Analysis

Fox Sports Africa has restarted its coverage of Major League Soccer in sub-Saharan Africa after year-long negotiations with IMG and Soccer United Marketing.

Norwegian public-service broadcaster NRK renewed two vital skiing rights deals last month, agreeing to pay decent increases for both.

Holding this year’s Rugby World Cup in England helped World Rugby earn an increase of about 47 per cent in total media rights revenue compared to the 2011 tournament.

The IMG Events & Media agency said this week the income projections behind its newly-created 10-season joint venture with basketball’s Euroleague were “aggressive, but realistic”.

Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi made an aggressive move into sport this month, acquiring digital rights in major deals with the PGA Tour and the Women’s Tennis Association.

England’s Football League is in the process of selecting a consultant to advise on the sale of its international media rights, TV Sports Markets understands.

Many of Europe’s public-service broadcasters are likely to provide a similar amount of linear coverage of the Olympic Games from 2018 compared to previous editions, despite having lost out on the rights to Discovery Communications.

Aggressive bidding from free-to-air broadcasters in Ireland helped the Six Nations Committee double its media rights fee in the territory last week.

The National Basketball Association has finalised a string of deals outside its domestic US market in recent weeks, securing large increases in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and India, and a modest uplift in Poland.

The Asian Football Confederation will enjoy a huge increase in the value of its rights in China in its new deal with Le Sports.

MP & Silva’s clean sweep of markets in the Premier League’s second group of Asia-Pacific rights sales has reasserted the agency’s position in the region.

John Manning, research anaylst for SportBusiness Intelligence examines Rugby World Cup television audiences in the major rugby union markets.

BeIN Media Group this week finalised its acquisition of English Premier League rights in the Middle East and North Africa, and is close to taking two properties – Uefa European Qualifiers and Wimbledon – from its main local rival, Abu Dhabi Media.

The contract for the unsold commercial rights to next year’s centenary edition of the Copa América represents an opportunity for sports-rights agencies to build relationships with the two governing bodies of football in the Americas.

The European Broadcasting Union’s chances of winning the rights to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 were undermined by two internal splits, TV Sports Markets understands.

Spanish agency Mediapro has agreed deals with video-sharing website YouTube to plug gaps in the distribution of the international rights to the Copa del Rey and the beIN Sports pay-television channels in Spain.