The Turkish media company will take over from D-Smart as the country's home of Spanish top-flight football
Turkish media giant Saran Media Group has signed a five-year agreement with La Liga to air matches from the league across their distribution channels in the region. The new deal comes after La Liga's previous broadcasting deal in Turkey with D-Smart came to an end, and begins at the start of the upcoming season, running until the end of the 2026/27 campaign.
La Liga fans in Turkey will be able to watch matches on Saran Media's sports network S Sport, on its traditional pay-TV channels, as well as its live streaming service S Sport+, which is available on a subscription basis.
Under the new agreement, every single La Liga match of the season will be broadcast on the S Sport network, as well as selected matches from the Segunda Division, known as La Liga Smartbank for advertisting purposes, the second tier of Spanish football.
Many sports fans in Turkey will be familiar with S Sport and many will already be subscribers, given the huge portfolio of sports rights the company holds, which will now be even bigger thanks to this La Liga deal. Parent group Saran owns the TV rights to more than 50% of sports and entertainment content broadcast in Turkey as a whole, across local, national and cable television.
The sports rights which Saran owns include football from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, Serie A and now the Spanish top flight La Liga.
Saran also holds the rights to some of the biggest events from other sports including the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), MotoGP, Formula One, NBA basketball and much more.
This new deal to bring La Liga to its customers will only bolster Saran and S Sport's position as a leading broadcaster of sport in Turkey.
Alan K. Saran, Chief Executive of Saran Media Group, had this to say on the deal:
“We are thrilled to add La Liga to our portfolio for the next five seasons,”
“La Liga will now reach seven million households through S Sports linear channels and S Sport Plus OTT service. Every LaLiga match will be live on S Sport Plus and select matches in the second tier of Spanish football."
“We strive to reach all sports fans wherever they are and provide them with the highest quality sports content.”
Javier Tebas, President of La Liga, also gave his thoughts:
“We are very happy to partner with Saran Media Group to bring unprecedented coverage of LaLiga to our Turkish fans and to expand interest in the Spanish competition.”
This is the latest in a series of sports broadcasting rights deals to be concluded in recent months as leagues prepare for the beginning of the new football season.
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