Production tender set to start Liga Portugal’s centralised rights sales

Liga Portugal is expected to launch a broadcast production tender in the final quarter of 2026, marking an early commercial step towards selling television rights collectively for its top two divisions. The proposed change would replace a system in which clubs negotiate their audiovisual rights individually from the 2028/29 season.Selecting a production provider before selling broadcast packages would help the league establish how matches will be filmed and supplied to rights buyers. Those arrangements matter to broadcasters assessing the packages on offer and to clubs whose matches must be presented consistently under a centralised model.Liga Portugal Centralização, the body established to develop the new system, says its aim is to create and implement a model for the collective sale of television, multimedia and other audiovisual rights. Its stated timetable is for centralised commercialisation to begin in 2028/29.The production tender has been reported as the starting point for sales activity, although Liga Portugal has not published tender specifications on its centralisation page. Its assembly approved a proposed procedure for marketing domestic audiovisual rights in April, followed by a revenue distribution formula in June.Those decisions address two separate questions for the new system: how the rights will be offered to the market and how proceeds will be shared among clubs. Production adds a third, practical requirement, because buyers will need to know what match coverage and accompanying content the league can deliver.The shift is required under Portuguese legislation covering audiovisual rights for the country’s two professional divisions. Liga Portugal has presented centralisation as a means of developing Portuguese professional football, with the eventual value of the rights dependent on the packages it takes to market and the response from broadcasters.The transition will also require clubs and the league to prepare for common broadcast requirements across different grounds. Liga Portugal has identified stadium infrastructure standards for television production as an issue to address closer to the first centralised season.Launching a production process this year would leave time to settle those arrangements before the 2028/29 rights take effect. It would also move the project from agreements on the sales and distribution model towards the operational decisions needed to deliver a collective broadcast product.