Second broadcaster ‘enters talks’ over Scotland Nations League TV rights

SCOTLAND fans were staring a Nations League blackout square in the face this week.

But now a solution appears to be on its way, ensuring the Tartan Army can follow their debut appearance in League A of the competition from their armchairs, as well as on foot.

Steve Clarke‘s men kick-off their Nations League campaign with games against Poland and Portugal this week.

But until earlier this week it looked like the matches weren’t going to be shown on TV anywhere.

Scandinavian subscription channel Viaplay still owns the rights to show Scotland games until 2028 – despite their announcement last year that they were shutting down their UK sports department.

They handed over their sports packages to Premier Sports but a look at their scheduling for the week showed no signs of the Scotland games, suggesting that they had no intention of picking up the rights.

Heading into this week the SFA were hopeful of a solution being reached to allow fans to tune in wand watch their heroes as they hope to bounce back from a disappointing showing at Euro 2024.

And it was reported yesterday that the BBC were looking to team up with Premier to show the first two matches free-to-air.

But that would – for the moment – only include the upcoming games against Robert Lewandowksi’s Poland at Hampden on Thursday followed by the trip to Lisbon to face Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday.

But now, according to the Daily Mail, ITV have opened talks with Viaplay over buying the rights off of them to show the national team’s Nations League campaign in full.

The broadcaster also hopes to beat out the BBC to show Thursday’s tie against Poland.

They want to show the Poland, Portugal and Croatia games free-to-air but they wouldn’t be on the main ITV channel.

Instead, the games would be shown on ITV4 or ITVx.

It isn’t clear if the matches would be shown on STV in Scotland, giving the Tartan Army the easiest access to the broadcast.

The commercial broadcaster bought the rights to show England matches, including their Nations League B campaign, from Uefa last year.

Uefa sell the rights to Nations League games and international qualifiers centrally.

So the decision on Scotland fixtures is outwith the control of those at Hampden.

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