QTV Sports, the UK-based multimedia production company, has extended and expanded its partnership with soccer's Scottish Professional Football League based on the production of top-tier Scottish Premiership matches.
The deal, which comes into effect in August, is a renewal of the short-term arrangement struck ahead of the 2020-21 campaign, and will involve three games per match day (fixtures not covered by UK broadcast partner Sky) being produced by QTV, which adds up to 142 live Premiership matches per season.
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QTV will also produce highlights for 228 Premiership games each year over the course of the partnership, which also covers the second-tier Championship, the League Cup competition, and the distribution of streams to both betting and data companies.
In addition, QTV has launched what it claims is Scotland’s first remote production facility as part of the extension.
The company first remote-produced a Scottish Premiership match last month, when Ross County took on St. Mirren, and has said it wants to expand remote production to over 100 Premiership matches per season in future years.
The remote production will be carried out from QTV’s base in Glasgow, and will be assisted by the BT Media & Broadcast and Cerberus technology companies.
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By GlobalDataThe original deal between QTV and the SPFL made the company responsible for outside broadcast, production and distribution of top-flight matches not shown by Sky.
Sky has rights in the UK until the end of the 2024-25 campaign,
Neil Doncaster, the SPFL’s chief executive, said: “The start of our new broadcast agreement cycle from the beginning of season 2020-21 gave us the opportunity to review our Scottish Premiership match production and distribution processes.
“Working with QTV has allowed us to modernise our approach with the addition of the match day production centre, which has not only made delivery to partners and clubs more efficient, but also presented further commercial opportunities.”
Jack McGill, QTV’s chief executive, added: “We saw an opportunity to do something transformative, and the success of the first season [in partnership with the SPFL] has inspired us to look quickly for opportunities to expand using similar workflows.”
In addition to its deal with the SPFL, QTV has been working with five Premiership clubs – Celtic, Hibernian, Hamilton Academical, Ross County and St. Mirren – to provide the match day production for their in-house television channels.
All 12 Premiership clubs have been streaming their home matches this season, with fans unable to go to games due to coronavirus-based restrictions.
Last month, the SPFL and Sky reached agreement for the arrangement to continue into the 2021-22 campaign.
