Analysis

Football

Ofcom will be fighting a lonely battle in trying to convince the Premier League to make all of its matches available for live broadcast in the UK.

Football

Agencies Zenith Media and IMG Events & Media are in pole position to win the rights to Malaysia’s M-League after an aggressive joint bid.

Skiing

The international skiing federation this week welcomed the European Broadcasting Union’s deal in the US for Austrian World Cup skiing events.

Motorsport

Spanish agency Mediapro will dilute the exclusivity of its new Formula One channel in Latin America with a sublicensing deal because it felt the offer from Fox Sports was too good to refuse.

Skiing

Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport last week renewed a host of top skiing rights, with expanded exclusivity and at slight fee increases, in a deal with the Infront Sports & Media agency.

Rugby Union

World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, exceeded expectations in a deal agreed earlier this month with pay-television operator Sky New Zealand for the rights to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Football

ESPN’s desire for football content after losing out on the Champions League has helped Uefa achieve a significant rise in the value of the Europa League in Brazil.

Golf

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) could be forced to sell at least some of the rights to the British Open to pay-television if it is to increase the media rights value of the competition.

Football

The German football federation, the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, last week secured a small fee increase for a host of rights in a renewal with public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

Pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport has lost its automatic right to share content acquired by the European Broadcasting Union, the consortium of public-service broadcasters.

Motorsport

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines live television audiences in Europe’s five largest markets for motorcycling’s MotoGP world championship

Cycling

The Union Cycliste Internationale’s long-standing goal of centralising the media rights to the UCI World Tour looks set to be put on the back burner under new president Brian Cookson in favour of more achievable objectives: creating a coherent calendar and improving cycling as a television product.

Handball

BeIN Media Group and the Pitch International agency have agreed a host of deals for the International Handball World Championships over the past few weeks, TV Sports Markets understands.

Cycling

The Union Cycliste Internationale’s decision to move away from pan-regional deals for its world championship events and appoint the Infront Sports & Media agency to sell the rights on a market-by-market basis appears to be paying off.

Football

Japanese pay-television operator SkyPerfecTV is in early talks over a renewal of its deal for the J-League domestic football competition, TV Sports Markets understands
Skiing

The Infront Sports & Media agency’s deals last week for World Championship and World Cup skiing events with Swedish public-service broadcaster SVT are thought to represent a decent increase on the current value of the rights.

The UK division of the Kentaro agency, Kentaro Ltd, was placed in administration last month in what looks like the end of the company as an active player in the sports-rights market.

Multi-sport

The breadth and depth of coverage the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games will achieve in Canada is seen by the International Olympic Committee as an acceptable trade-off for a minimal increase in media-rights income.