Analysis

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland is close to dislodging Sport1 as the holder of ATP World Tour tennis media rights in the country.

Sky renewed its deal for European club rugby and picked up Russian Premier League rights after a four-year hiatus.

Israel’s Premier League is targeting an increase of at least 29 per cent in the value of its domestic media rights, with three packages of rights on the market.

Distributing the commercial rights to next summer’s Copa América Centenario is a “great opportunity” for the IMG agency.

Discovery Communications’ ambition to strengthen its market position in the Nordics helped Norway’s football league defy all expectations in the sale of its media rights last week.

Kickboxing promotion Glory will cement its place on US sports broadcaster ESPN for all of 2016, TV Sports Markets understands.

Benfica’s deal with Nos has triggered a wave of negotiations, with Porto and Sporting Lisbon particularly keen to take advantage of competition in the marketplace.

Media rights clips from December 3 to 16

Telco Altice last week blindsided French broadcasters to acquire Premier League rights in the country with a knockout first-round bid.

Motorsport’s Formula E, which began its second season on October 24, seems to be here to stay. All of the key performance indicators from the championship’s inaugural season point to its commercial success, something that has eluded other motorsport challenger series.

Australia’s National Rugby League this week said its unprecedented decision to strike a deal for free-to-air rights ahead of negotiating pay-television rights had contributed to its record total media-rights income.

With a new round of international broadcast deals in place from the 2015-16 season of French rugby’s Top 14, rights distributor Canal Plus has increased the value of the rights 10-fold in the last six seasons.

The chequered history of cricket’s Bangladesh Premier League contributed to a reduced rights fee on the Indian subcontinent for the competition, which is returning after a one-year hiatus.

Pay-television broadcaster SuperSport has renewed its deal for MotoGP rights across sub-Saharan Africa, paying a significant increase to beat competition from rival StarTimes.

Pay-television broadcaster StarTimes has paid what is considered to be a high fee to secure rights to the Coppa Italia in sub-Saharan Africa.

The rights in Italy to the Fifa World Cups in 2018 and 2022 have reverted to world football’s governing body after MP & Silva withdrew from its agreement to sell them, TV Sports Markets understands.