Andrea Radrizzani, the CEO of Eleven Sports, has admitted that it was a mistake to launch in the UK without a distribution deal with a pay TV operator.
The service launched in the UK back in 2018, as a premium online streaming platform, with major sports such as La Liga and Serie A. An initial deal with La Liga for the 2018/19 season was abandoned in December, after the service failed to gain enough subscribers.
The failure to secure linear TV deals, failure to make a market impact, and poor overall performance led to the service closing in the UK less than a year after launch.
Radrizzani said he
was convinced that the right commercial strategy and a good proposition for BT and Sky would have provided to all platforms all the content – and cheaper for them – to enable customers to get the main international football.
adding that in reality it was impossible due to the tight grip that BT and Sky have on the market.
However, although not successful in the UK and Singapore, Eleven Sports has made progress in smaller European markets Belgium, Poland, and Portugal.