Greece’s premier football league, the Superleague, has agreed deals worth over €162 million for the broadcasting rights for the next three seasons, from 2009 to 2012.
Although two of the 16 teams in the League (Olympiacow and Skoda-Xanthi) have yet to agree to be part of the collective agreement, subscription channel NOVA will broadcast 5 of the 6 matches televised every weekend, while ALPHA, recently acquired by RTL, will broadcast Saturday’s 16:45 fixture and hold the exclusive highlights package for free-to-air broadcast. The amount will be adjusted downward until the other two clubs return to the fold.
George Courmouzis, president of Mondial Marketing, which brokered the deals said: “This amount represents a 55 per cent increase over fees currently earned by Superleague members as the result of individual negotiations with media platforms. It is a very significant achievement given the recent economic downturn together with competition from TEAM, trying to place the UEFA competitions in Greece at the same time for the same three year period. It shows how much the market values the prospect of a more balanced and competitive field created by a more equitable distribution of audiovisual rights fees, while reducing the number of broadcasts and broadcasters.”
