Europe

The Sina Sports division of Chinese internet operator Sina is to broadcast the final of the 2016-17 Liga ACB, the top division of basketball in Spain.

German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 has acquired rights for next month’s edition of the Telekom Cup pre-season football tournament.

Fifa confirmed yesterday (Sunday) that football’s global governing body had awarded rights for the 2017 Confederations Cup to Russian broadcasters Channel One and Match TV.

Lega Serie A, which operates the top football division in Italy, is set to launch a new rights auction in the coming months after Mediaset refused to participate in the latest tender and the only bidders tabled offers that did not meet the league’s expectations.

Finnish public-service broadcaster YLE has acquired rights for events operated by Fiba, basketball’s global governing body.

Lega Serie A’s invitation to tender for its media rights could allow Sky Italia to secure a monopoly of Serie A rights in the next cycle, dealing a potentially fatal blow to its main rival Mediaset Premium. Bids are due tomorrow, June 10.

European Professional Club Rugby increased the value of its media rights in France by about 50 per cent late last month from deals with beIN Sports and France Télévisions.

The MP & Silva agency is set to earn a small profit on its deal for Belgium’s top-tier Pro League, with its most lucrative broadcast deals now in place.

Russian broadcasters VGTRK, Channel One and Match TV have agreed a deal with Fifa for rights to this year’s Confederations Cup, but wrangling over rights to the 2018 World Cup continues.

Hungarian public-service broadcaster MTVA has bucked the Champions League’s recent trend of selling to pay-television broadcasters, paying a huge increase to retain its rights in the country.

The Norwegian handball federation returned to former broadcast partner TV2 last month, keeping its media-rights revenue steady in the process.

DAZN, the OTT service that is operated by digital sports media company Perform Group, has acquired exclusive rights for events operated by the FIH, hockey’s global governing body.

Danish commercial broadcaster TV2 has renewed a rights deal for the 24 Hour of Le Mans ahead of this year’s edition of the endurance motor-racing event.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have extended a rights deal with the German Fencing Federation.

The English Football League, which operates the three divisions below the top-tier Premier League, has decided against exercising an option to extend a domestic live rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Sky and will launch a tender process later this month.

Italy’s antitrust authority, the AGCM, has opted to suspend action on a complaint brought forward by Italian broadcaster Mediaset to enable the tender process for the domestic rights to Serie A can proceed as planned, while French media company Vivendi has expressed interest in the tender.