Europe

The European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters has issued a fresh call for national authorities to come to the aid of its member, Bosnia and Herzegovinian Radio and Television, as the operator continues to struggle with funding issues.

The Pro League, the top division of club football in Belgium, has delayed a decision on its next set of domestic broadcast rights until May 2.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has submitted a multi-million-pound bid to acquire rights for the Scottish national rugby union team’s Autumn Test series, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

UK production company Sunset+Vine has signed a three-year host broadcast partnership with Tie Break Tens, and has brokered an exclusive rights deal for the tennis series with media company UKTV.

The Modern Times Group media company has completed the sale of a 50-per-cent stake in Czech commercial broadcaster FTV Prima Holding to Denemo Media.

Swiss public-service broadcaster SRG has stepped up its commitment to floorball in the country by agreeing a new rights deal with the Swiss Unihockey body.

Pan-European pay-television broadcaster Sky is launching new products tailored to mobile devices for its online streaming service Now TV in Ireland and Italy.

German telco Deutsche Telekom has agreed a deal with SportA, the sports-rights agency that represents public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, that will grant it early access to rights to the men’s 3. Liga club football competition.

An investigation by UK media regulator Ofcom into the proposed takeover of Sky by 21st Century Fox has been delayed until after the country’s general election on June 8.

Italian broadcaster Mediaset has reported record losses of €294.5m ($313.9m) for 2016, blaming the collapse of its proposed deal with French media company Vivendi for the state of affairs.

Russian broadcasters are willing to pay 20 per cent more for the 2018 Fifa World Cup than they did for 2014, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko.

French media company Vivendi has said it is considering legal action after Italian communications authority AGCOM ordered it to cut its stake in either Italian broadcaster Mediaset or telecommunications firm Telecom Italia within a year.

US pay-television channel GolTV has acquired rights to the Primeira Liga, the top division of club football in Portugal.

Turkish media group Saran Media has acquired domestic rights to League of Legends esports events.

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has elected to sublicense its rights for the 2017 Fifa Confederations Cup national team football tournament to pay-television broadcaster SFR Sport, according to L’Équipe.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has expanded its reach in Belgium by launching a third channel, while it has acquired rights in the United States to the World Snooker Championship.