The upcoming 2024 UEFA European Championship men's national teams soccer tournament will receive broad coverage in Russia after deals were agreed with Gazprom Media-owned sports broadcaster Match TV and subscription streaming service Okko Sport.
The 24-team tournament will be shown on linear TV and a streaming platform in Russia for the first time in what the two parties said is “the first step in the framework of cooperation between Okko and Match TV.”
Euro 2024 will be held in Germany from June 14 to July 14.
Match TV and Okko, which is owned by media group Rambler&Co, have secured the deal despite Russia being banned from qualifying for the tournament following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (with parts of Ukraine still under Russian occupation and the war continuing).
The Euro 2024 coverage split will see Match TV show 34 of the 51 matches, while Okko will broadcast 17 games.
Match TV will broadcast 22 matches in the group stages, all eight games in the round of 16, two quarter-finals, one semi-final, and the final. Okko will show 14 group fixtures, two quarter-finals, and a semi-final.
Ukraine’s three group-stage matches will all be streamed on Okko, but if the country advances to the knockout stages, its last 16 fixture will be shown on Match TV.
UEFA previously agreed a deal with the Telesport agency for the sale of media rights in Russia. In 2023, Telesport sold the rights to Match TV but caused a stir with Okko which claimed it had purchased all UEFA European national team matches until 2028 and paid the entire rights fee in advance.
Okko notified Gazprom Media about the controversial situation and shared details of its contract. It was determined that the streaming platform held rights to broadcast qualifying matches for the 2024 and 2028 European Championships, as well as the 2026 World Cup.
Despite the confusion, Gazprom Media and Rambler&Co came to an amicable resolution, agreeing to collaborate for the first time to show the forthcoming Euros.
The delayed Euro 2020 (which took place in 2021) was also broadcast in Russia, with coverage shared by Match TV and state-controlled free-to-air channels Channel One and Russia One. These deals were also secured through Telesport.
CAA Eleven is UEFA’s agency partner responsible for selling national team event rights.
Tina Kandelaki, deputy general director of Gazprom Media, has said: “The entire market was watching the development of the situation regarding the screening of the European Championship. I am very grateful to my colleagues that despite the complexity of the negotiations, thanks to the constructive position of all participants in the transaction, we managed to reach the finish line.
“I am sure that such a large and complex case will be the beginning of large-scale projects that we plan to launch in the future together with Okko.”
Sergey Shishkin, chief executive of Okko, added: “The unprecedented partnership between Okko and Match TV is a landmark moment in the history of sports broadcasting.
“There are currently a number of restrictions on the media rights market from foreign rights holders, but this year Russian viewers will be able to watch the European Football Championship.”
Despite several major European soccer leagues having suspended their broadcast deals in Russia following the war on Ukraine, such as the English Premier League and France's Ligue 1, UEFA’s media rights agreements in the country have remained unaffected.
Match TV has continued to show the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League men's club competitions as part of its three-year contract in the 2021-22 to 2023-24 cycle.
However, UEFA did terminate its lucrative and long-standing sponsorship deal with Russian oil giant Gazprom and was also forced to move the Champions League final from Saint Petersburg in 2022.
