4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
NORDIC REGIONS
Swedish tennis star Robin Soderling - Getty Images Sport
companies launching commercial TV services
into the Scandinavian space. So starting in the
late 1980s, the result was a wave of free-to-air
and subscription launches via satellite, many of
which were based beyond the borders of local
governments (thus evading regulatory controls).
Critical to understanding today’s rights market
is the fact that those which survived now operate
across the entire Nordic space - offering a mosaic
of pan-regional and territory-specific services.
The classic case is Modern Times Group,
which offers both wholly-owned and third party
channels via its Viasat direct-to-home satellite
platform. MTG constantly finesses its channel
portfolio to maximise performance. But in its
current incarnation it has a pan-regional golf
channel (Viasat Golf), two Swedish sports
channels (Viasat Sport Sweden, Viasat Fotball),
two Norwegian sports channels (Viasat Sport
Norge, Viasat Fotball) and two Danish sports
channels that it runs in partnership with publicservice
broadcaster TV2 (having previously
operated its own sports channel).
To complicate matters further, MTG has two
channels airing across Norway and Sweden
(Viasat Motor & Viasat Sport HD). The upshot is
that MTG - which also has free-to-air networks
(more of which later) - can be a buyer of both panregional
and territory-specific rights - depending
on a) its own needs and b) the competition.
The situation is broadly the same with MTG’s
major rival C More Entertainment, which runs
Canal Plus-branded pay-TV services across
Scandinavia (though Canal Plus itself is no longer
part of the platform’s ownership structure).
New player on the scene
The ownership history at C More is complex,
but the business today belongs to Swedish
media giant TV4 in partnership with Norway’s
Telenor, which acquired 35 per cent of the
business in May. This joining of forces is
expected to make C More a stronger player in
the Nordic sports TV market.
Aside from the fact that it brings various
Telenor rights into the Canal Plus line-up, C More
also used the merger to announce an expanded
sports content offering. In particular, it outlined
plans to add football from La Liga, Serie A and
Major League Soccer in the US; basketball from
the NBA; and Swedish ice hockey.
As with MTG, the fact that TV4 also has
a powerful Swedish-based free-to-air network
(as well as a free-to-air sister service in
Finland) means it is looking for both territoryspecific
and pan-regional sports rights.
Furthermore, Telenor is a major crossplatform
operator which means there is also a
compelling need for rights which cover digital
platforms such as mobile.
All major football rights holders (FIFA,
UEFA, national leagues) are faced with this
kind of market complexity (see box) when
dealing with the Nordic region. So it’s perhaps
not a surprise to see that rights agencies have a
prominent role. For UEFA, rights are managed
by long-term partner TEAM - while emerging
Swiss outfit Kentaro made a big splash in the
market when it snapped up Norwegian Football
Association and Swedish Football Association
rights in 2006 (previously broadcasters dealt
directly). Also worth noting is that Lagardere is
active via its 2007 acquisition of Sweden-based
agency IEC in Sports.
Perhaps most significant has been the
arrival on the scene of Medge Consulting, a
start-up agency which secured all Nordic rights
to the English Premier League in December
COMPLEX TV SCENARIOS
The Nordic TV market results in some
complicated rights scenarios - particularly
in football, which, as in the majority
of European TV markets, is the most
in-demand sport. This is evident in the
case of UEFA - which has a variety of
deals for the Euros, the Champions
League and the Europa League. The most
straightforward is UEFA’s partnership
with MTG for the Champions League -
which the broadcaster controls exclusively
in Denmark, Norway and Sweden across
both free-to-air and pay-television.
However it’s worth noting that in Finland
MTG shares rights with YLE. The situation
with UEFA’s Europa League (2009-2012)
is more complex - since MTG has rights
in Denmark and Norway while TV4 has
Sweden. In both cases, the deals allow
the broadcasters to air games on free and
pay-TV channels.
This can lead to unusual scenarios. In
Denmark, for example, the first-choice
live match airs on MTG’s TV3+ - a rival to
TV2. However other live matches air on
TV2 Sport - the joint-venture between the
two [Note - you get a similar situation
with Danish Superliga football which airs
on TV3+, TV2 Sport and Canal 9, a pay-TV
channel which belongs to TV4]. Further
evidence of the Nordic market’s complexity
comes in the case of UEFA’s Euro 2012
rights - which were recently licensed to
TV4 for Denmark and Norway as well as
its home market Sweden. In Sweden, TV4
is sharing the rights with SVT while in the
other markets it is effectively acting as a
sub-agent - dividing up fixtures between
its own channels and third parties in order
to give UEFA the optimal mix of free and
pay-TV coverage.
SportBusiness International • No.160 • 09.10 75