing) media rights market for European football. The Bundesliga's current deal (until the end of 24/25) with Sky and DAZN saw a decrease from €1.16 billion to €1.1 billion AAV. In Italy, the €900 million deal struck by Lega Serie A with DAZN and Sky was -3% down from the €927.5 million per year which Italian clubs currently receive. And in France, the first phase of the domestic media rights tender process was not successful, with direct negotiations now taking with broadcasters - the LFP is targeting €800 million for the 24/25 to 28/29 cycle (assuming a +28% growth compared to the €624 million of the current cycle). Interestingly enough, SportBusiness released 3 weeks ago their Global Media Report 2023 (link in comment) showing that the global value of sports media rights had increased c.$56 billion over the last 12 months, up +2.4% vs. 2022. They highlight that the value is expected to pass $60 billion for the first time in 2024 driven by the return of the Olympic Games and UEFA European Championship. But the picture looks a bit different when looking at the granularity between sports and regions - Callum McCarthy, SportBusiness Editor in Chief, rightly adds: "Most European football leagues are struggling to grow their media revenues beyond current levels, but global sport reaches far beyond five leagues in five countries. Properties such as the NFL, NBA, Formula 1, IPL and WWE are performing strongly and will continue to do so throughout the decade".

#WSL #agrees #record #65Million #5year #TV #deal #with #Sky #Sports #and #BBC Almost all top-flight games to be broadcast from 2025. Sky Sports contributing vast majority of investment. Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a new five-year, shared domestic broadcast rights deal to show almost every Women’s Super League match live on television from the 2025-26 campaign. The value of the deal is undisclosed but the Guardian understands the rights fee is worth approximately £65m across the duration of the five seasons, plus production costs, taking the broadcasters’ total investment in the women’s game to comfortably over £100m. The new agreement represents a huge increase on the current deal, which is understood to be worth in the region of £7m-£8m a season. Sky Sports are understood to be contributing the vast majority of that investment and, in return, they have been given up to 118 live WSL matches per season, 78 of which will be exclusive to Sky, and the commercial broadcaster will also have 75% of the first-choice picks. The BBC has committed to showing up to 21 matches a season live, 14 of which will be exclusive to BBC television, and the remaining seven will be shared. Any matches not selected for live television broadcast will be shown live on YouTube, as part of an expansion of the new partnership agreed with the streaming platform this summer. It means fans will be able to watch all 132 games in a WSL season live either on television or online. It is also understood there will be a large increase in the number of Women’s Championship matches that will be broadcast live on YouTube from next season and – although the BBC will not be showing Championship games live – Sky do also have the option to broadcast Championship matches live if they choose to do so. The chief executive of WPLL, Nikki Doucet, said: “Agreeing the next cycle of broadcast rights was a priority for us and we are very fortunate to have two premium broadcast partners in Sky and the BBC who believe in the future and value of women’s football as much as we do. The growth of the game is undeniable, and this deal is another step in the right direction and positive news for the fans, the players and the clubs. But it is the revenue injection that will be the most significant for the WPLL, which has so far received a £20m loan from the men’s Premier League and money from a new title sponsorship deal with Barclays, but needed a new TV deal to aid its quest for financial sustainability for women’s football. By comparison, the USA’s National Women’s Soccer League announced in November 2023 that it had a new $60m (£46m) domestic broadcast deal with four major streaming and cable partners across four years, but that figure included the production costs. SportBusiness Media reported that the $60m per-year rights revenue includes around $35m-$40m per year in value-in-kind through marketing and promotion as well as production subsidies. Read the Full Link 🔗 #Metin #Tilki #MBA

As much as we try to pretend that all is fine in the premium tier of world football media rights, the current status of Ligue 1 new media rights cycle is a massive warning for the instability and the delicate long term balance of football current commercial modelling, including within the big 5 top European leagues, as well as a warning of the still existing power of the dominant traditional broadcasters fabric. Merely a few weeks before the start of the new pre-season for all clubs, the League is still to resolve the terms, width and volume of its new media rights package for this year and beyond. Originally with a target of €1 billion in annual revenue for its domestic and international rights for the 2024/2029 cycle, the League has since last October and in absence of any offer near to its target, starting direct private negotiations with a group of potential interested parties such DAZN or Amazon. Pressed by a mandatory need to support its clubs vast spending fix costs structures and still confronted by the absence of any satisfactory offer, LFP Media has launched its last stance, by announcing plans to launch its own d2c channel. According to media reports, the unnamed service would offer all 306 matches at a cost of between €25 (US$26.82) and €30 (US$32.19 million) a month, with the platform available on major IPTV platforms in France in a bid to drive awareness and adoption. The hope is that by reaching two million users, the LFP would generate more than €518 million a season in subscription revenue, with income from advertisers and other opportunities helping to deliver an average of €578 million per season over the five-year length of the next rights cycle. As much as I m supportive of the democratization and personalization of distribution, strong doubts need to be raised about the viability of such a proposition. Not just has been tried before by Mediapro unsuccessfully, as well as seems to try to simplify the challenges of a live d2c done at scale with large pressure over latency and concurrence and with tight timelines and the absence of a presence in all distribution platforms via carrier agreements seems to reduce substantially any chance of real success on this. On top I m very sure that any of the existing bidders will feel at ease with this threat and will not deviate of their current target offers. This week announcement of ligue 2 domestic rights grant to @bein looks indicative of the end result of this long quest. So the final thought remains - it is worthy to continue the traditional model of media rights commercialization in europe or shall we once and for all look at much more sophisticated hybrid models with much wider distribution range and personalization? Time to change

Warner Bros Discovery Faces Critical Decision in NBA Broadcast Rights Bidding War Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is facing a crucial deadline as it weighs matching Amazon's $1.8 billion annual bid for NBA broadcast rights, while NBC has made a hefty $2.5 billion per year offer. WBD, currently paying $1.2 billion annually, leans towards Amazon's proposal, aligning closely with its existing expenditure. The NBA's media rights are set to soar to approximately $75 billion over 11 years, commencing from the 2025-26 season. The negotiations hold immense significance for WBD, given its TNT network's history of broadcasting NBA games since the 1980s. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stressed the league's focus on economic gains and enriching fan services through a blend of broadcast and streaming options. Amazon Prime Video boasts over 200 million monthly viewers, surpassing WBD’s nearly 100 million subscribers, inclusive of Max, providing access to NBA games on TNT for US viewers. With a $39 billion net debt and a diminishing market cap at $20.8 billion, WBD faces complexity in its bid. To navigate these challenges, WBD is contemplating strategic measures such as splitting its digital streaming and studio businesses from its traditional TV operations to unlock shareholder value. Bank of America upholds a Buy rating for WBD with a $14 price target, recognizing potential in these strategic moves. # Thank you Fabio Rossi for your submission!

The battle of the giants for NBA streaming rights. Warner Bros. Discovery takes NBA to court. Warner Bros. Discovery has sued the NBA for unclear reasons for rejecting its offer to broadcast and stream the world's most popular basketball league. There's a clear battle between the market giants for these rights. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) claims it made a last-minute bid for the smaller package of broadcast rights for the next 11 seasons, starting in 2025/2026. WBD bosses say they made an offer equal to what Amazon had previously offered, which should automatically give them the rights to reclaim that package. The NBA sees the situation differently and recently said that Disney, NBC and Amazon will be its new TV streaming partners. On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery sued the league, claiming it broke a previous agreement and failed to honor its rights to an equal offer. Viaplay's global defeat clearly shows that the market for broadcasting rights to sporting events isn't ready for streaming service owners. WBD as an owner Eurosport and Max broadcast the Olympics extensively and recently paid USD 650 million for a long-term contract to show the French Open. It seems that this isn't the end of the company's investment plans. According to ESPN, TNT (part of the Warner Bros. Discovery group) has officially made an offer to show NBA games that matches that of its competitors. Last Tuesday, the league announced a deal with Disney+, NBC and Amazon Prime Video for the next 11 years, but according to some sources, Warner Bros. Discovery wants to fight Amazon for those rights. The agreement between Amazon Prime Video and the NBA states that the company will pay $1.8 billion for every year it streams the world's best basketball league. WBD is prepared to pay upfront for a number of years to come, as Amazon has previously stated. The company had five years to make a similar offer, but it missed the deadline and is now waiting for a positive response from the league's owners. The total value of the NBA broadcasting rights from the start of the 2025/2026 season will be $76 billion. The main package has already been bought by broadcasters ABC and ESPN (both owned by Disney). According to the primary plan, Amazon Prime Video would show one NBA game per day, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. If Warner Bros. Discovery's offer is accepted, Thursday games will be shown on TNT, but Friday and Saturday games will be shown on the Max platform. This is a classic case of big business vs. big sports. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top in this legal showdown? Let me know what you think in the comments. You can find a link to the full article in the first comment under this post. Follow my profile to stay up-to-date when it comes to industry news, technology updates, and market analysis. #SzymonKarbowski #StreamVX #videostreaming #WarnerBrosDiscovery #NBA #StreamingRights #ABC #ESPN #Amazon #Viaplay #Disney #NBC #BasketballLeague