The Saran Media Group agency has extended its agreement with Uefa, European football’s governing body, for broadcast rights to its club competitions in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The contract, covering the 2021-22 to 2023-24 seasons, includes the top-tier Uefa Champions League, second-tier Europa League, new third-tier Europa Conference League and Uefa Super Cup.
Saran will hold the exclusive live, delayed, highlights and clips rights to these competitions across all platforms, including television, online and mobile.
In December, the Team Marketing agency launched tender processes for the 2021-24 cycle in Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. Concurrent invitations to submit offers for the Champions League (Uefa Super Cup), and the Europa League and Europa Conference League were launched with rights to the second-tier and new third-tier competition packaged together as standard.
Saran holds the Champions League and Europa League rights for the current cycle (2018-19 to 2020-21) in all of the countries placed on the market, with the exception of Georgia, where Telco Silknet is the incumbent rights-holder in Georgia.
In Azerbaijan, sports channel CBC Sport and public broadcaster AzTV currently show Champions League and Europa League action after acquiring rights to both competitions from Saran.
Kazkh national sports channel Qazsport holds rights to both competitions during the current cycle, while sports channel Q Sport holds Champions League rights in Kyrgyzstan.
There are deals elsewhere in Central Asia with state-owned broadcasters Varzish TV in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Sport in Turkmenistan, along with private news channel Uzreport TV in Uzbekistan.
Saran has also held Uefa club rights in Turkey since 2015-16. The agency also holds broadcast rights in Central Asia and selected Eastern European countries to Uefa’s Nations League, European Qualifiers and other friendly matches during the 2018-19 to 2021-22 cycle.