The controversial extension of Eredivisie broadcast rights in the Dutch domestic market has been agreed.
The existing agreement within Eredivisie Media & Marketing (EMM) has been extended by five years, meaning that top-flight football will continue to be shown live on ESPN in the Netherlands after 2025.
EMM is the joint venture of The Walt Disney Company, the Eredivisie CV and the KNVB. Almost all Dutch football live on ESPN.
Earlier this month, the rival consortium of Dutch telecom companies including Vodafone and Ziggo, took their bid to the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). They argued there was no fair bidding process.
Live coverage of the Keuken Kampioen Division and Azerion Vrouwen Eredivisie will begin immediately. The unexpected expansion of coverage means that some matches from the competitions will not be broadcast live or displaced to the online service ESPN Watch.
In a joint statement, Frank Rutten and Marco de Ruiter of Eredivisie Media & Marketing said: “We are happy that the clubs have unanimously expressed their confidence in the cooperation we have with each other. With ESPN, we remain the connecting factor for football-loving Netherlands with great passion, by bringing the total Dutch club football live to people’s homes in the best possible way. In doing so, we are creating an even broader and solid financial base among football, which is important to ensure that the leagues continue to grow and develop qualitatively.”
EMM was founded in 2008 by the Eredivisie clubs to exploit their collective media and sponsorship rights. This led to the launch of Eredivisie Live, which was rebranded as FOX Sports in 2013 after FOX International Channels took a majority stake in EMM. Since 2021 the channel has been known as ESPN after Disney took over FOX’s European interests in 2019.
