Antena 1 pays 85 million euro plus VAT for broadcasting rights of Romanian first League matches

Romanian commercial television channel Antena 1 defeated rivals Realitatea TV and Kanal D on Monday when it claimed victory in a tender for broadcasting rights over Romania’s first League football matches in the years to come. Antena 1 paid no less than 85 million euro plus VAT for the broadcasting rights – a small sum compared to similar Western markets, but seen as huge for the Romanian media market.

Antena 1 reached a deal with cable distributor RCS-RDS to win the bid, letting them outrank the offers pushed by Kanal D, owned by Turkish group Dogan, which stopped at 75 million. Realitatea TV, which last week announced it aquired Telesport, the TV channel that had previously bought the broadcasting rights, stopped at 84.5 million euro.

Sorin Oancea, Antena 1 vice-president, told HotNews.ro that Antena 1 would not subcontract the rights over various options as a principle. He did not, however, describe what Antena 1 and the RCS-RDS deal was about and how they planned to cover the price, as analysts in Romania believe the 100 million euro, VAT included, is too huge a sum to be covered by advertising revenues alone.

Media group Intact, which controls Antena 1, received a satellite license for a sports channel earlier this year. RCS-RDS also controls the Digi TV platform.