The Russian Football Premier League is in negotiations for new three-year TV rights deals and hopes that the value of the Russian deal will at least not be lower than the previous $105M contract. Russian TV rights were sold to the local satellite operator NTV Plus in a three-season deal in '12, and int'l rights were picked up by IMG in a similar three-year deal, which was also signed in '12 and will expire after the end of the current season. "Negotiations with the current [int'l] rights holder are in progress," Yevgeny Krasilnikov, head of external communications at Liga TV, RFPL's subsidiary that handles TV rights, told SBD Global. He also said discussions about a three-year deal for Russian TV rights are also in progress.
MAINTAINING STATUS QUO: RFPL President Sergei Pryadkin was quoted by the Russian news agency TASS as saying that signing a Russian deal of the same value as the '12 contract would be good in the present economic conditions. "Of course, we would like more, but, given the current situation in the economy, it would be good if the new contract stipulated at least the same amount of money as the current one," he said. Meanwhile, Liga TV plans to offer more content to global audiences as of next season. "In the new season, we will be offering globally a football product that includes not only game broadcasts, but also extra English-language content," Krasilnikov said.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
