Analysis

By Ben Speight and Mike Kiernan Alarm bells have been ringing on both sides of the Atlantic about falling audiences for blue riband sports properties

The Euroleague has earned an increase of almost 170 per cent on the value of its media rights in Spain, reviving the property’s fortunes in the territory after a tough sales process last time.

Uefa has failed to secure any meaningful uplift in value for its national team competitions in deals agreed recently in France and Germany. The deals underline that, while Europe remains the bedrock of value for Uefa, it has become a difficult region in which to achieve growth for its national team properties.

Swiss public-service broadcaster SRG has renewed a host of winter sports rights in recent weeks for a combined investment of about CHF62m (€57m/$64m).

Infront Sports & Media secured the Badminton World Federation’s global commercial rights for eight years after completing a blockbuster deal last week.

The Swiss Football League last week announced the sale of all media and marketing rights worth a total of CHF40m (€37m/$41m) per season.

Increasing the number of live Premiership Rugby matches broadcast had an “immediate and tangible” impact on its international distribution and income, according to the league’s commercial director Dominic Hayes.

Türk Telekom has acquired rights to an assortment of European basketball leagues in recent weeks to compensate for its lack of Euroleague and Turkish domestic league coverage.

The British Basketball League’s six-season deal with the Perform Group last month marks the completion of the league’s commercial revamp and sets a clear course for its future.

The English Premier League has launched an early tender in China in order to reap the benefits of the country’s buoyant media-rights market.

Media rights clips from September 29 to October 12

Joseph Rivers, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines television audiences in selected European markets for the 2016 Paralympic Games.

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, highlights some UK television audiences in the period between Monday 19th September and Sunday 2nd October.

The Football Association’s invitation to tender for its international rights from 2018-19 to 2023-24 opens the way for a type of deal that has become increasingly rare: a single agency buyout worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pay-television broadcaster C More last week agreed the most valuable Swedish sports-rights deal in history, paying an increase of about 90 per cent to renew Swedish Hockey League rights.

The Saran Media agency will become Turkey’s newest sports broadcaster in November, abandoning its role as a broker of media-rights deals in favour of exploiting rights itself.

Channel 4 is expected to pay a small increase to extend its deal with the International Paralympic Committee to cover the 2018 and 2020 Games.

Basketball’s Euroleague is close to a new media-rights deal in Greece even though its existing contract has two seasons to run, TV Sports Markets understands.