Frank Dunne

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia said this week that it was “concerned and frustrated” that a continuous flow of negative developments in Serie A was undermining the credibility of the league.

Interview with Jacques Raynaud, executive vice president of sports channels and advertising sales, Sky Italia, on the recent financial crisis which caused two Parma matches to be cancelled.

The Foundation for General Mutuality in Professional Team Sports responds to questions about reported abuses of Serie A media-rights income destined for youth and grassroots football and infrastructure projects.

Interview with Daniel Cohen, senior vice president, the Americas, at MP & Silva on the agency’s new NFL deal.

Sky Italia’s acquisition last week of the rights to this year’s Rugby World Cup will give the broadcaster a second high-profile, low-cost sports event around which it can build a marketing campaign in late summer.

Irish pay-television broadcaster Setanta is thought to be paying less in its deal, agreed last week, for the Uefa Champions League than it does in the current cycle. Overall, however, Uefa has finished with an increase on the current cycle in Ireland thanks to increases in the value of the free-to-air rights.

It is not yet clear whether Sky’s 83-per-cent increase in spending on Premier League rights was down to a blockbuster first-round bid to see off BT, a second-round reaction to aggressive BT bidding, or a combination of both.

The €1.05bn ($1.19bn) acquisition by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda of the Infront Sports & Media agency this week is expected to make the agency even more aggressive in the rights market than it has been in the last two years, when it was being fattened up for sale.

Responses supplied by Infront Sports & Media regarding the recent acquisition of the agency by the Dalian Wanda Group.

On the day of the Premier League’s domestic rights bidding deadline, TV Sports Markets editor Frank Dunne looks at the league’s chances of enjoying a bumper pay day.