Analysis

LaLiga is the latest European football league to make gains in Poland, seeing the value of its rights in the country rise by nearly a third in a five-season renewal with Eleven Sports.

Formula One Management, the commercial arm of Formula One motor racing, is testing the waters in its two-year deal in Brazil with commercial broadcaster Bandeirantes. Its new strategy is focused on building exposure after the collapse late last year of its agreement with investment vehicle Rio Motorsports.

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has successfully driven down its fee for Uefa’s lower-tier club competition rights in a three-season renewal. The motivation was, in large part, its inability to acquire exclusive streaming rights under the new rules from Italy’s antitrust authority.

Euroleague Basketball has secured a small uplift in the value of its broadcast rights in Germany while also avoiding a Covid rebate in its renewal with Deutsche Telecom, as the telco continues to extend its basketball dominance.

Premiership Rugby Limited and UK telco BT’s agreement in December on a three-season renewal marked the end of a saga that saw its fair share of twists and turns. But while the rights-holder will see a drop in annual rights revenue compared with the final season of the current deal, it is thought to view a direct-to-consumer strategy as a viable means of addressing the shortfall.

The spectre of competition pushed telco Proximus to raise its spend on Uefa Champions League pay-television rights in Belgium by about a quarter for the 2021-24 cycle.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is emerging from a round of global rights sales for the 2021-23 cycle with respectable rights fees, industry insiders say, in a vastly changed and more challenging market compared to its last sales cycle.

The Australian Football League has clawed back losses it is suffering due to Covid-19-related renegotiations of its domestic media-rights deals in a two-year extension of its biggest deal, with pay-television operator Foxtel.

Commercial broadcaster Channel 4’s deal for UK rights to England’s four-Test series against India went down to the wire, as Star remained open to a late bids from pay-television broadcasters Sky and BT Sport.

The ‘carriage’ agreement between OTT subscription platform DAZN and telco Telefónica has deepened broadcaster power in Spain, creating an effective duopoly with the widest subscriber base and deepest pockets in Spain.

The NBA has maintained its existing rights revenue picture in Brazil, in extensions with media group Globo and commercial broadcaster Bandeirantes for pay-television and free-to-air rights, respectively.

The value of Bundesliga rights in Poland has more than doubled for the 2021-25 cycle in the league’s deal with new entrant Nordic Entertainment Group, adding to a generally strong start to sales in Europe.

UK public service broadcaster the BBC has kept its outlay on rugby league’s Challenge Cup steady in its latest renewal, for the 2022-24 cycle.

UK sports rights experts say the English Premier League will delay its domestic media rights auction until April or May with a view to having deals in place prior to Euro 2020, which begins on June 11.

The collapse in December of the French football league’s media-rights deal with Mediapro is the biggest market setback suffered by a European league for nearly two decades – since the failure of the ITV Digital pay-television platform nearly bankrupted the English Football League in 2002.

It will be a consequential year for golf in South Korea, one of the most lucrative territories for the sports media rights in Asia, as one of the market’s four biggest properties comes up for renewal, a new deal begins for another, and a major golf content joint-venture gets underway.