Europe

Telecommunications company Telenet has agreed to acquire rival Altice’s businesses in Belgium and Luxembourg for €400m ($418m).

Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 has entered into a long-term rights partnership with Racecourse Media Group, the holding company responsible for a range of media and data rights involving 34 of the UK’s premier racecourses.

Media365 has been appointed by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) to produce coverage of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations national team football tournament.

UK horse racing pay-television broadcaster Racing UK has said it will provide free-to-air coverage of the New Year’s Eve fixture at Newbury racecourse, alongside action from Warwick, following commercial broadcaster Channel 4’s decision to withdraw the fixture from its schedule.

The German Football League (DFL) has agreed rights deals in Austria and Switzerland, along with three other German-speaking markets, with pay-television broadcaster Sky, international sports broadcaster Eurosport and DAZN, the OTT sports subscription service operated by digital media specialist Perform.

Vivendi chief executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine will meet Italian financial markets regulator Consob in Rome on Friday following complaints over the French media group’s growing interest in Italian broadcaster Mediaset, according to Reuters.

The Fédération Française de Rugby has sealed rights deals for the Top 8 women’s rugby union tournament in France with public-service broadcaster France Télévisions and international sports broadcaster Eurosport.

The Pro12 pan-European rugby union club competition has appointed Dermot Rigley as its new commercial director.

Media company CSI Sports has agreed carriage deals for its Fight Sports pay-television channel in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has acquired rights to two warm-up games of the German men’s handball team ahead of the 2017 World Championship and will provide them free-to-air via the Sky Sport News HD channel.

Energy group SE has strengthened its position in the Danish media market by acquiring digital terrestrial pay-television operator Boxer from Swedish terrestrial broadcast transmission service company Teracom.

French media company Vivendi, the Alisports division of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda and US mass media group Liberty Media are among 10 entities in contention for a stake in Spanish agency Mediapro, according to Reuters.

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 5 has agreed a deal to show live coverage of Australia’s Big Bash League Twenty20 cricket competition, according to The Times.

The European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters has made a final 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 MP & Silva agency will invite offers for domestic rights to Belgium’s top-tier Pro League in mid- to late-January 2017, TV Sports Markets understands.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, last month secured a strong increase in the value of its national team media rights from telco Digitalb in Albania and Kosovo.