The eighteen current member clubs of the Eredivisie, the highest tier of professional soccer in the Netherlands, have voted unanimously to support the continuation of global sports broadcaster ESPN’s hold on the domestic rights to the league until 2030.
The league has been locked in negotiations with the broadcaster over an extension for the current contract, which is set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season.
ESPN has been the domestic broadcaster for the Eredivisie since 2013, with an initial deal struck in 2012.
The result of the negotiations was voted on by the 18 Eredivisie clubs, all of which supported the extension of the ESPN deal.
It means that not only will the Eredivisie continue to be broadcast domestically on ESPN, but so will the Eerste Divisie, Dutch soccer’s second-tier, and the Dutch Cup, known as the KNVB Beker, the country’s inter-tier cup competition.
The renewed media rights tie-up will see the clubs involved in all three competitions, as well as the Dutch Women’s Premier Division, known as the Eredivisie Vrouwen, receive “substantial” revenue increases from the deal.
A group of six Eredivisie clubs composed an advisory committee to the Eredivisie during the negotiation process. The group included the traditional Dutch “big-3” of Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, and Ajax, as well as RKC Waalwijk, Vitesse Arnhem, and AZ Alkmaar.
While the deal's renewal has been expected, it is not without controversy.
This week (October 9), four Dutch telecommunications firms complained to the country’s Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) over the proposed deal.
The firms claim they have been unable to negotiate for the rights themselves and have argued that the bidding process has lacked transparency and fairness, and requested that the ACM intervene to enforce this.
The four firms, VodafoneZiggo, Delta, KPN, and T-Mobile, initially sent a proposal to the league around securing the next set of domestic rights in mid-April.
The four companies claimed that their joint deal would give each team more control and higher income than through the current ESPN tie-up, however, attempts to contact the Eredivisie were ignored.
They also suggest that their offer would be worth a minimum of €180 million ($190.6 million) per year for live rights, more than the reported €150 million per year the renewed ESPN tie-up will grant them.
