Analysis

Uefa earned a strong increase in its Champions League rights fee in Spain last week, with most industry insiders believing it had Qatari broadcaster beIN Media Group to thank.

WWE’s five-year extension of its partnership with pay-television broadcaster Ten Sports has made the Indian subcontinent the most valuable media rights market outside the US for the wrestling series.

The closure of Cypriot pay-television operator Lumiere TV has allowed IPTV service CyTAvision and telco PrimeTel to snap up rights to international and domestic football.

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) expects the strong engagement with digital coverage of last month’s World Cup in Spain to aid media-rights sales for EuroBasket 2015 and other events.

The National Football League’s deal with media company Multi Screen Media this month is seen by both parties as a long-term proposition to develop the sport in India.

Infront Sports & Media’s deal to distribute international rights to the Indonesian Super League (ISL) is “a flag in the ground” in the market for the agency, its managing director in Asia, Ian Mathie, told TV Sports Markets.

Germany’s Bundesliga is thought to be finalising a number of rights deals involving substantial increases on current deal values.

Global media interest in last weekend’s Ryder Cup finale confirmed the extent to which the competition has become one of sport’s blue-riband events. Few events have the power to hold the US and Europe in thrall over three days.

The top basketball league in Spain, Liga ACB, earned a decent domestic rights fee increase in its renewal with public-service broadcaster TVE.

The adviser model for football leagues operated by the Infront Sports & Media and MP & Silva agencies could be rolled out in more European markets than the three where it already exists, rights experts say. But it is unlikely to be adopted by leagues which are confident about their growth prospects.

The determination of outgoing International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack to leave a healthy legacy for whoever succeeds him in 2015 was the driving force behind the IAAF’s early extension of its global marketing and media-rights deal with Japanese advertising agency Dentsu.

In appointing the MP & Silva agency as adviser for its domestic and international media rights, in a deal based on a ‘top-up’ guarantee, the Polish football league has ostensibly rejected two other business models. But the choice was about the money rather than the model.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport agreed a late deal to broadcast the latter stages of the Fiba World Cup for what TV Sports Markets understands was a nominal fee.

The Formula E motor racing series secured strong rights fees in Germany for its inaugural season, mostly through a deal with pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland agreed earlier this month.

Danish commercial broadcaster TV2 last week agreed a deal for National Basketball Association rights to bolster its sport content ahead of the launch of its dedicated sports channel.

Modern Times Group said this week that the emergence of Nordic drivers in Formula One was transforming the championship into a “magnificent” media rights property.