Eleven Sports has secured exclusive rights to broadcast live Serie A matches in the UK for the next three seasons, taking over from BT Sport.
Founded by Leeds United chairman Andrea Radrizzani, Eleven Sports will become the new home of Italian football from August, with the broadcaster set to launch two online streaming channels to show live games.
Eleven Sports entered the UK market in May after they took over the rights to show Spanish La Liga matches from Sky, which also runs for the next three seasons.
The addition of Serie A means Eleven Sports will be the only place where fans can watch every game from two of Europe’s best leagues, including every league game featuring Cristiano Ronaldo following his recent transfer to Juventus.
Eleven Sports has partnered with sports media giant IMG for the launch of its two new UK sports channels and will produce the output for both channels from its production headquaters at Stockley Park.
Eleven Sports 1 and Eleven Sports 2 will launch via an online streaming platform in August, ahead of the start of the new La Liga and Serie A seasons, with the network indicating that “more premium rights” will be added to its portfolio in due course.
Eleven Sports 1 will be solely dedicated to football, while Eleven Sports 2 will provide live coverage of premium fight sports, Esports and extreme sports for dedicated fans, as well as additional live football coverage.
Four live event channels will ‘pop up’ to prevent schedule clashes and enable fans to access several simultaneous matches at one time will also be utilised.
The new services will be available on Eleven Sports’ soon-to-be-launched online streaming platform, which the broadcaster says will be “easily accessible for every dedicated fan across the country without the need for set top boxes, bundled packages or contracts”.
Pricing for the digital subscription service will be announced shortly, though it is expected that annual subscriptions and monthly passes will be made available.
Eleven Sports says it is in talks with major distribution platforms, from pay-TV to mobile phone companies, including Sky, Virgin and Amazon, to offer the widest possible access to its new sports channels, leaving the potential that games could be sub-licensed in some form to other broadcasters.
Eleven’s entry in the UK sports rights market is being spearheaded by Marc Watson, former head of TV at BT, who is now executive chairman and group CEO of Eleven Sports.
“Serie A has a dedicated following in the UK and Ireland and there is now added interest following Juventus’ signing of global superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
“With more top-tier rights to come in addition to Serie A and LaLiga, Eleven Sports’ entry in to the UK and Ireland has changed the market dynamics. History has shown new rivals bring innovation and fresh thinking to the ways in which premium sports action is produced, packaged and distributed for fans.”
“The partnership with IMG strengthens Eleven Sports’ position as a major player in the UK and Ireland. IMG adds significant resources to our operations and they will contribute greatly to our innovative way of delivering more contemporary sports coverage that appeals to today’s audience.”
By securing the rights to top flight Spanish and Italian football, Eleven Sports is taking on established sports broadcasters in Sky and BT, which have battled each other for the last five years to sign up sports fans and cross-sell them other products and services such as broadband and TV.
Commenting on Eleven’s entry into the UK market, Watson told Reuters:
“The time is right for a new entrant. We’ve made a great start with two of the biggest leagues in the world and we’ll be the only place to see matches like El Classico.
“The appetite for the local players to hold all of the available sports content exclusively has reduced and the appetite to spend ever-increasing amounts of money on sports content has also reduced.
“Because of that, rights fees have started to fall in the UK. That has created opportunities for players like us to come in and buy rights for what we consider to be a good price.”
As well as producing its UK coverage, global sports, events and talent management company IMG will also take a minority stake Eleven Sports’ UK channels.
Adam Kelly, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, IMG Media, said:
“We are excited about this new partnership with Eleven Sports and the launch of the two new sports channels in the UK and Ireland.
“Eleven has shown, in a relatively short time, they are an innovative and creative company and we believe our vast experience and knowledge of the sports media rights business, alongside our production expertise will play an important part in making these two new channels a big success in the UK and Ireland.”
“Going direct to consumer is a natural evolution of our overall business and very much part of our strategy to search for new commercial avenues for our clients.”
Despite being a new player in the UK, Eleven Sports delivers upwards of 30,000 live hours per year to more than 17 million paying customers across the United States, Singapore, Myanmar, Italy, Poland and Portugal.
Eleven Sports’ Serie A deal, which was signed before Cristiano Ronaldo’s £100million move to Juventus, brings an end to BT Sport’s five-year association with Italian football, which was widely regarded as the most competitive out of Europe’s top leagues during the 2017/18 season with a titanic tussle at the top between Napoli and eventual champions Juventus.
Gaetano Miccichè, Serie A President, said:
“We have worked very successfully with Eleven Sports in the last three years to take world-class Serie A action to football fans in several markets around the world.
“We are delighted to continue our partnership in the UK and Ireland and we are looking forward to being a big part of Eleven’s sport focused strategy that will place us at the forefront of their innovative offer in what is a very important market for Serie A.”
Paired with La Liga, which boasts footballing giants Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, Eleven Sports will be the only destination where UK fans will able to watch top flight Spanish and Italian football from August 2018.
For more information about Eleven Sports, visit the official website – elevensports.com.
