Europe

The German handball league, the Handball-Bundesliga, has agreed new rights deals with pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland and public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

Pay-television operator Digiturk has today (Monday) retained its rights to the Süper Lig and 1. Lig, the top two divisions of Turkish football, after securing a five-season extension to its contract.

Finnish telecommunications company Elisa has acquired rights for Liga ACB, the top division of basketball in Spain.

The Turkish Süper Lig’s tender structure has been drastically changed shortly before bids are due on November 21, making incumbent broadcaster Digiturk the clear favourite to renew its rights.

This month’s creation of the Bamtech Europe streaming operation by US technology company Bamtech and Discovery Communications provides immediate benefits for its owners.

Euroleague Basketball has increased its media-rights income in the 2016-17 season by 36 per cent compared to 2015-16, and this will rise further in 2017-18 thanks mainly to a blockbuster deal in Greece.

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE surprised the market with deals for English FA Cup and Club World Cup rights this month.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) will launch a new digital platform with a live stream of the England national team’s Table Tennis European Championship qualification match against Slovenia.

The German Football League (DFL) has rejected a report stating that 2.Bundesliga clubs stand to receive a cut in their share of the revenue from the new rights deal for the top two divisions of domestic football.

Pan-European pay-television broadcast group Sky is becoming more selective about what sports rights it seeks as it focuses more on entertainment content amid shifting viewing habits, according to chief executive Jeremy Darroch.

North American basketball league the NBA has signed a multi-year partnership with Lithuanian internet news portal Delfi.

Online streaming company PPTV has acquired rights in China for football’s English Premier League.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC announced this (Thursday) afternoon that it has extended a deal to broadcast the Wimbledon tennis championships through to 2024.

Media company CSI Sports, the owner of Fight Sports, has struck a distribution deal for the pay-television channel with DAZN, the recently-launched OTT service operated by digital-media company Perform.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has acquired rights in Belgium and Poland to the Glory: Collision kickboxing event, which will take place in Germany on December 10.

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has acquired rights to events operated by the WWE wrestling entertainment company.