By Jonathan Easton
Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport will not look to renew its broadcast partnership with Formula One when its latest deal wraps up after this season.
The broadcaster, which has held the F1 rights for almost a decade, confirmed the news on Twitter, posting: “From 2022, Formula One will unfortunately move to another channel. We have proudly broadcasted Formula One for nine years. In those years, the rates for broadcasting rights have grown so much that it was unfortunately not possible for us to keep Formula One.”
According to reports in the country, the broadcaster stepping in to take the rights is none other than Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), which is in the midst of expanding its Viaplay streaming service across Europe.
NENT is yet to launch in the country, but has seen success to date in its expansion efforts since launching Viaplay in Poland and the Baltic region. While unconfirmed by the streaming operator, a number of reports have said that NENT will pay €25-30(US$30.54-US$36.65) million per year for the rights.
Viaplay is already the home of the F1 in a number of countries including Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark.
