The Telesport agency, which sells the rights to television, is preparing to launch the Sport TV channel in the cable and satellite. The company plans to show matches of football championships Spain

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The Telesport agency, which sells the rights to television, is preparing to launch the Sport TV channel in the cable and satellite. The company plans to show matches of football championships of Spain and Italy, fighting without UFC rules, boxing and its own programs. It is extremely difficult to monetize sports rights in Russia, although spectators and advertisers, such as bookmakers, have interest in such content, market participants note.

The Telesport agency launches the Male Sports Channel “Power TV”, test broadcasting will begin on August 16, Ilya Rustamov, general producer of Telesport Media, told Kommersant. Telesport Petra Makarenko is engaged in the purchase and implementation of television for broadcasting sports tournaments, selling advertising in them, attracting sponsors, etc. The agency has a large volume of media rights, its own broadcasting, Telesport Media already shows sport on the Internet for more than a year, so the thematic channel is “the thematic channel -“ This is an additional monetization of existing content, ”Mr. Rustamov said:“ Let's see if there is money in this. ”

Back in 2017, Telesport examined the launch of two television channels – with martial arts and a general portable one. Now it is planned only “Power TV” with a focus for martial arts, a channel in the process of obtaining a license for non -embosse broadcasting. In Roskomnadzor, Kommersant reported that the TV channel with this name has not yet been registered, and in June the Telesport Media license received only on the Silatv.ru website. The representative of Rostelecom said that Telesport has not yet presented a new television channel. The Tricolor TV did not respond to the request.

Telesport exclusively engages in Russia by broadcasts of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) tournaments – produces direct broadcasts, broadcasts them on Silatv.ru and on social networks, and also sells shows to the Match TV channel. In 2017, the company entered into a contract for several years to show La League – the main football tournament of Spain – and showed the first games on VKontakte in exchange for advertising in broadcasting. The first two games were monitored by 1.2 million people, and the purchase of La League fought back only at the expense of Internet scales, Ilya Rustamov notes.

Recently, Telesport has acquired the rights to show two more large tournaments, he says: Series A (the Higher League of the Italian Championship) and the League of Nations (a new football tournament for national teams, starting in the fall). All this, as well as local sporting events, boxing and struggle, is planned to be shown on “strength of TV”. The company wants to retain the rights to broadcast in cable or sell without exclusive.

The Championship of Spain is traditionally popular in Russia, series A is to a lesser extent. For example, the broadcast “Real Madrid” – “Barcelona” in December 2017 at the afternoon on “First Channel” watched 9.2% of Russians over four years old with the TV turned on, and the game “Roma” – “Inter” on “Match TV” in August 2017 – 2.5%, follows from the data of Mediascope.

Sports content is included in the category of the most popular among the Russian audience, says Svetlana Borisova, program director of the Orion group of companies. “But it is important to take into account that the monetization of sports broadcasting rights in Russia is extremely low. The success of the project largely depends on how the marketing strategy is built,” she notes. Any sports channel will be of interest to bookmakers as advertisers, although boxing and martial arts have a niche audience, adds Dmitry Sergeev, CEO of Bwin in Russia. “But there are already similar channels in the Match TV package, and I have not yet seen their distribution show significant revenue,” he argues.

TeleSport has purchased a large amount of media rights where it can, but the market is not reclaiming them yet, which is why the agency needs an additional distribution method, suggests the head of one of the producers of thematic channels. Another interlocutor of Kommersant in the media market clarifies that TeleSport's rights to the UFC are ending this year, moreover, the UFC recently created a Russian company together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which may want to take over the distribution itself.