DAZN takes over LNB Elite rights from Skweek through 2029

France’s National Basketball League (NBL) organizer and its FFBB governing body have announced international streaming service DAZN as the new media rightsholder for the country’s top-tier of domestic basketball, the LNB Elite.

DAZN takes over the rights from the onset of the 2024-25 season through to the end of the 2028-29 campaign, a five-year term that had originally been awarded to beleaguered streaming platform Skweek.

The OTT service will broadcast eight matches per week from the competition in set broadcast slots from Friday-Sunday through the season, and most importantly secure continued broadcast coverage for the competition’s upcoming season after uncertainty over the Skweek deal.

Skweek secured the rights in collaboration with digital terrestrial channel L’Equipe in 2023, but L’Equipe sought to strip the service of the rights earlier this year and terminate the partnership completely over rights payment issues.

Fedcom Group, a conglomerate owned by Russian-born Hungarian-Monegasque businessman Alexey Fedorychev who operates in Ukraine, owns Skweek, and has seen his business impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine which in turn hampered rights payments. Sportcal