European soccer’s governing body UEFA has re-opened tender processes in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, covering media rights to a range of men’s national team competitions through 2028, including the European Championships in that year.
In total, the tenders cover Euro 2028 and the qualifiers for that tournament, as well as qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Nations League, and a range of other international matches.
These processes (originally conducted in mid-2021) opened on May 2 and closed yesterday (May 28).
The original tenders covering rights in the trio of Baltic markets ran from May 10 to June 10, 2021, and resulted in Nordic Entertainment Group (now Viaplay), securing rights for the 2022-28 UEFA national team cycle.
However, the broadcaster has been through significant financial difficulties over the last 12 months, and as such has been forced to make plans to exit various markets it had previously been expanding into.
As a result, at the end of last year, it announced that it would exit the Baltic countries by mid-2025, meaning UEFA has now been forced to re-issue processes covering its national team events in that trio of countries.
Indeed, from February this year, all live sporting content formerly covered by Viaplay in those markets has been transferred to TV3 Group.
The latter network will still cover Euro 2024 in the Baltics, taking place in Germany between June 14 and July 14.
Only Latvia, in 2004, has ever qualified for a men’s Euros, out of the Baltic trio.
Viaplay, in terms of its other top-tier sporting rights in the Baltics, has previously covered soccer leagues such as Germany’s Bundesliga and England’s Premier League, as well as motor racing’s Formula 1 and ice hockey’s NHL.
