SBS Discovery nets exclusive soccer deal

SBS Discovery Media, the unit created by Discovery following its acquisition of SBS Broadcasting, has secured the exclusive Scandinavian rights to European qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournaments.

SBS Discovery Media struck a deal with UEFA for rights across TV, online and mobile platforms in Denmark, Sweden and Norway to all 546 qualifiers to the World Cup involving European teams and to the Euro 2016 tournament in France.

The deal includes all qualification matches played by the National Teams for the next four years: 10 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers, 10 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and optionally four additional play off qualification matches.

UEFA has changed the structure of the qualifiers to both competitions to the ‘week of football’ concept already used for the UEFA Champions League where matches will be played each night at fixed slots during a whole week.

“This is really good news for all football fans in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, who can lookforward to follow the National Teams on its way to the great finals. Football is the biggest sport in the world, and we are very happy, enthusiastic and proud to have acquired all of the European qualifiers. It will be matches that will be gathering the nations in all three Nordic countries,” said Henrik Ravn, Nordic president of SBS Discovery Media.