Frank Dunne

Discovery Communications’ ambition to strengthen its market position in the Nordics helped Norway’s football league defy all expectations in the sale of its media rights last week.

The rights in Italy to the Fifa World Cups in 2018 and 2022 have reverted to world football’s governing body after MP & Silva withdrew from its agreement to sell them, TV Sports Markets understands.

Many of Europe’s public-service broadcasters are likely to provide a similar amount of linear coverage of the Olympic Games from 2018 compared to previous editions, despite having lost out on the rights to Discovery Communications.

The contract for the unsold commercial rights to next year’s centenary edition of the Copa América represents an opportunity for sports-rights agencies to build relationships with the two governing bodies of football in the Americas.

The European Broadcasting Union’s chances of winning the rights to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 were undermined by two internal splits, TV Sports Markets understands.

MP & Silva is expected to make a profit on its investment of €185.7m ($210m) per season in Serie A international rights, according to research conducted in local broadcast markets by TV Sports Markets.

Interview with Roberto Dalmiglio and Konstantinos Filippas, chief commercial officer and European managing director respectively of the MP & Silva agency, about the Serie A international sales cycle and recent deals in the Nordics.

A series of late, one-off deals for last month’s EuroBasket tournament helped drive the global media rights income of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) in its 2013 to 2015 cycle.

The closure of Canal Plus-owned sports channel Sport Plus has provided French basic-tier broadcaster Ma Chaîne Sport with another opportunity to boost its portfolio, after last month’s deal for domestic basketball rights.

Seamus O’Brien, the executive chairman of Lagardère Sports and Entertainment, strongly defended the level of the company’s investment in its recent renewal with the Confederation of African Football.