News
Euro 2024 semi-final reels in year’s top audience in France
France's narrow defeat in the semi-finals of Uefa Euro 2024 drew the strongest television audience of the year to date in the country
Formula E improves financials but loses over €42m
Formula E, the electric single-seater racing series, has revealed a loss of €42.4m for the financial year ending September 30, 2023, closing the gap on the previous year's €65m shortfall.
ATP Media revenues breach $200m
ATP Media registered revenues of $202.9m in 2023 and a profit of $4m, SportBusiness understands, thanks in part to the aggregation of ATP 250 rights and the return of the Shanghai Masters for the first time since 2019.
Paralympics, women’s sport to the fore in French listed events shake-up
Events covered by French listed rights legislation have been updated for the first time since 2004 with mandatory free-to-air access introduced for the Paralympics, women's sports and semi-finals of certain events with French participation.
Recast’s $5m raise includes VC fund, Woodward-backed Airstream Ventures
Recast, the Edinburgh-based digital media technology company rescued from administration nine months ago after amassing significant losses, has closed a $5m funding round led by US-based venture capital firm Morpheus Ventures.
Strong ratings in core biathlon markets underpin EBU-IBU renewal
The European Broadcasting Union has held on to exclusive biathlon rights worldwide for four more seasons after its member broadcasters continued to register strong audiences for International Biathlon…
NHL’s Stars goes all in on free streaming
The Dallas Stars is set to become the first US major league sports franchise to offer free direct-to-consumer streaming of its games in a landmark move
Skydance finally agrees Paramount merger
After almost a year of negotiations with prospective buyers, Paramount Global has reached a deal with Skydance Media to form ‘New Paramount’ in an agreement that places the enterprise value of the merged entity at $28bn.
Sky NZ hires Disney Star’s Burchett to head sports content
Sky New Zealand has recruited Disney Star’s Gary Burchett, an experienced programming and sports production executive, as its head of sports content.
Portuguese FA challenger queries league rights centralisation target
Nuno Lobo, a candidate for the presidency of the Portuguese FA, has described the move to centralisation of media rights in the top division as "essential" but questioned the lofty €300m per year financial targets being set by the league.
LFP mulls last-minute Ligue 1 rights bids in crunch meeting
The board at France’s Professional Football League (LFP) met today (Friday) to evaluate last-minute rights offers in a bid to finally settle broadcast plans for the 2024-25 season, which begins in just s…
Acunmedya signals Sport1 direction of travel with new programming
Sport1's licensing of “docutainment” programming and rollout of a sports reality format developed by co-owner Acunmedya is indicative of a major cutback in sports rights investment, according to one German market expert.
Bundesliga returns to Eleven in Poland amid Viaplay retreat
Viaplay's impending exit from Poland as part of a wider international retrenchment will result in a new Bundesliga broadcaster in the country as rights return to Eleven Sports.
Experienced Americas duo Santa Cruz, Tree leave IMG
Guillermo Santa Cruz and James Tree, two of IMG’s most senior executives in the Americas, are leaving the agency.
Stanley Cup-winning Panthers leaves Diamond RSN for over-the-air Scripps
Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers has left Diamond Sports Group and signed with Scripps Sports to broadcast the team's games for free to the local area in South Florida
Anti-siphoning bill passes but streaming ‘loophole’ still under scrutiny
The Australian government has today (Thursday) passed a bill, first introduced in November following a lengthy review, designed to bolster its listed events legislation, though it still faces criticism…
ServusTV breaks all-time record for Austrian football audience
Austria’s performances at Euro 2024 have broken audience records in the country for ServusTV, seemingly vindicating the commercial broadcaster’s decision to invest heavily in the exclusive rights back in 2021.
NOS ties down Euro 2028, Nations League rights
Dutch public broadcaster NOS, which last night netted its highest Euro 2024 audience so far, has renewed its rights to cover Euro 2028 as well as other national team matches.