Cypriot telecoms operator Cyta has retained all but one of its Uefa club competition rights packages but has lost rights to the first-pick Uefa Europa League or Europa Conference League match to public broadcaster CyBC, SportBusiness understands.
Cyta is understood to have agreed a deal for exclusive rights to all Champions League matches and exclusive rights to all but the first-pick match from the Europa League and Europa Conference League over the next three-season cycle, from 2024-25 to 2026-27.
CyBC will hold exclusive rights to one match each week from either the second-tier Europa League or third-tier Europa Conference League.
A full SportBusiness Media analysis of the deals is available here.
Cyta currently holds exclusive rights in Cyprus to all Uefa club competitions under a three-season agreement from 2021-22 to 2023-24. It also held exclusive rights in the previous cycle, from 2018-19 to 2020-21.
CyBC’s acquisition of Europa League and Europa Conference League rights is specifically geared toward catering to interest in local football clubs.
Cypriot clubs do not typically qualify for the Champions League – the last to reach the group stage was Apoel in 2017-18 – meaning that rights to the Europa League and Europa Conference League are far more likely to yield locally relevant matches. As such, CyBC hopes that its investment yields the first pick of matches involving Cypriot clubs each week.
The public broadcaster last held Uefa club competition rights during the 2015-18 cycle, when it televised first-pick Europa League matches. More recently, CyBC’s football rights have focused around national team properties, including the ongoing 2022 Fifa World Cup, which it is broadcasting as part of the deal struck by the European Broadcasting Union.
Team Marketing, which is selling media rights to the men’s Uefa club competitions in all territories except the US across the 2024-27 cycle, went to market with the rights in Cyprus on September 13 and set a first-round bid deadline of October 18.
Interest in the rights is thought to have been tempered by the tripartite cross-carriage agreement between Cyta and fellow telecoms operators Cablenet and PrimeTel. In addition, requirements for broadcasters to already have an established presence in markets where they bid are thought to have prevented other parties from moving for the rights with a view to gaining a foothold in the Cypriot market.
Cyprus currently holds five spots in European competition. This season, they were split as follows: one team in the Champions League third-qualifying round; one side in the Champions League second-qualifying round; one team in the Europa League third qualifying round; and two clubs in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.
No Cypriot teams qualified for the Champions League groups stages this season, but both AEK Larnaca and Omonia Nicosia reached the Europa League group stages, while Apollon Limassol took part in the Europa Conference League group stages.
Cyta’s renewal of Uefa club competition rights follows the renewal of its exclusive rights to the English Premier League for an additional three seasons last year.
For Team, the deal marks its latest sale of the 2024-27 cycle, following agreements with telco Ziggo in the Netherlands; pay-TV broadcaster Telekom Srbija in the Balkans and public broadcaster HRT in Croatia; public broadcaster RTK and pay-TV broadcaster ArtMotion in Kosovo; pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport and internet giant Amazon in the UK; and pay-TV broadcaster Canal Plus and commercial broadcaster M6 in France.
Team has also gone to market with Uefa club competition rights in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria.