ESPN has signed a three-year extension with Relevent Sports Group for media rights to the International Champions Cup, a deal that also will see the network’s platforms offer expanded coverage of the ICC’s recently launched women’s and youth team tournaments.
The ICC, the summer tournament for top European soccer clubs founded in 2013 by Stephen Ross, Matt
Higgins and Charlie Stillitano, previously had a three-year deal with ESPN that it signed in 2016. Prior to that, the tournament aired on Fox Sports in the U.S.
The deal, which gives ESPN English- and Spanish-language rights in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, will see the network televise at least 15 to 25 of the tournament’s matches, with the remainder appearing on ESPN+. The knockout and final rounds of both the women’s and youth team tournaments also will appear on ESPN linear platforms, with the group stages streaming on digital. In 2018, the first year for both of those tournaments, only the women’s final match was broadcast on ESPN2.
That will also come with a larger rights fee — RSG CEO Danny Sillman said the new deal increased four times in value compared to the previous one with ESPN, declining to comment further. RSG’s last deal with ESPN had increased from its previous deal with Fox, which was valued at more than $2.2 million over the three years, according to sources.
Sillman noted the changed media landscape and desire for soccer media rights that has evolved from 2016, saying there was “interest from all the key players this time.”
ESPN also will provide expanded coverage of all three tournaments, which will include additional shoulder programming and content produced about the players and the teams. Sillman noted the success that ESPN and ABC have had in broadcasting the Little League World Series, which is serving as a model for the ICC’s youth tournament, known as ICC Futures and which brings together the best under-14 youth squads from teams around the world.
RSG currently does not have any additional international broadcast deals done, and Sillman said the company will begin to shift its focus to that area. He said his expectation is that several deals will get done, considering the tournament’s field will again include several top-flight European clubs and their men’s, women’s and youth teams, as well as youth teams from Asia and South America.
Relevent Sports Group will announce its full slate of participating teams and programming across the three tournaments next week.
