Europe

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, director of sports for France Télévisions, has said the public-service broadcaster is open to sharing rights to the 2024 summer Olympic Games, which will be hosted in the French capital, Paris.

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 has launched a tender process for its coverage of the 2020 summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has succeeded in suspending the tender launched by the Mediapro agency for rights to Serie A, the top division of Italian club football.

LaLiga, which organises the top two divisions of Spanish football, has signed rights deals in Poland with international sports broadcaster Eleven Sports and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus, while it has renewed agreements in Greece and Cyprus with pay-television operator Cosmote TV and telco PrimeTel, respectively.

The Saran Media agency has acquired exclusive broadcast rights to the 2018 Fifa World Cup national team football tournament for the territories of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

English Premier League football clubs will be required to make a final decision this summer on proposed reforms to the system by which broadcast rights revenue is distributed, according to multiple reports.

UK free-to-air digital television channel FreeSports has acquired rights to the World Rallycross Championship (World RX) motor-racing series.

Digital media specialists Perform this month agreed to pay an increase of about 30 per cent to retain Spanish LaLiga media rights across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

US media company Walt Disney has been told it will have to make a full takeover bid for Sky, the European pay-television broadcaster operated by rival media company 21st Century Fox, even if the UK competition regulator scuppers Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to seize full control.

DAZN, the OTT service operated by digital sports-media company Perform, has bolstered its ice hockey content in Germany and Austria by acquiring rights to Russian competition the Kontinental Hockey League.

Spain’s three major telcos have refused to match the Mediapro agency’s minimum asking price to carry coverage of the Uefa Champions League and Europa League, according to daily newspaper El País.

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE has acquired rights for the upcoming final of the Copa del Rey domestic football tournament.

Stockholm-based agency Spring Media has launched a new OTT channel to provide coverage of Swedish speedway events on a global basis.

Swedish media company Modern Times Group has acquired rights in Norway to the 2018 Ice Hockey World Championship.

European Commission officials carried out unannounced inspections at the offices of several companies linked to the sports-media market yesterday (Tuesday).