4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
NORDIC REGIONS
2009 (live, repeat, highlights, news, mobile
and internet rights across 380 fixtures).
The emergence of Medge is an interesting
development - since it represents an attempt
to extract greater revenues from the region by
selling rights country by country.
Previously (from 2007-08 to 2009-10),
pan-regional Premier League rights belonged
to C More/Canal Plus, but under the new
arrangement Medge is paying upwards of
$120 million for the period 2010-11 to 2012-13,
according to TV Sports Markets, around double
the value of the previous contract period.
Carve up the territory
Medge has set about recouping its investment
by doing individual deals with MTV Finland,
TV2 Norway, SBS Denmark and MTG for
Sweden. In the case of the TV2 deal, pay-TV
rights were then passed on to Canal Plus
(creating an EPL-Medge-TV2-Canal Plus chain).
As for Sweden, MTG plans to air games on its
Viasat Fotboll, Viasat Sport & Viasat Sport HD
pay-TV channels and a new Viasat Premier
League HD channel.
Medge co-founder Peter Liljestrand is
reported to be looking at whether Medge can
negotiate a similar role with regard to Serie A
and La Liga rights. But the jury is out on whether
this would be possible.
Amanda Evans, general manager at Eurosport
Nordic, says the arrival of Medge has certainly
shaken up the market “but the EPL is possibly
the only property outside domestic sport which
could generate the necessary commercial
interest. It has a history here which goes back
many, many years.”
According to Evans, rights holders looking to
maximise their financial return by replicating
the Medge model have to weigh up two
opposing factors: “There are definitely different
tastes between the four countries - which
makes grouping them together a risk. But that
has to be balanced against economies of scale.
After all, these are not big countries when
viewed separately.” (Sweden, the biggest, has a
population of around nine million).
Pan-regional sports broadcaster Eurosport
currently operates a Nordic version of its main
channel and a Nordic/Eastern European feed of
its Eurosport 2 channel (as well as an HD feed in
Sweden and Denmark).
Like its rivals, it views football as a critical
part of the mix - and recently acquired exclusive
Bundesliga rights for use across the Nordic and
Eastern European regions. “We took over those
from Viasat,” says Evans.
“That move showed that we were serious
about acquiring top quality football rights. It
also changed the dynamics of the Nordic market
because it means Bundesliga is the only one of
the top international leagues that can be viewed
on basic pay not premium.”
While soccer is the biggest sport in the
broadcasting space, it’s not the only one which
draws crowds, adds Evans. “Winter sports are
very popular and we are very strongly associated
with biathlon. We also do well with tennis,
a sport where we have three Grand Slams
and coverage of the WTA Tour. With Robin
Soderling (Sweden) and Caroline Wozniacki
(Denmark) doing well, tennis has been a big
audience puller for Eurosport.”
The Soderling factor has not been lost on
free-to-air either. This year saw SVT Sweden
sign a four-year deal with IEC in Sports for
rights to the Stockholm Open ATP Tennis
tournament, held in October.
Against the backdrop of Soderling’s progress,
SVT will air 10 live matches on nationwide
terrestrial SVT1 or SVT2 with complementary
coverage, on SVT24 or SVT Play. “With Robin
Söderling entering the top echelons of the world’s
elite we are delighted to extend the contract and
to continue to develop our coverage,” confirmed
SVT head of sport Per Yng.
Handball is another sport which has
developed a strong fanbase in the Nordic region.
In recent times, rights agency Infront has
managed to extend exclusive rights agreements
for the EHF European Championships with TV2
Denmark, TV2 Norway and TV4 Sweden.
With all three now committed until 2015, TV2
Norway head of sports Björn Taalesen sums up
the mood when he says: “The European Handball
Championships, with their high-intensity drama
and strong Scandinavian participation, are some
of the most gripping and captivating sporting
events watched by TV viewers and internet users
in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.”
Other sports in heavy demand by the main
players include motorsport and golf. As outlined
above, MTG/Viasat has a Nordic golf channel -
so it was no real surprise to see it extend rights
Sweden at the 2009 Handball European Championship - Getty Images Sport
to the American PGA Tour until the end of 2015.
Similarly, Viasat has held the Scandinavian
rights to Formula One since 2005 and exploits
them in various ways across the territories.
In Sweden and Norway, live coverage is on
dedicated motor sports channel Viasat Motor
and in Denmark it is on TV3 Puls - a general
entertainment channel launched in 2009.
Free-to-air sports channel
MTG has also just announced plans for a
new free-TV sports channel in Sweden, TV10,
launching on September 7.
Available to 50 per cent of Swedish homes via
cable and satellite, the channel will target men
aged between 25 and 59 and will offer content
including the UEFA Euro 2010 qualification
game between Sweden and San Marino, coverage
of NHL, HockeyAllsvenskan ice hockey games,
UEFA Champions League matches and Formula
One qualifying sessions and race highlights.
TV10 will also broadcast Swedish and
Euroleague basketball, NFL American football
and ATP tennis, all of which is currently on
Viasat Sport’s generic pay-TV sports channel.
MTG president and CEO Hans-Holger
Albrecht says TV10 is designed to complement
Viasat’s PayTV sports channels and will “enable
us to optimise the use of our extensive portfolio
of local and international sports rights. Swedish
viewers will now be able to watch even more high
quality sports entertainment than ever before.”
On the face of it, a free sports channel looks
like a threat to Eurosport’s basic tier proposition
- but Evans is not unduly worried: “I think TV10
is a promotional channel for Viasat’s pay-TV
bouquet - with the best of their content kept for
the premium tier.
“The fact is that the real trend in the Nordic
region is for sport to move into premium tiers
and pay-per-view. So our basic-tier proposition
is actually of interest to platform operators,
particularly now we can reinforce it with a
strong HD offering.”
76 SportBusiness International • No. 160 • 09.10