Vivendi steps up with surprise bid for global rights to help NC Plus secure Ekstraklasa
Polish pay-television operator NC Plus secured live rights to the Ekstraklasa for the next four seasons after submitting a surprisingly high bid for the league’s international rights.
Mena hot for two big properties
BeIN Sports and Abu Dhabi Media are bidding head-to-head for two major football properties in the Middle East and North Africa – England’s Premier League and Uefa’s European Qualifiers.
Uefa to change revenue sharing model for big six
Europe’s top six national football associations – England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain – have agreed a new system with Uefa for sharing revenues from centrally-sold national team matches, from the 2018-19 season.
Battle by proxy in Italy
The bidding for the international rights to Italian football’s Coppa Italia and Supercoppa is seen by many as a battle by proxy between the two major Middle Eastern pay-television operators: Abu Dhabi Media and beIN Sports.
Kickback culture finally challenged but will FBI case lead to a cleaner industry globally?
The bribery crisis engulfing world football looks likely to have a more profound impact on the sports marketing industry than the combined failures of the ISL agency in August 2001 and Germany’s KirchMedia in April 2002.
Gazzetta picks up Copa América
RCS Media Group, the parent company of Italy’s Gazzetta TV channel, bought exclusive live rights to this month’s Copa América.
Pay-TV merger could end calcio rights boom
The competitive dynamics of a booming sports media-rights market explain why Italian football is enjoying solid growth, despite still having largely failed to resolve problems such as crowd violence, match-fixing and poor-quality stadiums.
Probe will look at why ‘winner’ Sky was denied rights
The surprise decision of the Italian antitrust authority to launch an investigation into the live rights deals for Serie A will reopen the question of why the league ignored the outcome of its own auction in June 2014.
Furious NC Plus to get a second bite at the cherry
The award of the domestic live rights to Poland’s top football league, the Ekstraklasa, is likely to come down to a straight shootout between the incumbent rights-holder, pay-television platform NC Plus, and Eleven, the new channel operated by Andrea Radrizzani.
Marco Brunelli, director general, Lega Serie A
Marco Brunelli, director general of Italy’s top football league, Lega Serie A, on the league’s recent rights cycle and plans for expansion of coverage at home and abroad in the next three years.