Sky Secures Broadcasting Rights for Swiss League, But Clubs Face Financial Challenges

The matches of HC La Chaux-de-Fonds, the reigning champion, and other Swiss League clubs will be broadcast on Sky.image: keystone/x

The pay TV channel Sky has obtained the broadcasting rights and even the naming rights for the Swiss ice hockey second division. But this contract only brings peanuts to the clubs.

Since their split from the National League two years ago, the ten clubs in the second division have ongoing financial troubles. A club with a budget of more than three million is a Croesus. For example, Langenthal, one of the iconic clubs, has returned to amateur hockey for economic reasons.

Since separating from the National League, the Swiss federation (Swiss Ice Hockey) is responsible for organizing the Swiss League and marketing it. They have just announced a major development: the conclusion of a new contract until 2027 with the pay TV channel Sky.

In addition to the TV rights, Sky acquires the naming rights of the league. It will now be called «Sky Swiss League» (SSL) for the next three years.

All matches of the Sky Swiss League are included in the Sky Sport subscription package for the next three years. However, the promotion/relegation playoff against the struggler from the National League will continue to be broadcast on MySports.

A drop in the ocean

So, is this finally the beginning of a golden period for the economically stricken second division?

No. This contract is a drop in the ocean.

Sky does not even pay half a million for all TV rights and naming rights: it is exactly 400,000 francs per season.

In theory, this would bring 40,000 francs to each of the ten clubs. But in reality, it is much less. And for good reason: alongside this, the clubs still have to pay a total of 150,000 francs for the league’s own platform, swissleague.tv, which also broadcasts matches on a pay-per-view or subscription basis. People who have a season subscription to the rink can generally watch their favorite team’s matches for free.

The clubs of Sky Swiss League remain responsible for TV production.image: spengler cup

Additionally, the clubs must continue to organize (including commentary for the matches) and pay for television production themselves. Costs vary, as some teams can partially finance these expenses through sponsorship deals. This TV production should cost clubs between 5,000 and 20,000 francs per season.

If we do the math: 15,000 francs for the league’s TV platform and between 5,000 and 20,000 francs for TV production. The result? There isn’t much left of the 40,000 francs offered by the new deal with Sky. A drop in the ocean.

One can thus wonder: receiving 400,000 francs from the channel for TV and naming rights, is it too little? No. It would be easy and unfair to criticize Patrick Bloch, the efficient CEO of the federation who negotiated the contract. He got what the market offered him and deserves praise, not criticism.

A model to follow: the wrestling

At its core, the league hopes to benefit from the “sawdust effect”: to do business, a sport needs a television presence. The Swiss Wrestling Federation is the perfect example: its clever heads sold the TV rights to public television (SSR) for a “tip” (172,300 francs per year).

In return, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) turns wrestling into a highly viewed television event. This sport owes, to a large extent, its greatest boom in history to its television presence. It is the oxygen of the business. Today, wrestlers, who once returned home with at best a calf or a beef, now sign advertising contracts worth six figures, reaching up to 500,000 francs. And the budget for the federal festival now exceeds 40 million.

In terms of TV coverage, Swiss wrestling is a very good model to follow.image: keystone

What plays a decisive role? The excellent quality of the images from the SRF around these sawdust circles, which deserve the label “world-class.” Wrestling is a top-tier televised sporting event on a free-to-air channel. And it is the SRF that covers the costs of this expensive production.

A mediocre image quality

The collaboration with Sky undoubtedly brings the Swiss League – pardon: the Sky Swiss League! – a global and national television presence. But not on a free-to-air channel, as is the case for wrestling.

Moreover, the TV image quality produced by the clubs is at best mediocre compared to the National League. The SSR produces all elite matches on mandate with the best possible quality and charges MySports and the National League six million francs per year.

All National League TV images come from the SSR, with very good quality.image: keystone

For the upcoming season, the federation has developed, in collaboration with Sky, a TV regulation that prescribes the guidelines and minimum standards for TV production for Sky Swiss League clubs. It provides for fines in case of non-compliance.

But to put it somewhat harshly, it is almost children’s television compared to a production from the SRF.

Even with the new contract, the Sky Swiss League cannot expect a boom comparable to that of wrestling, and the clubs’ cashiers will have to continue tightening their belts.

Adaptation in French: Yoann Graber