NRL calls for scheduling rethink after ratings collapse
Australia’s National Rugby League has conceded that it and broadcast partners, pay-television operator Fox Sports and commercial broadcaster Nine, need to rethink their scheduling strategy after recording substantial ratings drops this season.
Mayweather-Alvarez creates new PPV benchmark
The junior middleweight unification bout between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Saul Alvarez on September 14 has broken the record for highest-grossing pay-per-view (PPV) fight of all time.
Fox Sports Brasil scores rights to new women’s football league
Brazilian pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports Brasil has acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to the first season of the Brazilian Football Confederation’s new women’s league.
ESPN seals ATP World Tour rights extension
ESPN has agreed a “long-term” rights deal with the ATP World Tour that will allow the US pay-television broadcaster to show more hours of live coverage from the top professional men’s tennis tour.
EHF extends German rights deal with Eurosport
Pan-regional sports broadcaster Eurosport has agreed a rights deal with EHF Marketing, the commercial arm of the European Handball Federation, to continue broadcasting German club games from the EHF Champions League competition in Germany.
IMG converts Rugby World Cup archive rights
IMG Sport Video Archive, a division of the IMG Worldwide agency, has been selected by the International Rugby Board to be the official archive partner for the World Cup tournament in a seven-year deal that will run until the end of 2020.
Athletic Bilbao and Mediapro end rights dispute
Spanish Liga football club Athletic Bilbao and the Mediapro agency have reached an agreement to settle their long-running rights dispute.
Glory bolsters kickboxing content with K-1 rights purchase
Professional martial arts organisation and television content provider Glory Sports International has acquired the rights to the “significant majority” of programming from the K-1 kickboxing series.
BeIN Sport nears subscriber payment threshold
The Ligue de Football Professionnel, the French football league, is set to benefit from increased revenues from its rights deal with beIN Sport as the pay-television broadcaster edges towards the 1.5 million subscriber mark, according to L’Equipe.
Fox Sports gets behind WBC’s World Cup of Boxing
The Fox Sports division of US network Fox has signed a multi-platform agreement with the World Boxing Council sanctioning body for the rights to the new WBC World Cup of Professional Boxing event.