Lagardère Sports, the sports rights subsidiary of French media company Lagardère, wants to launch a streaming service for sports fans in Germany.
Lagardère Sports Germany GmbH has applied for a licence for a nationwide thematic channel at local media authority MA HSH for this purpose. Anti-media concentration commission KEK has approved the project carrying the working title Lagardère Sports at its latest assembly in Berlin. The streaming service will solely contain livestreams of sports events, according to KEK.
Update, 12.01.2018, 11.00 CET Lagardère Sports does not intend to use the licence it applied for to set up its own sports streaming service in Germany, a spokeswoman explained to Broadband TV News. The licence will instead enable its partners, for example rights holders or sponsors, to act as a media platform offering live sports streaming. This has been the case with the IHF World Men’s Handball Championship 2017 which was streamed live by DKB Bank, the main sponsor of Germany’s domestic handball league Handball Bundesliga.
KEK also gave green light to the licence application WRC Promoter GmbH submitted at Bavarian media authority BLM for WRC+, a nationwide thematic channel focussing on motor sports. The programmes will be offered as a livestream on the internet at https://plus.wrc.com/de/ as well as through mobile applications, according to KEK.
WRC Promoter GmbH, a joint venture between Red Bull GmbH and KW 25 Beteiligungs GmbH, operates the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). Since 2014, it has also been operating WRC’s online video platform at www.wrc.com which offers racing coverage on-demand.
KEK also approved the licence applications submitted by Erik Range for streaming channels GronkhTV and Gronkh at local media authority LfM. GronkhTV will feature Let’s play videos of computer games and eSports 24 hours per day while Gronkh will show live coverage of computer games and eSports events on several days per weeks. The programmes will be streamed on the website www.gronkh.tv and on Twitch.tv.
