Sports Rights

We have market leading expertise in every aspect of sports rights, including distribution and broadcast rights deals which has seen us act for some of the world’s biggest sports rights holders. We have helped clients seal record breaking deals and also have significant expertise in new media. CMS has been at the vanguard of the digital sports broadcasting revolution as the latest technologies have redefined the way that rights holders and media companies engage and interact with their customers. 

The monetisation of sports rights is of significant strategic importance to our clients and their global sectors, and CMS has extensive knowledge of their exploitation. We provide our clients with expert, timely and future facing advice to ensure that their rights are used and controlled appropriately, especially important in such a fast-moving environment.

CMS represent both rights-holders and broadcasters, giving us insight into how prospective licensees might consider particular issues and further deepening our understanding of the sector.

We understand our clients, their priorities for any transactions and the wider environment in which they operate, as well as the need to balance the generation of revenue with our client’s own digital outlets, to ensure that they remain important destinations in their own right. 

Recently, we have seen the following in particular:

• Increasing sophistication of global sports: As rights values grow, values shift and traditional media channels diversify, the global sports industry becomes ever more sophisticated. This in turn leads to more innovative transactions, whether for broadcasting, merchandise or sponsorship, particularly in relation to new technology. 
• Growth of rules and regulations: The last few years have seen a significant uptick in new rules and regulations, from both sporting bodies and national governments. There have also been an increasing number of high-profile sports disputes, in particular between more traditional bodies and those seeking to establish new leagues and tournaments. 
• Uptick in investment: In recent times, new investors have established themselves across global sports which are viewed increasingly by some as an undervalued asset. This new investment has driven up the price of other, similar, assets and has the potential to change how various sports around the world run, are operated and owned. 

Highlights of our recent experience:

• The Football Association Premier League Limited on an ongoing basis in relation to its domestic and international media rights arrangements.
• The England and Wales Cricket Board on the £1.1bn sale of its broadcasting and media rights. Sky Sports and the BBC were awarded new five-year rights agreements for all of ECB’s domestic and international matches played at home from 2020 to 2024. The firm also acted on the recent extension of Sky’s rights through to 2028. 
• The International Cricket Council on its media rights tenders for 2015 – 2023 (TV), 2019-2023 (digital rights) and 2023-2031 (all media) in respect of the major international cricket tournaments organised by the ICC. The most recent process resulted in the ICC awarding rights for India for the period 2023-2027 for a fee reported to be around USD 3 billion and also awarding rights for a number of other major territories, while sales in other territories are continuing. 
• BT on its agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. to form a 50:50 joint venture company to create a new premium sports offering for the UK and Ireland. The transaction also sees the transfer of the operating businesses of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery.