The sports rights market comprises two main types of players: rights holders and broadcasters. Over time, intermediaries have emerged: sports rights agencies.
1/ Rights holders:
A sports right is a commercial contract between a broadcaster and a rights holder.
The latter is the actual owner of the sports right.
For example, in the case of Ligue 1, it is the French Football League (LFP), which also manages the rights for Ligue 2 and the Coupe de la Ligue. For the National championship and the French national teams, it is the French Football Federation (FFF) that manages the sports rights. In Africa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) manages pan-African football competitions.
A rights holder can be an association such as the FFF, an international NGO such as the CAF, or a private company such as Euroleague Basketball, which manages the Euroleague and Eurocup basketball competitions, or the Premier League for the English first division championship.
2/ Sports rights agencies (Media Rights Agency) A sports rights agency
(media rights agency
) generally purchases sports rights from a rights holder, guaranteeing them a fixed amount. Its job is then to ensure that the rights it has acquired are resold in order to make its purchase profitable.
The sports rights agency purchases the rights for a specific period and territory
, generally the rest of the world outside the rights holder's national territory.
The duration of the contract varies depending on the rights holder. European soccer is governed by short rights cycles, generally three years. Other rights holders prefer to sell their rights for longer periods to ensure regular income over a long period of time.
This approach can be very lucrative for MRAs, but it is also extremely risky. The financial levels required necessitate very powerful investors.
As a result, several Chinese groups and investment funds have recently entered this global market. MP Silva,
one of the most powerful MRAs in the world, was rescued in 2016 by Chinese investment funds but ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
In addition, Infront Sports and Media
was acquired by the Chinese group Wanda
, and the Chinese investment fund Orient Hontai Capital
owns 53% of Mediapro
, the Spanish audiovisual group that purchased the rights to France's Ligue 1 for €1 billion for the 2020-2024 seasons.
In French-speaking Africa, most sports rights are held by Lagardère Sports
(formerly Sportfive). The UAR,
which played this role for many years, could return to this market thanks to the recent call for tenders launched by the CAF for FREE TV rights.
In addition, the South African pay-TV platform MULTICHOICE
also sub-licenses rights to competitions in French-speaking Africa that it purchases for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
Broadcasters
The rights to sports competitions are marketed to
- pay TV channels such as CANAL+ AFRIQUE or STARTIMES
- free-to-air television channels (FREE TV), whether public such as RTS, RTI, or ORTM, or private such as TFM, CANAL2 International, etc.
- internet and mobile players such as AMAZON, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, ORANGE, MTN, etc.
- as well as radio stations, even if this remains anecdotal in Africa.
Read the full report: Sports rights in French-speaking Africa