Europe

A total of 95 offers from 30 companies have been submitted in the international rights-sales process for Serie A, the top division in Italian football, as well as the Coppa Italia knockout tournament and the Supercoppa Italiana clash between the Serie A and Coppa Italia winners.

Yousef Al-Obaidly, deputy chief executive at beIN Media Group and president of beIN Sports France, has said the pay-television broadcaster hopes the French Football League (LFP) launches a new rights tender as late as possible, noting that it will be “rational” in what is expected to be increased competition in the process.

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has acquired rights to this year’s edition of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe horse racing event.

Swiss pay-television broadcaster Teleclub has acquired rights to the 2017-18 season of the Swiss Ice Hockey Cup.

Uefa secured increases for various national-team media rights in recent deals covering France, Ireland and Romania.

Media commentators will debate whether the 36-per-cent increase the English Football League secured for its rights from Sky is a great result, a disappointment, or something in between.

The value of Uefa Europa League media rights will grow by about 24 per cent in Germany and 20 per cent in Austria when new deals kick in from 2018-19.

The MP & Silva and Pragosport agencies are struggling to sell German Bundesliga rights in their respective European territories, leaving the league without a broadcast partner in a number of markets.

Italy’s third-tier professional football league, Lega Pro, is heading for a substantial increase in the value of its domestic media rights after holding its first formal tender processes for both national and local broadcast rights.

IMG’s packaging of Euroleague and Eurocup basketball rights has led to another big increase, this time in France from a deal with SFR Sport

The NFL has increased the value of its free-to-air deal in Germany with ProSiebenSat.1 by about 20 per cent, and looks set to double the value of its pay-television deal with DAZN.

Free-to-air UK television platform BritAsia TV has acquired rights for the Indian Super League club football competition.

UK sports production company Sunset+Vine has agreed a deal with UK public-service broadcaster the BBC to provide its coverage of domestic women’s football.

UK viewing data for the week between Monday 28th August and Sunday 3rd September including audiences from Fifa World Cup Qualifying, T20 Blast Finals Day and the first weekend of the English Premiership …

International sports broadcaster Eurosport has acquired exclusive rights in 36 European countries to the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) World Championship events.

Karen Bradley, the UK’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has today (Thursday) confirmed that she will refer the proposed takeover of European pay-television operator Sky by media company 21st Century Fox to the Competition and Markets Authority on the grounds of broadcasting standards and media plurality.