Analysis
Racing Victoria gambles on the power of free-to-air
The thoroughbred racing clubs of Victoria eschewed an immediately lucrative offer for their rights from Sky Racing in favour of launching a new channel with commercial broadcaster Seven.
StarTimes nets Fifa rights and builds relationship
StarTimes secured exclusive rights in sub-Saharan Africa to four Fifa tournaments late last month in an attempt to build new relationships and expand its football coverage.
Discovery snaps up Setanta
Discovery Communications last week acquired Setanta Sports Asia in an attempt to grow its sport business in the region.
Battle by proxy in Italy
The bidding for the international rights to Italian football’s Coppa Italia and Supercoppa is seen by many as a battle by proxy between the two major Middle Eastern pay-television operators: Abu Dhabi Media and beIN Sports.
Watching Brief (Vol.104) Special Focus: Football – Uefa Champions League
John Manning, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines television audiences for this year's Uefa Champions League.
Kickback culture finally challenged but will FBI case lead to a cleaner industry globally?
The bribery crisis engulfing world football looks likely to have a more profound impact on the sports marketing industry than the combined failures of the ISL agency in August 2001 and Germany’s KirchMedia in April 2002.
Eurosport aggression illustrates local intent
International broadcaster Eurosport agreed a spate of rights deals late last week as it continues to invest heavily in locally-relevant content.
Cricket Australia to take more flexible sales approach
Cricket Australia will take a more flexible approach to its rights sales when its global advisory deal with the IMG Events & Media agency expires after the 2015-16 season.
SLC leaves money on table
Sri Lanka Cricket has awarded its domestic rights to state broadcaster Rupavahini, turning down a larger bid from incumbent rights-holder Carlton Sports Network.
BeIN gets Uefa rights in Australia
The beIN Media Group has agreed a deal for Champions League and Europa League rights in Australia, TV Sports Markets understands.
C More snatches Allsvenskan, hopes to profit from ppv
The Swedish second-tier ice hockey league, the HockeyAllsvenskan, will earn a decent increase in the value of its media rights in the next cycle, following a deal with C More last month.
Recent spate of Glory deals take it to record revenue
Kickboxing promotion Glory Sports International has struck multiple broadcast deals in the last month aimed at driving the niche property into the mainstream.
Siyaya behind on launch preparations in South Africa
Pay-television broadcaster Siyaya is yet to launch in South Africa, calling into question whether or not matches of the South African national football team will be broadcast, TV Sports Markets understands.
Gazzetta picks up Copa América
RCS Media Group, the parent company of Italy’s Gazzetta TV channel, bought exclusive live rights to this month’s Copa América.
NBC goes large to snatch Open
NBC Sports is understood to have paid a significant increase to prise rights to golf’s British Open from its long-term American home on ESPN.
Watching Brief (Vol.103) Special Focus: Football – Europa League
Joseph Rivers, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence examines free-to-air television audiences in the big five European markets for the 2014-15 Uefa Europa League
UK rights market on verge of shake-up as bookies ponder in-house channel bids
The coming months will be critical to the fortunes of UK horse racing. Racecourse Media Group, which distributes media rights on behalf of 34 UK racecourses, will agree two major deals, while in the background proposed legislation looks set to shake up the finances of the sport.
Pay-TV merger could end calcio rights boom
The competitive dynamics of a booming sports media-rights market explain why Italian football is enjoying solid growth, despite still having largely failed to resolve problems such as crowd violence, match-fixing and poor-quality stadiums.