Analysis

German pay-television broadcaster Sportdigital picked up the rights to four football leagues in recent weeks as it bolstered its international football programming.

Indian pay-television operator Sony Six is understood to have paid only a nominal sum to acquire the rights in the Indian subcontinent to the inaugural Champions Tennis League, the franchise-based tournament founded by former Indian player Vijay Amritraj.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 picked up the rights to the inaugural season of the Champions Hockey League ice hockey tournament for a small rights fee.

The IMG Events & Media agency said this week that US stock car racing operator Nascar was open to all ideas for expanding its series beyond its core US audience, including bringing in international drivers and developing race circuits abroad.

The CAA Eleven agency completed a host of new deals for Uefa European Qualifiers rights at the end of July, with strong results in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

US investment company RSE Ventures enjoyed a substantial increase in the value of the global media rights for the 2014 International Champions Cup, the summer friendly club tournament involving some of Europe’s top clubs.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand has paid a significantly increased fee to hold on to New Zealand’s domestic cricket rights, facing one rival bidder and the threat of new market entrants.

Growing anticipation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro helped Fina, the global governing body of aquatic sports, to seal an increase in the value of its Brazilian rights in an eight-year deal with pay-television broadcaster Globosat.

Italian free-to-air sports broadcaster Sportitalia has vowed to shed its image as a late rights-fee payer, starting with this week’s deal for the 2014 Fiba World Cup.

Mike Kiernan, Analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at audiences in key European markets for the 2014 Tour de France

Facts and figures about the UK's digital football fans, in an infographical snippet from the Global Sports Media Consumption 2014 report. Including: most-used social media sites, average time spent per week following the sport, percentage of fans streaming live matches, and more.

The Mediapro agency has acquired the domestic and international media rights to 39 of the 42 clubs from the Primera Liga and Segunda Liga, the top two divisions of Spanish club football, in one season-deals for the 2015-16 season.

Fifa, football’s world governing body, said that Host Broadcast Services, the World Cup host broadcaster, had provided its media partners for the 2014 competition in Brazil with “more and better” coverage compared to the 2010 and 2006 tournaments.

Indian pay-television channel Sony Six is thought to have faced no competition when agreeing a one-year extension to its rights deal for the Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 cricket competition.

The Swiss football federation last week renewed its deal with long-term broadcast partner, public-service broadcaster SRG SSR.

Public-service broadcaster NOS earlier this month renewed its Dutch ice skating rights with the national federation in a deal which will cover the next Olympic cycle.