Analysis

Athletics

The European Broadcasting Union renewed worldwide rights to European Athletics events over four years at a steady rights fee in a deal agreed late last month.

Rugby Union

The French second-tier rugby union league, the Pro D2, took advantage of strong competition for its rights to secure a massive fee increase in new deals agreed last week.

Motorsport

Restocking its depleted motorsport portfolio with a growing property was a major driver behind Fox Latin America’s renewed and lengthened deal with North American stock car-racing series Nascar last month.

Rugby Union

Live television audiences for rugby union’s Six Nations championship in 2015 were up year-on year in the tournament’s largest market, the UK, where public-service broadcaster the BBC recorded an average of …
Rugby Union

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport renewed its rights to English Premiership Rugby last week, paying a strong increase in rights fee.

Multi-sport

The International Olympic Committee expects to increase the value of its European media rights despite the gloomy economic outlook across much of the continent.

Tennis

Canadian pay-television sports broadcasters TSN and RDS trebled their rights fee and their guarantees for coverage of French Open tennis in last week’s renewal.

Rugby Union

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky this month tendered rights to England autumn internationals outside the UK, TV Sports Markets understands.

Motorsport

Cypriot pay-television broadcaster CyTAvision has expanded its motorsport portfolio over the past month, striking two new deals.

Boxing

Sky this week acquired the UK rights to the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, beating competition from pay-television boxing channel BoxNation.

Football

TV2 Norway’s deal to buy the C More pay-television operation in Norway last month was driven by a desire to boost subscriber numbers ahead of the upcoming Premier League auction.

Football

Fifa’s 2014 accounts, published last week, confirmed that the governing body’s deal with the Infront Sports & Media agency and advertising agency Dentsu for the World Cup rights in Asia was an exceptionally profitable one for the two agencies.

Skiing

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF will pay a smaller rights fee for the Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships in 2019 and 2021 than they did for 2015 and 2017, following a deal agreed last week.

Football

Uefa is in difficult discussions over a deal for Champions League rights in Finland after an initial deal collapsed, TV Sports Markets understands
Football

The matching-rights clause held by pay-television broadcaster Astro in its previous agreement with the Football Association of Malaysia is continuing to cause complications for the association.

Wrestling

Indian pay-television channel Sony Six’s decision to extend its deal for TNA Wrestling last month is a strategic buy for a property the channel believes it can develop.

The majority of sports bodies – those below the very top tier – are expected to find it very difficult to secure decent rights fees from the UK for many years to come as a direct result of the spiralling price inflation for Premier League rights.

Football

Fifa avoided the prospect of going back into a US court by agreeing to extend its World Cup rights deal with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Sports last month. But getting off the legal hook comes at a price, in terms of questions about Fifa’s governance and also, possibly, in having sold the rights at well below market value.