Something that seemed unrealistic just a few weeks ago, as we hear, is in the final stretch during the ongoing negotiations. From October, the Ekstraklasa can return to the open air and there will be a lot of it. Where does this breakthrough come from and is it influenced by the upcoming elections?
This case has been going on for over a year, and although it seemed simple at first, it later became full of twists and turns. To put it briefly: after Canal+ bought the rights to the Ekstraklasa for the 2023-27 seasons, it was supposed to sell it one match a week for an agreed amount as part of an oral agreement with TVP. This is a provision in the contract that Canal+ signed with Ekstraklasa SA. However, no agreement was reached with the public broadcaster, and the fans – with nine rounds behind us – have already lost faith in matches on open air.
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TVP will give more, Canal+ will lower expectations?
All because of financial discrepancies between the rights holder and the public broadcaster. Canal+ paid a record amount, unofficially, of up to PLN 300 million for this season of the Premier League. The station was to recover part of this amount as part of cooperation with TVP, which was orally estimated at PLN 70 million over a year ago. At least that’s what the previous president of TVP, Jacek Kurski, proposed. However, the president of the public broadcaster changed in the fall – and Mateusz Matyszkowicz decided that he would not spend so much money on football.
The rights to an annual sublicense with only one match a week were priced at the offices at ul. Woronicza for approx. PLN 7-8 million. With this amount, there was a chance that the investment would be returned from advertising and cooperation with sponsors. However, the amount proposed by TVP to the coded broadcaster was met with irritation. Later raising it to several million zlotys did not help much. The situation became stalemate. The talks apparently lasted for months, but in fact they stalled because the financial discrepancies were too great. As we hear, last week was a breakthrough in the matter, even though no one had great hopes for the last-chance talks. So what happened to make an agreement so close?
Two factors must have contributed to this. First of all: for some reasons, TVP increased its financial offer. Does this mean that both broadcasters will meet in the middle of the road between the recently offered 15 million and the 70 million expected by Canal+? One can only guess. Let us add that under the previous contract, the public broadcaster paid approximately PLN 50 million per season.
The price issue has not been decided yet, as negotiations are still ongoing. Additionally, the contract will probably include a solution that was already widely discussed a few months ago. The sublicense agreement would be concluded not directly between Canal+ and TVP, but between TVP and Ekstraklasa. As we heard some time ago, all websites with this solution had no problems. However, these are not the only interesting facts about the contract, the next ones are important primarily for fans.
Catching up, i.e. two matches in the queue?
The issue of signing a sublicense agreement may be resolved within the next week, or at least he is expected to be a key player in the talks. Will we witness a pre-election rush and a rush to acquire the top league? Not necessarily, because according to further information, the top league this season may appear on the public broadcaster’s schedule only after the parliamentary elections, i.e. in the second half of October. For now, however, all parties, in addition to determining the final amount, are also busy resolving important elements of this puzzle. This includes: o the number of meetings intended for national broadcast. The clubs want it to be 34 games, as if the season was just starting. This solution will also mean that Canal+ will be able to get more money for the sublicense, and fans will see more matches by the end of this season. Assuming that the contract could be valid from 12.13. round, TVP will be able to select the outstanding dozen or so matches until the end of the season, apart from one match in the round. In practice, it will work out that he will present two live matches over a dozen or so weekends.
The criteria for broadcasting the matches are not yet fully known – whether they will be matches of the first choice, and in the case of two matches of the first and second choice? There are many indications that this will happen. The situation will therefore be similar to the one that occurred last season, if, of course, an agreement is reached. It is worth adding that for the first time in several months we are hearing a lot of optimism on this matter, mainly from the clubs, so let this be a good sign.
2023-09-27 12:21:00
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