SportBusiness Media staff

France’s top rugby union clubs are set to activate a cancellation clause in their current domestic league rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus in an attempt to negotiate a more lucrative agreement, according to French newspaper L’Equipe.

The Dentsu advertising agency has expanded its Olympic Games portfolio in Asia by acquiring rights to the 2014 winter Games and 2016 summer Olympics in several territories across the continent.

UK telecommunications company BT has announced that more than one million households have signed up to its new BT Sport pay-television service in its first three months.

The Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) has opened up the tender for the domestic broadcast rights to the Championnat de la Ligue Professionnelle 1, the top division of Tunisian football, to foreign broadcasters.

The Association of Irish Racecourses will meet later today to decide whether to accept a bid worth up to €6.9m ($9m) for the sale of broadcast and streaming rights for action at 26 tracks to pay-television broadcaster At The Races and news and sports coverage provider SIS.

Media conglomerate News Corporation has acquired exclusive mobile and internet clip rights in Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia for the top football divisions in England, Germany, Italy and France, plus several other club football competitions.

Berlin Marathon organiser SCC Events has awarded the event’s national media rights to SportA, the sports rights agency of German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, in a four-year deal commencing from this year’s event on September 29.

Spanish Liga football club Real Madrid will show its official television channel for free over the internet from September 1, according to the Diario AS newspaper.

The International Motor Sports Association has agreed a five-year multimedia rights deal with the Fox Sports division of US network Fox for coverage of the United SportsCar Racing series until 2018.

US cable-television channel Fuel TV has confirmed it will be rebranded as Fox Sports 2 on August 17 to coincide with the launch of Fox Sports 1, the new pay-television channel from the Fox Sports division of the Fox network.