Marc Watson, the executive chairman and group chief executive at multinational broadcaster Eleven Sports, has revealed to industry outlet Sportcal that the company is eyeing up moves into two new markets.
Eleven Sports is currently active in ten territories – Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Myanmar, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and Ireland and the US – where it operates a mix of linear television and over-the-top (OTT) services with rights to an array of international sports properties such as the Uefa Champions League, the National Football League (NFL) and Formula One.
The network’s most recent high-profile launch came in the UK and Ireland, where it has since struggled to achieve the early success that it has in other markets due to a failure to secure a linear carriage deal. Despite that, Watson says the company is still pushing ahead with plans to expand its global footprint.
“We are going through a period right now where we’ve grown very quickly, a process now of consolidating that a bit and making sure it’s a really strong platform, and once we’ve done that then we look to develop the business further,” Watson told Sportcal.
“We are looking seriously at two major new markets at the moment. We think we have identified a really strong opportunity in both of those and we’re working on them in the background and see how they develop.
“The basic message is we are growing extremely quickly, and consolidating the business to make sure it has a strong scalable future.”
Watson also confirmed that Eleven remains committed to the UK and Ireland despite losing further flagship rights in the market.
Last month Eleven revealed that it would be handing over its coverage of Italian soccer’s Serie A and the Eredivisie, Dutch soccer’s top tier, to Premier Sports from the beginning of March following a ‘strategic decision’ to end its partnership with IMG, the agency that sells the rights to both properties.
That announcement came shortly after Eleven was forced to relinquish its rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in December after a reported carriage deal with Virgin Media fell through.
Since then, Eleven, which operates purely as an over-the-top (OTT) offering in the UK, has vowed to lower the price of a monthly pass for existing subscribers from UK£5.99 to UK£4.99 from 1st March, while the option to purchase an annual pass has been removed from its website.
Eleven has committed to keeping its UK coverage of La Liga, Spanish soccer’s top flight, until at least the end of the season, and Watson is hopeful that it can continue beyond that.
“There is a reluctance of operators to support a new entry [in the UK] that we have not encountered anywhere else. It is unusual,” Watson told Sportcal.
Adding: “We are a digital product dedicated to Spanish football. We are investing in the product, adding content and we are expanding distribution to enable customers to watch our application on smart TVs. The service is growing. It is a good service.
“We have agreed with La Liga that we will continue this service until the end of the season. We are reviewing what happens beyond that. We would like to continue if we can find the right basis to do that. Those conversations are live right now.”
Despite being unable to secure a linear carriage deal, Eleven has at least expanded its digital distribution in recent days by launching apps in the UK and Ireland for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick and Android TVs.
Marc Watson, the executive chairman and group chief executive at multinational broadcaster Eleven Sports, has revealed to industry outlet Sportcal that the company is eyeing up moves into two new markets.
Eleven Sports is currently active in ten territories – Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Myanmar, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and Ireland and the US – where it operates a mix of linear television and over-the-top (OTT) services with rights to an array of international sports properties such as the Uefa Champions League, the National Football League (NFL) and Formula One.
The network’s most recent high-profile launch came in the UK and Ireland, where it has since struggled to achieve the early success that it has in other markets due to a failure to secure a linear carriage deal. Despite that, Watson says the company is still pushing ahead with plans to expand its global footprint.
“We are going through a period right now where we’ve grown very quickly, a process now of consolidating that a bit and making sure it’s a really strong platform, and once we’ve done that then we look to develop the business further,” Watson told Sportcal.
“We are looking seriously at two major new markets at the moment. We think we have identified a really strong opportunity in both of those and we’re working on them in the background and see how they develop.
“The basic message is we are growing extremely quickly, and consolidating the business to make sure it has a strong scalable future.”
Watson also confirmed that Eleven remains committed to the UK and Ireland despite losing further flagship rights in the market.
Last month Eleven revealed that it would be handing over its coverage of Italian soccer’s Serie A and the Eredivisie, Dutch soccer’s top tier, to Premier Sports from the beginning of March following a ‘strategic decision’ to end its partnership with IMG, the agency that sells the rights to both properties.
That announcement came shortly after Eleven was forced to relinquish its rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in December after a reported carriage deal with Virgin Media fell through.
Since then, Eleven, which operates purely as an over-the-top (OTT) offering in the UK, has vowed to lower the price of a monthly pass for existing subscribers from UK£5.99 to UK£4.99 from 1st March, while the option to purchase an annual pass has been removed from its website.
Eleven has committed to keeping its UK coverage of La Liga, Spanish soccer’s top flight, until at least the end of the season, and Watson is hopeful that it can continue beyond that.
“There is a reluctance of operators to support a new entry [in the UK] that we have not encountered anywhere else. It is unusual,” Watson told Sportcal.
Adding: “We are a digital product dedicated to Spanish football. We are investing in the product, adding content and we are expanding distribution to enable customers to watch our application on smart TVs. The service is growing. It is a good service.
“We have agreed with La Liga that we will continue this service until the end of the season. We are reviewing what happens beyond that. We would like to continue if we can find the right basis to do that. Those conversations are live right now.”
Despite being unable to secure a linear carriage deal, Eleven has at least expanded its digital distribution in recent days by launching apps in the UK and Ireland for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick and Android TVs.
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