Denmark

Agency aims to break with tradition in Nordics and sell Premier League rights market-by-market

Football: German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquired the free-to-air rights for a further nine matches from next year’s Fifa World Cup in South Africa in a sublicensing deal with pay-broadcaster S…

Surprise win for local agency in Nordic rights auction for the Premier League.

The battle between rival Scandinavian platforms Canal Digital and Viasat has driven apart the free-to-air consortium that was aiming to land the rights for Euro 2012 in a pan-regional deal.

Next week’s bidding deadline for English Premier League rights in most of Asia will kick off a frenzied period of activity for the league, with tenders being issued shortly afterwards in Greater China, Africa, Australasia and Europe.

American Football: The IMG agency agreed a deal to distribute the television rights of the National Football League in certain international territories in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America…

Abu Dhabi Sports Channel gave the English Premier League the spectacular start to its international rights sales it was looking for with a staggering deal, beating strong favourite Al Jazeera Sport and incumbent Showtime.

Football: Portuguese commercial broadcaster SIC sublicensed the rights for 18 of the 56 matches from next year’s Fifa World Cup from public-service broadcaster RTP.

The Danish government is considering reintroducing listed events legislation after a key national team World Cup qualifier was sold to pay-television.

The decision by Team to delay Europa League sales in Scandinavia until after the completion of Swedish broadcaster TV4’s merger with the pan-regional Canal Plus premium channels appears to have paid off.

Football: German sports channel DSF acquired the rights for the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup in June. DSF will show 14 games live including the final and the third-place playoff match

The EBU has renewed television rights deals for gymnastics, weightlifting and Greco-Roman wrestling, but pulled out of broadcasting judo, as part of a “reshaping” of its sports portfolio.

Canal Plus is to challenge the dominance of rival Viasat in the Danish market with the launch of a new basic-tier channel showing premium sports content.

Fox Turkey, the News-owned general entertainment channel that last week won the rights for 2014 and 2016 Olympics, hopes that the acquisition will help it fulfil its ambition of becoming Turkey’s most popular network.

Baseball: US sports network ESPN extended a deal with Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media arm for inter-active television and other digital media rights through to 2013.

Athletics: The Shanghai Media Group acquired the rights in China for the World Athletic Series in a four-year deal from 2010 to 2013