Negotiations will continue despite Eleven Sports gaining the rights to show Belgian professional football.
Eleven Sports has been allocated exclusive domestic media rights to show the Belgian Pro league, Super Cup, Belgian Cup, and Women’s Super League from the 2020-2021 season until 2025.
The General Assembly of the Pro League agreed to the reported €103 million (£86.4m) deal with a 2/3 majority. However, there was a twist in the negotiations. Two sides, Antwerp and Gent, pulled out of the collective rights sale. The former deciding to do so as they were unhappy with the current distribution of the proceeds among clubs.
Having secured the rights to show the Belgian leagues, Eleven Sports will now continue talks with the Pro League to try and discuss the next steps after the exit of these two sides – starting today.
The current owners of the rights, Belgian broadcasters Proximus, Telenet and Voo, were reported to be competing with Eleven Sports. In addition, Mediapro, the multimedia communications group, was reported to be looking at securing a long-term deal for the rights.
The Belgian Pro League invited bids for the rights from 2 December 2019, before clubs met on 24 January but failed to award the rights. Then, at another meeting on 12 February, the clubs came to an agreement on Eleven Sports – minus the exits of Antwerp and Gent from the collective sale.
Eleven Sports, based in the UK, launched in Belgium in 2015. It has shown the likes of Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1 in the country since their creation.