By Samindra Kunti
June 26 – The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the alliance of free-to-air European broadcasters, has struck an agreement with UEFA for the exclusive broadcast rights for EURO2016 across 26 European territories.
“This deal will provide valuable free-to-air coverage of the tournament across Europe,” said marketing director of UEFA Events SA Guy-Laurent Epstein. “Having the EBU members on board will help to promote UEFA EURO2016 in the relevant territories and is highly positive for the development and exposure of European national team football.”
The agreement does not include the rights in Europe’s biggest TV markets of Germany, France, the UK, Italy or Spain, or in Scandinavia where the broadcast rights are negotiated separately between the national broadcasters and UEFA.
The EBU represents public broadcasters across Europe. In 26 European territories the free-to-air broadcasters will show games from EURO2016. They have the exclusive live rights on all platforms, including mobile, online, TV and radio. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal is certain to have run into eight figures. Next year’s month-long European championship in France has been expanded from 16 to 24 participating teams.
The rights deal includes a minimum of 23 games to be aired live in each territory covered. The territories covered are: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
EURO2012, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, drew record audiences worldwide, with 299 million viewers around the globe watching the final match, according to official figures.
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