Doncaster strikes again as Viaplay pull out of four year SPFL deal

Eight months after announcing a thrilling new sponsorship deal for the League Cup Neil Doncaster is this morning looking for a new sponsor and television partner.

Given his track record on sponsorship and broadcasting deals it is likely to further reduce the prestige of the competition.

After overstretching their resources away from their core Scandinavian market Viaplay announced this morning cuts across the company of 25% as they ditch UK and USA commitments.

Last November with the semi-finalists known Viaplay struck a deal with Doncaster that was supposed to fun for four season.

The hapless SPFL chief told Sports Pro Media:

Everyone at the SPFL is thrilled to be working with our new title cup sponsor Viaplay. This cup has been a success for many years and Viaplay’s coverage and support of this competition until at least 2026/27 is very welcome indeed.

We are looking forward to the exciting Viaplay Cup semi-finals in January and the final in February – all games which can be watched live and exclusively on Viaplay.

Viaplay are believed to have paid the SPFL for this season’s coverage but it remains to be seen if they will take on the production costs and employ pundits to cover a competition that they are ditching.

Covering today’s announcement Yahoo reported:

Scandinavian streamer Viaplay outlined plans on Thursday to focus on its core markets in the Nordics and Netherlands, including the end of streaming services launched in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and lay off more than 25 percent of staff. The moves are part of broad-based cost-cutting measures amid various business challenges cited by Viaplay’s new CEO.

The company will also consider various strategic options, including a possible sale.

Jorgen Madsen Lindemann, who replaced Anders Jensen as CEO of the pan-Nordic streaming group in June, had recently warned that 2023 revenue and earnings would come in sharply below previous forecasts and that cost-cutting would be needed. His team at the time also pulled the firm’s previously unveiled full-year 2023 outlook after a review of its operations and performance.

Viaplay back then also said it would be taking “a broad range of actions to address the underlying deterioration in earnings,” including job and other cost cuts, the renegotiation of deals with distribution partners, as well as a “review of the international operations and non-core assets.”

The SFA have exclusive deals in place with Viaplay to broadcast the Scottish Cup and Scotland international matches. Former Partick Thistle CEO Ian Maxwell will be all over this.