A new season of Champions league will begin in just six months. Since November last year, the Nordic media rights for the Champions League have been up for sale. Team Marketing is responsible for sales on behalf of UEFA, the European football confederation. However, negotiations seam difficult as there has not been no news regarding any upcoming rights holders for the Champions league in the Nordics yet. The silence indicates that the media rights have been hard to sell, which several sources have reported.

Together with the English Premier league, Champions league was the league with highest viewing interest last year in the Nordics. Approximately 3.3 million 15-74-year-olds in the Nordics stated interest in watching the tournament. This was concluded in the 2023 edition of Mediavision’s Sports Analysis.

Mediavision follows the Nordic sports rights market closely and our insights are presented in the Mediavision Sports Analysis. The 2023 edition covers 19 sports and over 100 specific sports rights. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the current Nordic sports rights market and an in-depth analysis of consumer interest, willingness to pay and pay rate. For order or more information, please contact adrian.grande@mediavision.se.

Back in June, Elon Musk, owner of X, announced plans to launch a video app for the social media platform on smart TVs. Now, reports suggest that an X smart TV app could launch as early as this week, initially exclusively on Amazon and Samsung smart TVs. Musk has confirmed the upcoming launch on X, by stating that “long-form videos will soon be available on smart televisions”.
 

According to anonymous sources within the company, the new app looks close to “identical” to Youtube’s smart TV app. The same sources claim that Elon Musk aims for users to watch “long videos on a bigger screen” and that X is “set on competing with YouTube”.

X has struggled to retain advertisers, amid controversies since Musk bought the platform, previously known as Twitter, back in 2022. In an attempt to retain advertisers, the company last month revealed that it would enable advertisers to run ads next to certain content creators.

X describes itself as a video-first platform, but Musk has also said that he has plans to turn X into a so called “super app”, offering services from messaging to peer-to-peer payments. The platform rolled out an early version of an audio and video calling feature to a limited number or users in October last year.

“It’s a huge challenge, not just for us at TV 2 who sell this, but for football as a whole. This will be important work and is a necessary area of focus going forward. We are in the starting pit here and don’t have much more to report right now, but it is a challenge” says, Olav Sandnes, CEO at TV, to Kampanje.
 

Sandnes is open to the idea of working together with other TV companies that are struggling with the same issue.
 

“Yes, it’s possible, but perhaps the most important thing is what football can accomplish because it often involves regulatory opportunities, although I won’t delve into this. There’s a lot of law involved here, and it’s not entirely straightforward”, Sandnes says.
 

The president of the Norwegian Football Association, Lise Klaveness, was also present at the event and expressed her worries of the issue.
 

“We must look at it, and we must do it on several levels. One aspect is the technical side, where you can block signals. Another is the legal aspect of gaining access to block, and the third is about sanctioning when it happens. Of course, we can work politically to achieve something, but I believe one must invest in it because it’s not something I think authorities spend much time and money on today. Not that I know for sure” Klaveness says.
 

Klaveness also states that the Norwegian Football Association must get involved in the matter, as the income from the media agreement is their most important source of income.

Mediavision: Growing demand for local content in the Nordics – Broadband TV News

Därför blir streamingtjänsterna allt dyrare – och sämre – PC för alla

Mediavision: Ad-Supported SVOD Gaining Traction in the Nordics – Media Play News

Mediavision: Starkt intresse för HVOD i Sverige – Dagens Media

Efterspørgslen på nordisk tv-indhold stiger men udbuddet kan ikke følge med – Mediawatch

Sweden: Interest growing in ad-supported streaming – Advanced Television

Svenskar vill se mer svenskt på streamad tv – Sveriges Radio

Illegal affär kostar filmindustrin miljarder – Dagens PS

Var fjärde svensk strömmar olaglig tv – SVT

Kan bli det store gjennombruddet for denne typen TV-abonnement – Kampanje

Mediavision: Digitala ljudtjänster tar andelar på ljudmarknaden – Radionytt

Return of media piracy fuelling other crimes, expert says – Yle

Krisen i tv-branschen fortsätter – nu ökar piratkopieringen – Aftonbladet