SportBusiness Staff

Nova, which earlier this month picked up the package of Champions League rights dropped by rival On Telecoms, added 3,160 subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total base to 362,739, an increase of 1.4 per cent over the year. It now has 305,220 digital subscribers and 41,188 analogue subscribers.

Sport1 is understood to have secured a 70-per-cent cut in renewing its deal for Champions League pay-television rights, a similar cut for Serie A rights, sublicensed from John De Mol and a cut-price deal on Bundesliga rights.

For more details see the upcoming issue of TV Sports Markets.

BRTC, owned, like the racing circuit, by the Bahrain government, stepped in after other broadcasters refused to meet an asking price of $16 million.

The deal was agreed just four days before the start of the first grand prix in Melbourne.

DirecTV is paying $1 billion a year for the rights for the NFL Sunday Ticket package, covering out-of-market matches, up from $700 million at present.

Fox and Setanta are now involved in a period of exclusive talks with Uefa’s Team Marketing agency after offering about $10 million a year for the rights for the Champions League and Europa League, estimated to be more than triple the existing fee. ESPN has held US rights since 1994. Two weeks ago it lost out to Fox Sports Latin America for the Latin American rights.

Sony is understood to be paying about $1 billion over nine years, from 2009 to 2017, approximately 40 per cent more than it had been paying previously.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV is paying $100 million in the deal, almost seven times what it paid for the 2006 and 2008 Games, held in Beijing.

CCTV was estimated to have generated $394 million in advertising revenue around its Beijing coverage.

Fox, in which Rupert Murdoch owns a 49-per-cent stake, beat long-term incumbent ESPN for the Latin American rights outside Brazil for the Champions League and Europa League from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

The DFL is close to signing deals in the Americas and the Indian sub-continent, with Taiwan, China and the UK still outstanding.

Premiere acquired Bundesliga 2 rights as part of a wider deal agreed late last year for the top-tier Bundesliga, worth €1 billion over four years.

ESPN bid for Bundesliga 2 rights in the course of the negotiations, losing out to Premiere. ESPN had also considered bidding for the top-tier Bundesliga. It decided against it, but its interest was nonetheless key in forcing the price up.