SportBusiness Media staff

Uefa, football’s European governing body, has invited bids for the media rights in Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and sub-Saharan Africa to the Uefa Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup club football competitions.

Fijian commercial broadcaster Fiji TV has agreed a three-year deal with English Premier League football team Manchester United to carry coverage from the club’s in-house MUTV channel.

Major League Soccer club the Chicago Fire has signed a rights deal with cable-television operator Time Warner Cable Sports covering the Wisconsin region.

Australia’s National Rugby League is engaged in a legal dispute with pay-television operator Fox Sports and commercial broadcaster Nine over coverage plans for the build-up games to Sunday’s Grand Final, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The Fox Sports division of US network Fox has agreed a deal with USA Rugby for the rights to the United States’ game against the New Zealand Maori All Blacks, which will be played in Philadelphia on November 9.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and digital specialists the Perform Group have said that sports rights-holders are holding back the growth of mobile and internet sports consumption and as a consequence not getting the maximum value for their rights.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sport has agreed a four-year deal for the exclusive rights to the Euroleague basketball competition in France.

Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has agreed a four-year rights deal, covering 2013 to 2017, for France’s women’s handball league (LFH).

US media company NBCUniversal has sold a record $800m (€600m) in advertising for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, according to the AdAge.com website.

US media and technology corporation Comcast has said it is prepared to bid for Comcast SportsNet Houston, the exclusive home of Houston Astros MLB baseball and Houston Rockets NBA basketball games, if it can force a sale of the financially-troubled regional sports broadcaster.