Telekom Srbija has acquired the rights to the Premier League (EPL) for the next six years.
Quoting the Beta news agency, N1 TV reports that the telco has agreed to pay €100 million a season for the rights and that games from the competition will be shown on its Arena Sport channel.
N1 TV is part of United Group, which is involved in a long-running dispute with state-owned Telekom Srbija, and points out that the €100 million per season is almost 10 times more than those rights previously paid by United Group SBB’s Sport Klub, which will still broadcast EPL games in the upcoming 2021/2022 season.
It also says that Telekom Srbija had debts of €1.44 billion last year, compared to €289 million in 2017. Given that the telco’s profits in 2020 amounted to €35 million, or 17 times less than it will pay for the EPL rights, there is probably a political motive behind the move to pay such an excessive amount for the rights.
Broadband TV News notes that United Group has previously disclosed evidence of Telekom Srbija trying to expel United Group’s operations from Serbia, principally by entering into a questionable agreement with Telenor Serbia.
