Frank Dunne

France’s Ligue 1 will bring its global media rights to market next year faced with one clear mission: to recover as much lost ground as it can after the catastrophic collapse of its domestic media rights deal with Mediapro in 2020.

Italy’s Serie A will be banking on several factors to increase the value of its global media rights from the current level, but the opportunity to strike media rights deals for longer than three seasons will likely be the most influential.

An analysis conducted by SportBusiness Media shows that the Fifa World Cup’s global media rights value has kept pace with other blue-riband sporting events, despite what the US Department of Justice described as a 'web of corruption' curtailing its value during the 2000s and early 2010s.

Local sources say that Fifa’s sales team is already active in the region for sales to the 2026 tournament – to be held across the US, Mexico and Canada – and has been speaking with media companies to ‘warm up’ the market ahead of negotiations next year.

Fifa made the decision to move APAC media rights sales in-house earlier this year and is thought to have notified its two current sales agencies in the region, Infront and Dentsu, several months ago.

Interest in the Qatar-based beIN Media Group from external investors looking to take a stake in the platform – as reported late last week – is a reflection of how far the business has come in a relatively short time, according to beIN’s chief sports officer Richard Verow.

Ian Holmes, director of media rights at F1, said that Sky came into the talks “from a position of strength” based on its track record as a broadcast partner.

Serie A's chief executive Luigi De Siervo told SportBusiness Media the league is aiming to earn between €400m to €500m per season after changes to the Melandri law.

S Nation Media has burst on to the scene this year, hoovering up rights to multiple sports properties in Germany. Frank Dunne assesses the challenges and opportunities facing the new platform.

Sky Italia is thought to have paid a significant increase to renew its rights to Wimbledon in a defensive move after losing the main package of Serie A rights to DAZN.