Viaplay Group on February 20, 2026, introduced it had secured all broadcast rights to the English Soccer League (EFL) Championship throughout each Nordic market in a brand new multi-year settlement. The deal, which extends till 2028, ensures that the Viaplay streaming platform will broadcast each single Championship match dwell – together with the Play-Off Semi-Finals and the Play-Off Closing at Wembley Stadium. It’s the newest step in a gentle accumulation of English soccer rights by the Nordic media group, constructing on an already substantial portfolio that spans the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and chosen League One and League Two video games.

The EFL Championship is Europe’s fourth most-watched soccer division. Its 24 golf equipment entice thousands and thousands of supporters throughout the continent every season, and its promotion mechanics give it a rigidity that few different leagues can replicate. Two golf equipment earn automated promotion to the Premier League annually, whereas a 3rd should navigate the high-stakes Play-Off Closing – described within the announcement as “one among world soccer’s most useful fixtures.” Among the many golf equipment competing within the Championship are groups with robust Nordic followings: Middlesbrough, Coventry Metropolis, Hull Metropolis, Queens Park Rangers, Stoke Metropolis, Southampton, Leicester Metropolis, and Millwall all function within the league’s present cycle.

Full protection, together with each Play-Off match

The scope of the brand new settlement is broad. In contrast to some broadcast offers that carve out sure fixtures for rival platforms or free-to-air broadcasters, Viaplay Group’s association with the EFL covers each match through the common season, in addition to the Play-Off Semi-Finals and the Wembley showpiece. Matches on Viaplay will function English-language commentary as customary, with chosen fixtures additionally receiving local-language commentary for Nordic audiences.

The geographic scope covers Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – the total set of Nordic nations the place Viaplay operates its streaming service. Viaplay Group additionally operates within the Netherlands and distributes its branded content material internationally by its Viaplay Choose idea, although the EFL deal particularly targets the Nordic area.

In line with Peter Nørrelund, Viaplay Group EVP and Chief Sports activities and Enterprise Improvement Officer: “The eagerness and drama of English soccer are merely unmatched. The historic golf equipment, the depth of each match, and the unpredictable storylines captivate followers internationally, and definitely right here within the Nordics. By securing all broadcast rights to the EFL Championship, we will proceed delivering excellent worth and world-class leisure. With the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and now all Championship-matches firmly on our platform for years to return, Viaplay is certainly the house of English soccer within the Nordics.”

Ben Wright, EFL Chief Industrial Officer, supplied the league’s perspective on the partnership: “The EFL sits proudly on the coronary heart of English soccer, bringing unrivalled drama, authenticity and fervour throughout the total breadth of our competitions. With the help of our companions, we’ve been capable of considerably develop the League’s world footprint and fanbase over current years, and look ahead to working extra intently with the crew at Viaplay Group to offer supporters within the Nordics the chance to observe each twist and switch.”

The EFL deal doesn’t exist in isolation. It suits inside a sustained effort by Viaplay Group to consolidate English soccer rights throughout the Nordic area right into a single platform. Premier League protection – essentially the most commercially helpful soccer property on this planet – already sits on Viaplay within the Nordics. The FA Cup and Carabao Cup are equally unique to the platform. Including full Championship protection closes a possible hole that may have despatched followers looking out elsewhere for second-tier English soccer.

The Championship’s drama is a major consider its business worth. The division capabilities as a revolving door between English soccer’s prime two tiers. Golf equipment resembling Southampton and Leicester Metropolis have in current seasons bounced between the Championship and the Premier League, bringing established Premier League audiences again into the second division. That cross-pollination of fan bases makes Championship rights notably enticing for a platform like Viaplay that already holds Premier League stock – the identical viewer could watch each competitions throughout the season.

The deal additionally reinforces Viaplay Group’s infrastructure investments. In July 2025, Viaplay Group acquired the remaining 50% stake in Allente Group – the Nordic satellite television provider – from Telenor for SEK 1.1 billion ($110 million), consolidating management over a distribution community that serves Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. With Allente producing SEK 6.5 billion in revenues throughout 2024 and contributing EBITDA of SEK 996 million for the 12 months, the mixed entity offers Viaplay Group tighter management over how content material reaches Nordic households – by satellite tv for pc, cable, and the Viaplay streaming software concurrently.

Earlier, in July 2025, Titan Operating System announced that all 2025 Philips TVs would carry a dedicated Viaplay-branded hotkey on their remote controls, protecting retail channels within the Nordics and the Netherlands. That hardware-level integration reduces the steps between a viewer and Viaplay’s content material. Mixed with the Allente acquisition and now the expanded EFL rights package deal, Viaplay Group is constructing a vertical stack that stretches from satellite tv for pc distribution all the way down to the distant management button.

Streaming rights and the promoting panorama

The business significance of securing unique dwell sports activities rights extends past subscription income. For entrepreneurs and promoting know-how professionals, the focus of premium dwell sports activities stock on a single streaming platform within the Nordic area has direct implications for marketing campaign planning and media shopping for.

Connected TV advertising’s share of media budgets is projected to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, in accordance with trade information. Dwell sports activities stay among the many most resilient environments for promoting, commanding premium charges due to their near-universal live-viewing behaviour – audiences don’t skip sport in the way in which they skip drama or leisure. That dynamic is effectively documented throughout markets, and the Nordic area is not any exception.

