Strike TV, the Slovak combat sport-focused channel, has diversified its portfolio, adding soccer’s Saudi Pro League (SPL) to its live offering in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The new deal gives Strike TV exclusive rights to air two live matches each round for the 2025-26 season, with one game featuring Czech commentary. Strike TV is available in Slovakia via operators Telekom and Digi, while the Telly, OnePlay, and T-Mobile networks provide access to the channel in the Czech Republic.
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The new rights mark a change to Strike TV’s offering, having focused mainly on combat sports, including mixed-martial arts, boxing, and wrestling, since its launch in 2022.
The channel was created by rebranding the country’s Comedy House channel and expanding its offer to include sports content, including MMA matches, broadcasts from the STIHL Show Saw professional Jumberjack competition, and behind-the-scenes documentaries about the WWE.
The new rights come shortly after it was announced that heavyweight sports marketing agency IMG had renewed its agreement to distribute worldwide media rights to SPL for another four years.
The new deal builds on the pair’s original agreement, covering the 2023-24 and 2024-25 SPL seasons, and will see IMG continue to market and sell the league’s rights globally through the 2028-29 campaign.
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By GlobalDataIMG said that since taking over the league’s rights distribution, international coverage of the SPL has grown significantly, culminating in last season’s matches being aired in more than 184 countries on over 43 global platforms across six continents.
Along with Strike TV, recent deals secured by IMG include ESPN (Africa), DAZN (DACH and France), Movistar (Spain), Fox Sports (USA, Mexico, LATAM, the Caribbean, and Central America), Globo (Brazil), Sportitalia (Italy), ComoTV (Italy), and French content creator Zack Nani (France).
Last month, SporTV, the Brazilian pay-television operator owned by commercial broadcasting giant Globo, acquired the broadcast rights to the SPL ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, which started on August 28.
