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Nordic pay-TV broadcaster Viaplay is considering a bid for the UK broadcast rights to the English Football League (EFL), according to The Times.
The EFL, which organises the second, third and fourth tiers of English soccer, currently has a UK£595 million (US$660 million) domestic broadcast partnership with Sky Sports and a separate free-to-air (FTA) highlights package with ITV, both of which are due to expire at the end of the 2023/24 season.
A request for proposal (RFP) issued by the EFL is inviting interested parties to submit offers for the rights and states that nothing is off the table when it comes to the final structure of any deal.
In theory, all 1,891 matches across the EFL, the EFL Cup, and the EFL Trophy could be included, even 3pm kick-offs that have been subject to a television blackout due to concerns over the impact on physical attendances.
Viaplay’s UK service went live earlier this month, offering a range of Scandi-themed entertainment and a portfolio of sports rights that includes assets acquired through the UK£30 million (US$35.3 million) takeover of Premier Sports.
Its programming now includes soccer from Spain’s LaLiga and the Scottish Cup, rugby union from the United Rugby Championship (URC) and French Top 14, and the National Hockey League (NHL).
The company declined to comment on the report to SportsPro.
Viaplay is in the middle of an ambitious global expansion that means it now has a presence across the Nordics, Baltics, Poland and Netherlands.
Last week it confirmed its service would be available in the US from February and Canada from March, but it would delay a planned launch in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) until 2023. Viaplay said the decision was based on challenging macroeconomic conditions that threatened subscriber acquisition as well as currency headwinds caused by inflation and the strong dollar.
Rapid expansion has inevitably led to an increase in revenues but has also increased costs – most notably sports rights.
Soccer is key to establishing a foothold in the UK market and although the EFL is dwarfed in size by the behemoth that is the Premier League, it remains a significant player in the British sporting landscape.
Any deal would be a major coup for Viaplay, which also has the UK rights to Uefa internationals not involving England, especially if the EFL makes more fixtures available and if the company can also secure the rights to the EFL Cup, a competition which includes teams from the top flight.
The EFL is keen to increase the value of its domestic rights deal to UK£200 million (US$235 million) a season so will welcome a competitive process. Viaplay’s linear channels will also mean not all matches would be locked away on a streaming platform. However, it will also be keen to ensure there is no repeat of the last time it opted for a partner that was not Sky.
ITV Digital hoped a three-year, UK£315 million deal with the EFL would establish its pay-TV platform as a genuine challenger to Sky. Instead, it caused the collapse of the company and nearly dragged down the EFL with it.
One contributory factor was Sky’s unwillingness to carry the ITV Sport Channel, but in an era of high speed broadband this is less of an issue. In any case, Viaplay has linear channels on the Sky platform.
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