Balkans

Telekom Austria’s push for Champions League rights helped drive the value of Uefa club competitions in Bulgaria up by about 30 per cent from 2018-19.

Uefa Champions League and Europa League rights will increase in value throughout Albania, Kosovo and the Baltics – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – from the 2018-19 season, TV Sports Markets has learned.

Hungarian commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV2 is close to finalising deals for Spain’s LaLiga and Italy’s Serie A.

BHRT, the public-service broadcaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has confirmed a rights agreement for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Discovery Communications secured three late sublicensing rights deals ahead of last month’s winter Olympic Games, taking it closer to its sublicensing revenue target.

Digital entertainment company Modern Times Group has completed the disposal of its international entertainment operations by selling Bulgarian commercial broadcaster Nova to PPF Group, the investment company controlled by Czech billionaire Petr Kellner.

Competition between sports-rights agencies has helped Spain’s LaLiga grow the value of its media rights in several new deals across Europe.

BHRT and MRT, the public-service broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia, respectively, have struck rights deals to show the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the 2020 summer Games in Tokyo.

Aggressive bidding from telcos has helped Uefa substantially grow the value of its club competition rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

The MP & Silva agency has extended its partnership with LaLiga through a deal to distribute media rights to the top division of Spanish club football in five European markets.

Serbian sports channel SOS has been put up for sale after its owner, Dragisa Kovačević, said that the state has “no interest” in providing assistance.

Croatian telecommunications company Vipnet has acquired domestic rights to the Uefa Champions League club football competition.

Uefa has earned a significant increase in the value of its national team rights across Eastern Europe, justifying its decision to sell market-by-market in the region.