Historic TV rights agreement: Lithuanian Basketball League will be broadcast abroad

Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) lands a historic TV rights agreement – for the first time since establishment, League’s games will be broadcast on foreign television live.

As per newly signed agreement, leading Balkan region sports network Sportklub TV acquired rights to broadcast League matches for the upcoming four years.

Sportklub is the first subscription sports channel in the region and is available in territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

“This is definitely a historic deal for Lithuanian Basketball League”, said Zygimantas Surintas, COO of LKL”. “It‘s very unusual and special for a sport league of relatively small market to be broadcast abroad.” 

Sportklub is a part of United Group, which is the leading multi-play telecoms and media provider in South East Europe.

As of June 2020, the total reach of media group channels exceeded 24 million viewers.

“Sportklub is very happy to add another exciting content package. Basketball in Lithuania is something iconic and it has same popularity as in our region.

It is always nice to follow talented Lithuanian players and their development route. Lithuanian Basketball League will have special place in our program schedules.” noted Nemanja Simeunovic, CEO of United Media Production.

Live LKL games broadcasts will be added to already existing Sportklub TV pool of highest level sports competitions worldwide, such as Premier League, UEFA EURO 2021, Euroleague,  EuroCup, Wimbledon, Formula 1, Moto GP, NFL and many more.

“For the past few years, improvement of TV broadcasts was a strategic target for LKL organization and we are glad to see the results,” said Surintas. “This year, we launched LKL TV as a whole new brand, which together with upgraded TV studio and the highest quality video content is one of our trademarks in European basketball market.”

LKL recently also extended partnership with Fanseat, its online broadcaster outside of Lithuania.

Belonging to international Spring Media group, Fanseat was a key contributor to agreement with Sportklub.

Lithuanian Basketball League is widely recognized as one of the top ten basketball leagues in Europe and broadcasts up to 220 live matches yearly.

It also organizes King Mindaugas Cup, top tier basketball cup in Lithuania, which adds 28 more broadcasts per season.