E1 in seven-territory media rights deal with TV Arena in Balkans

The deal extends across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Euan Cunningham April 09 2024

The all-electric E1 powerboating series has unveiled a broadcast rights tie-up across seven territories in the Balkan region of Europe, through a deal with TV Arena.

Through a tie-up with that regional broadcast network, all E1 race action through the remainder of the inaugural E1 2024 season (which began in Saudi Arabia in early February) will be live on TV Arena across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

The Arena Sport network will offer free-to-air coverage of the series, which has another six races left in its debut campaign.

Harkiran Chima, E1’s head of media and new business, has said: “The decision to offer free-to-air coverage with our partners at TV Arena is to make the E1 Championship as accessible as possible as we plan to bring future events to the region.”

Nebojša Žugić, chief executive of TV Arena Sport, added: “Our partnership with E1 is clear evidence of the scale of our ambition to bring the finest, fastest, and most exciting sport content to the regional market and establish Arena Sport brand as the top content provider in this part of Europe.”

The championship began in Jeddah and finishes in Hong Kong on November 10.

Team owners include the likes of American football’s Tom Brady, soccer’s Didier Drogba, Formula 1’s Sergio Perez, tennis star Rafael Nadal, and US music producer Steve Aoki, with E1 using celebrity involvement as a means of driving interest in the series.

Other E1 broadcasters include CBS in the US, ITV in the UK, as well as the Kuaishou and Yang Shi Pin streaming services and the Shandong, Jiangsu, and Liaoning TV channels in China.

In addition, E1 has detailed agreements with Sky Italia, Direct TV in Latin America, as well as with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.

In markets without TV deals, YouTube is streaming the races live on E1’s official channel.

Read: How has E1 used partnerships to launch a new sport globally?

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