Europe

Cricket

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) enjoyed the best of both worlds in agreeing its new domestic deals last week – it has grown media-rights revenue by almost 180 per cent and secured significant free-to-air coverage on UK public-service broadcaster the BBC.

Basketball

Greek public-service broadcaster ERT last month fought off competition from local commercial broadcasters to acquire International Basketball Federation (Fiba) events for five years.

Football

Polsat has completed its set of European club football rights in Poland, agreeing last month to pay an increase of about 40 per cent for rights to Uefa’s Europa League.

Motorsport

NC Plus has renewed its rights to the three most important speedway properties in Poland – the Speedway World Cup, Speedway Grand Prix and the Polish Ekstraliga – but will share the Ekstraliga with Eleven Sports Network from 2019.

Football

Swiss telecommunications company UPC has reached an agreement to broadcast all German Bundesliga football matches shown by pay-television operator Sky Deutschland from the 2017-18 season.

Football

Cypriot telecommunications company PrimeTel has acquired rights for the German Bundesliga, the top division of football in the country.

Italian DTT sports broadcaster Sportitalia has acquired rights for the 2017 World Games multi-sport event.

Football

Mediaset vice-president Pier Silvio Berlusconi has said the Italian broadcaster would be interested in a partnership with pay-television rival Sky Italia for the final season of its Uefa Champions League rights deal, adding that a pay-per-view service will be launched for the club football competition as the company assesses its future direction.

Multi-sport

German media companies Axel Springer and Constantin Medien have entered into exclusive talks over the former’s acquisition of sports broadcaster Sport1, according to multiple reports.

Football

Fifa wants Russia to pay more than double what the country is willing to spend on broadcast rights for football’s 2018 World Cup in the country, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Eleven Sports will continue to show live and exclusive F1 coverage in Poland for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after signing a new two-year deal.

UK viewing audiences for the week between Monday 19th and Sunday 25th June. We also look at leading audiences from this year's ICC Champions Trophy. Watching Brief Vol. 163
Football

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has allocated rights to the Süper Lig, the top division of club football in Turkey, to its own pay-television channel in France

Multi-sport

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has launched a new digital platform that will have an emphasis on “high-quality” video content.

Football

The English Football League, which operates the three divisions below the top-tier Premier League, will significantly increase the number of live games available through its new domestic broadcast rights tender, according to The Times.

Multi-sport

Sports and betting-related services company Sportradar has signed up its latest partner for its new over-the-top product by agreeing a multi-year deal with Italian DTT sports broadcaster Sportitalia.

Multi-sport

Dutch pay-television operator Ziggo has said it is considering its options after losing a court case concerning the carriage of channels operated by pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports Netherlands.

Rugby Union

Pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has secured exclusive rights in the UK and Ireland to European club rugby union’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions after agreeing a fresh four-season contract.