The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) announced they have signed multi-year extensions to its broadcast agreements with the BBC and Infront.
Through its international TV rights agency, it will allow matches to be shown in Japan and South Korea as part of the overseas agreement.
The BBC’s rights will continue to cover the cinch Premiership TV highlights on Sportscene, 20 live Friday night games on the BBC Scotland channel, radio rights on BBC Radio Scotland, and extensive clip rights on the bbc.co.uk website.
Infronts deal, meanwhile, will see the international rights agency continue to distribute SPFL’s rights to overseas broadcasters until 2029. The deal includes a buyout agreement from 2025.
According to the SPFL, the Premiership is already broadcasted in over 150 countries before this current agreement was struck for the Japan and South Korean market.
The SPFL and Celtic in particular have benefitted greatly from recruiting top Asian prospects in recent years, especially under Ange Postecoglou who took advantage of his Yokohama F Marinos connections. Other teams are following suit, with Hearts signing talent Yutaro Oda.
With this recruitment comes an amazing commercial opportunity for the league to take full advantage from, with Asian tourists watching games live being a big focus for the league.
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster, in a press release, expressed the strength of these new agreements in regards to the growth of the SPFL.
“The strong interest we received during the recent competitive tendering process underlines the increasing demand from broadcasters for the excitement and drama of the SPFL.” he said.
“These contracts come on the back of record fee payments to the 42 SPFL clubs announced in the past year and, alongside our recently extended record agreement with Sky Sports, will play a major role in strengthening the financial future of the SPFL.
“We are very much looking forward to working with Sky Sports, BBC Scotland, and Infront to bring the passion, skill, and drama of the cinch SPFL to millions more football fans worldwide.”
Louise Thornton, Head of Commissioning, BBC Scotland, added via media release:
“We’re delighted we’ve reached this agreement with the SPFL which further strengthens our commitment to provide extensive coverage of the top tiers of the game.” she said.
“Live Championship football has become a popular fixture of the Friday night schedule on the BBC Scotland channel, so it’s great news that will continue until 2029. Combining that with the broad slate of live radio coverage and tv and online highlights from the Premiership over the same period is brilliant news for our audiences.”
Andreas Kaeshammer, Head of Football at Infront was equally as delighted to continue with the SPFL:
“Our continued partnership with SPFL speaks volumes about our collective achievements over the past years. We’ve unlocked new opportunities for SPFL, both in terms of broadcast territories and digital footprint. This renewed commitment allows us to further build on this momentum and continue elevating Scottish football on a global scale.” he added via press release.
This partnership is a great, proactive move that will help further push the international viewership and growth needed for the SPFL if they want to challenge Europe’s top leagues in talent and revenue.
