Frank Dunne

The 2.1 million first-season subscriber target for Ligue 1’s mooted D2C channel has been questioned by one of France’s most experienced sports rights executives, while the league’s own clubs have cast doubts on the viability of the proposal.

In the second of a three-part series looking at challenges for rights-holders in the current market, we look at the German Bundesliga’s strategies to ‘tame the bear’.

In the first of a three-part series looking at the challenges for rights-holders in a bear market, we ask if sport should do the unthinkable in search of value: take content off social media platforms.

After beIN walked away from its F1 rights in 2019, Qatar has since re-embraced F1, with the most recent investment being beIN's 10-year deal for F1 media rights in Mena and Turkey.

The future of professional tennis – structurally and commercially – will be decided in the coming weeks. On one side are the ATP and WTA tours; on the other, the four Grand Slams. Investment from Saudi Arabia appears to have tipped the balance in favour of the tours.

The ATP and WTA are understood to have reached consensus on key issues that would enable the two entities to combine their commercial interests, paving the way for a historic merger.

The five-season deal unveiled in February between the Chinese Super League and telco China Mobile has almost doubled the media-rights income of the league.

Uefa enjoyed a substantial increase in the value of its national team rights in sub-Saharan Africa in the recent round of sales, with revenues up, on an annualised basis, by about 70 per cent.

In the last three to four years, the sports media industry in sub-Saharan Africa has seen an influx of new players who are challenging established operators and entrenched myths about how business works in the region.

The Confederation of African Football completed a series of deals before Christmas which have put its precarious finances back on an even keel after several difficult years following the cancellation of its $1bn, 12-year contract with the Lagardère Sports agency.