The EFL Championship, with its 24 golf equipment and a schedule working from August by Could annually, generates a big quantity of dwell stock. Each match is a possible promoting context, and the Play-Off interval in Could compresses drama into a brief window that traditionally attracts elevated viewership. Live sports advertising technology has advanced substantially, with programmatic platforms now able to real-time concentrating on throughout particular recreation moments – a growth that will increase the worth of a complete rights package deal just like the one Viaplay has assembled.

Sports streaming advertising has seen substantial growth across platforms, with FanDuel Sports activities Community recording a 25% year-over-year improve in whole impressions served by Magnite’s SpringServe platform in 2025. That trajectory signifies that dwell sports activities stock on streaming platforms isn’t merely displacing linear tv audiences – it’s producing new measurement and monetization prospects that linear broadcasts can not simply replicate.

The shift is also structural. Trade analysis has highlighted that advertising combine fashions have traditionally underweighted related TV relative to linear tv, partly as a result of attribution methodologies had been developed for broadcast environments. As streaming platforms accumulate unique dwell sports activities rights, and as measurement know-how catches up, the promoting case for premium sports activities streaming stock grows stronger.

Viaplay Group’s resolution to safe all Championship rights – moderately than a package deal protecting chosen matches – maximises the stock obtainable on the platform all through the English soccer season. From a programmatic promoting standpoint, full rights packages are preferable to partial ones, as a result of they permit for constant viewers concentrating on and frequency administration throughout a whole competitors moderately than a fragmented subset of fixtures.

The EFL’s world rights technique

The announcement displays the EFL’s personal priorities as a lot as Viaplay’s. In line with Ben Wright, the league has “considerably grown the League’s world footprint and fanbase over current years” by its worldwide broadcast partnerships. The Nordics signify a mature marketplace for English soccer rights, with fan curiosity in Championship golf equipment working alongside the traditionally stronger pull of the Premier League.

The EFL Championship’s 24-club construction produces numerous matches every season – greater than 550 regular-season fixtures earlier than Play-Offs are counted. That quantity makes it enticing for a streaming platform that should justify subscription charges by content material depth moderately than particular person marquee occasions. Viaplay’s current Premier League deal supplies the marquee fixtures; the Championship deal supplies the supporting structure of weekly dwell soccer throughout 9 months.

For Nordic subscribers who observe golf equipment that transfer between the Premier League and the Championship – Southampton, Leicester Metropolis, and others have not too long ago skilled precisely that – the deal removes the danger of shedding entry to their membership when it drops a division. That continuity of protection has subscriber-retention worth, unbiased of its promoting stock implications.

Viaplay Group’s market place

Viaplay Group is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm underneath the ticker VPLAY B and describes itself because the Nordic area’s main leisure supplier. Past sports activities, the corporate operates TV channels throughout most of its markets and business radio stations in Norway and Sweden. Allente, following Viaplay’s full acquisition in 2025, strengthens the group’s distribution place throughout the Nordic media panorama.

The streaming service is on the market in each Nordic nation in addition to the Netherlands, whereas the Viaplay Choose branded content material idea has been added to companion platforms globally. The group’s long-term EBITDA margin steerage, up to date on the time of the Allente acquisition announcement, targets double-digit margins by 2028 – the identical 12 months the brand new EFL Championship rights deal concludes.

The alignment of that timeline is notable. By 2028, Viaplay Group might want to renegotiate each its Allente financing preparations and, presumably, its EFL Championship rights. The present deal offers the platform three additional seasons of full Championship protection: 2025-26 (at the moment underneath means), 2026-27, and 2027-28. That span covers a interval throughout which related TV promoting markets throughout Europe are anticipated to proceed rising, offering a window to construct each subscriber numbers and promoting income across the English soccer stock.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: Viaplay Group, the Nordic streaming and media firm listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (VPLAY B), and the English Soccer League (EFL), represented within the announcement by Viaplay Group EVP Peter Nørrelund and EFL Chief Industrial Officer Ben Wright.

What: Viaplay Group secured all broadcast rights to the EFL Championship throughout each Nordic market in a brand new multi-year deal. The settlement covers each regular-season match, the Play-Off Semi-Finals, and the Play-Off Closing at Wembley Stadium. Matches might be broadcast with English commentary, with local-language commentary obtainable for chosen fixtures. The deal provides to Viaplay’s current English soccer portfolio, which incorporates the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and chosen League One and League Two matches.

When: The announcement was made on February 20, 2026. The rights run till 2028, protecting the remaining portion of the 2025-26 season and the total 2026-27 and 2027-28 campaigns.

The place: The deal covers all Nordic markets the place Viaplay operates its streaming service: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Matches might be distributed through the Viaplay streaming platform and thru Allente’s satellite tv for pc and broadband distribution community.

Why: Viaplay Group is consolidating English soccer rights right into a single platform within the Nordics, eradicating the danger that subscribers may must look elsewhere for Championship protection alongside their Premier League entry. The EFL Championship is Europe’s fourth most-watched soccer division, producing greater than 550 regular-season fixtures per season. For Viaplay, full rights protection maximises each subscription retention – notably for followers of golf equipment that transfer between the Premier League and the Championship – and the dwell sports activities promoting stock obtainable on the platform throughout the nine-month season.


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