SportBusiness Media staff

US satellite-television provider DirecTV will launch a channel dedicated to fantasy football as part of its Sunday Ticket package covering the NFL American football league.

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE will not bid for the next cycle of media rights for football’s Uefa Champions League, according to daily newspaper El Mundo.

The Infront Sports & Media agency is aiming to raise €155m ($211m) of loans to pay private equity owner Bridgepoint a dividend, according to the Reuters news agency.

Fox Sports Asia, the regional subsidiary of 21st Century Fox’s broadcast arm Fox International Channels, is to rebrand its portfolio of channels.

Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica has agreed to acquire an 11.1 per cent stake in the Mediaset Premium pay-television service of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset, while it has completed a deal to buy Mediaset Espana’s 22 per cent holding in Spanish pay-television operator Canal Plus.

Media company Constantin Medien has said it will bid for a package of broadcast rights in the next tender for German top-tier football league the Bundesliga.

Lega Serie A has issued a new tender for two packages of media rights to football’s top division in Italy that remained unsold following the original sales process.

Lebanon's Court of Urgent Matters has said that it has no jurisdiction to consider a lawsuit filed by pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports against state broadcaster Tele Liban over coverage of football’s Fifa World Cup.

Dutch government minister Sander Dekker has said that public-service broadcaster NOS should disclose how much it spends on sports-rights deals.

A proposed Russian ban on advertising on pay-television broadcasters would have dire consequences for NTV Plus’s coverage of football’s Uefa Champions League, according to the broadcaster’s commentator, Michael Mossakovskii.