Swedish streaming service Viaplay is reportedly in negotiations about a possible takeover of Premier Sports.
The service intends to launch in the UK later this year with a healthy portfolio of sports rights - including hockey, martial arts, ice skating and athletics - in addition to an extensive library of Scandinavian dramas, entertainment programmes and films.
Earlier this year Viaplay secured the coup of UK rights to games from the Nations League, Euro qualifiers and European World Cup qualifiers not involving England for a four-year period stretching from 2024 to 2028.
Premier Sports holds the same rights between now and 2024, in addition to La Liga, the Scottish League Cup, the United Rugby Championship, Top 14 rugby, the GAA and NASCAR.
The broadcaster launched in 2009 and currently operates three channels - Premier Sports 1, Premier Sports 2 and FreeSports - and has an arrangement with BoxNation to offer the channel as part of its packages.
According to Bloomberg, Viaplay has started talks with Premier about an outright acquisition and could even conclude a deal this month ahead of the new football season starting.
The news comes months after BT Sport announced that it had reached an agreement with Eurosport owner Discovery to merge their operations in the UK.
Neil Wilkes
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