Bevy of Baltic deals for Sportfive’s Olympic group

10 July 2012 | Posted in Broadcast, Olympics, Europe | By James Emmett

Sportfive, the agency that holds the European rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, has finalised a new batch of deals in the Baltic countries.

Broadcasters in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have purchased the right to cover the Sochi winter Games and the Rio summer Games from Swiss-based agency.

Eesti Rahvusringhaaling (ERR), the Estonian national public broadcaster and a long-term Olympic broadcaster, has bought the free-to-air television rights for 'the majority of events' at Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. The deal also includes radio rights.

Public Company Ltd Latvian Television (LTV), another national broadcaster, has bought a similar package, minus radio rights, in Latvia.

The Lithuanian deals, however, represent a break from the norm. Two broadcasters, LNK-UAB Lasivas Ir Nepriklausomas Kanalasfor, and Lietuvos Ryto TV, have signed deals with Sportfive - the former for the free-to-air rights to the opening and closing ceremonies at both Olympics, and the latter to the majority of the events.

It is the first time that commercial broadcasters will cover the Games in the country.

A supplementary deal for the region has been signed with Modern Times Group's Viasat Broadcasting. The pan-national platform will show one discipline of the 2014 and 2016 Games exclusively on free-to-air television, as well as more coverage on pay-TV, video-on-demand, and online across all three countries.

Shaila-Ann Rao, chief executive of Sportfive International, said, "The diversity of media platforms covering the winter Games and summer Games in the Baltic countries will be wider than ever before for Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016."