Eastern Europe

International sports broadcaster Setanta Sports has broadened its reach in the Baltic markets by agreeing a carriage deal with Estonian cable television operator STV.

Uefa earned a strong increase in its Champions League rights fee in Spain last week, with most industry insiders believing it had Qatari broadcaster beIN Media Group to thank.

Latvian cable television operator Baltcom has agreed a carriage deal with international sports broadcaster Setanta Sports.

European club ice hockey competition the Kontinental Hockey League has strengthened its global footprint with the Ufa Sports agency securing a host of new broadcast rights deals.

AMC Networks International, the global division of US entertainment company AMC Networks, has acquired the exclusive rights to the Formula One motor racing championship in the Czech Republic and Slovakia through its AMC Networks International – Central Europe arm.

Telecommunications company Levira has struck a deal to begin broadcasting matches from the Alexela Basketball Premier League, the top division of club basketball in Estonia.

Best4Sport.TV, a new sports channel, has launched in Latvia.

Pay-television broadcaster SportKlub has acquired rights for the inaugural International Premier Tennis League in the Balkans.

In appointing the MP & Silva agency as adviser for its domestic and international media rights, in a deal based on a ‘top-up’ guarantee, the Polish football league has ostensibly rejected two other business models. But the choice was about the money rather than the model.

Commercial and pay-television broadcaster Media Group Ukraine has been awarded exclusive rights in Ukraine for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football tournaments.

The Polish arm of telecommunications group Orange has agreed a deal to sell pay-television broadcaster Orange Sport to RMVC, a company controlled by Roman Młodkowski, the former head of business and financial news channel TVN CNBC.

Modern Times Group, the multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster, has signed three-year extensions to its exclusive rights deals for the Formula One motor-racing championship in multiple Scandinavian and Baltic markets.

The Bulgarian top-tier football league suffered a rights-fee cut in its new deal with Nova Broadcasting Group. The drop is part of a longer-term decline in the value of the league’s domestic media rights caused largely by the country’s wider economic difficulties.

The MP & Silva agency has been signed up to serve as the worldwide rights distribution partner of the Ekstraklasa, Polish football’s top division.

The Polish football league, the Ekstraklasa, is in advanced talks with the MP & Silva agency over the rights to the top division of Polish football from the 2015-16 season, according to Polsatsport.pl.

Piotr Pietrzak has been appointed as the new co-managing director of the Polish division of the Sportfive agency.