European TV & Sports Rights 2010

The Number One for the TV Sports Rights Business

Any company which negotiates deals in the television sportsrights industry, whether it be rights-holder, broadcaster or agency, needs access to benchmark data about other deals. It is essential to know how the rights were sold, the price they attracted, who they were sold to, and the duration of the deal. This information is must-have market intelligence that will influence business strategy and improve decision making.
Back for its third edition, European TV and Sports Rights 2010 is the most comprehensive report available on television sportsrights deals in Europe’s biggest markets. Since the first edition was published in 2005, many of sport’s leading rights holders, broadcasters and agencies have relied on data published in its pages to help shape their business decisions.
Given the confidentiality surrounding many sports-rights deals, some of the hard-to-get facts are not found in the public domain. However, thanks to over a decade of research into the sector and with the best contacts in the business, this report from TV Sports Markets boasts the most reliable – and in many cases exclusive – information on the major deals.

Market Analysis

Not only does the report detail the major sports-rights deals, it analyses the television landscape of the major European markets, looking at all the players in each market and the major developments which will shape future sales and acquisitions of sports rights.
And the European television market has changed considerably in the last 18 months since the last edition. Digitalisation has seen a proliferation of new channels; telecommunications companies have continued to muscle into the pay-television sector; and commercial broadcasters have felt the pain of an advertising downturn.
All these developments have continued to boost the television rights fees paid for sports properties. Sport is one of the few content genres available that brings in large numbers of viewers and subscribers for broadcasters. New entrants need sport to help get a foothold in the market. Established players want to retain sport to maintain their position. This dynamic helps sustain the buoyant market for sports-rights.
With its combination of hard-to-get data on rights deals and insight into the television landscape across Europe, European TV and Sports Rights 2010 is essential for any serious player in the sports-rights business.

Report Format

Researched by the highly-acclaimed team behind the TV Sports Markets newsletter, the report looks in detail at the major television markets in Europe, dedicating a chapter to each market. The markets covered include:

■■ Belgium
■■ Denmark
■■ Finland
■■ France
■■ Germany
■■ Italy
■■ Netherlands
■■ Norway
■■ Spain
■■ Sweden
■■ Turkey
■■ UK
(The report also includes a special chapter looking at the pan-Scandinavian television market).

Each chapter is split into two parts. The first looks at the landscape of the television landscape. It analyses the main players in each market, what sports rights they own, the major developments of the last 12 months which have shaped the market and details legislation which impacts the rights business, such as listed-events legislation.
The second part is a directory of all the major sports-rights deals in the market. The directory lists deals by sport, with a description of the deal signed for each sports property. The description includes, where available, who bought the rights, who sold the rights, how long the deal was signed for (including start and finish dates), which rights were sold and what coverage is permitted under the deal, and, in many cases, how much was paid for the rights.
The report also includes three special sections on the pan-European players:

■■ Agencies – a large number of agencies operate in the European sports-rights market, including Sportfive, Infront Sports & Media, IMG, Kentaro and TEAM Marketing. In this section, the report provides a brief profile of each agency and summarises their major rights properties.
■■ Eurosport – despite the proliferation of digital channels around Europe, pan-European sports channel Eurosport continues to hold its position. This section looks at the broadcaster’s major rights deals.
■■ European Broadcasting Union – the EBU, which represents Europe’s public-service broadcasters, has continually adapted to ensure it is still well placed to acquire the top sports properties for its members. This section analyses the position of the EBU and its sports-rights portfolio.