UK/Ireland: Eleven Sports struggling due to "current market dynamics"

"Without carriage agreements with the existing platforms, alongside the challenges posed by rampant piracy, the current market dynamics in the UK and Ireland are very hostile for new entrants. We are in discussions with our rights partners, LaLiga and IMG, about how we can restructure our existing agreements in order to continue our current OTT service," said a spokesman for the British audio-visual group Eleven Sports on 13/12/2018.

Eleven Sports lost the broadcasting rights, from 2019, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, to the UFC due to the lack of a distribution agreement with one of the British telecommunications operators (Sky, BT and Virgin Media), a prerequisite for the execution of the contract signed with the media and marketing rights agency IMG, which holds UFC's international rights.

Eleven Sports also acquired from IMG, the broadcasting rights to the Serie A TIM, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, for the 2018-2021 cycle, on 13/07/2018. On the same day, the two groups announced that they had joined forces in these two countries to launch the two channels Eleven Sports…