Europe

LaLiga, the organising body of Spanish club football, and broadcast partner the Mediapro agency have outlined plans for new broadcast innovations for the 2016-17 season, including 4K coverage of games.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has agreed a non-exclusive distribution deal with rival operator beIN Sports, according to the BFM news website.

Pay-television operator Virgin Media has furthered its investment in the Irish media sector by agreeing a deal to acquire commercial broadcaster UTV Ireland.

Bike, a television channel dedicated to cycling, has agreed a carriage deal with UK satellite platform Freesat.

British billionaire Sir Philip Green has pledged his support to Dugout, a new digital media platform set to launch in partnership with a number of Europe’s leading football clubs, according to Sky News.

Pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports has acquired rights in Italy to the next two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations national team football tournament.

UK telecommunications company BT has announced a partnership with its EE mobile network operator subsidiary, through which customers of the latter will gain free access to the firm's BT Sport pay-television channels for six months.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has announced that it will begin its coverage of this year’s edition of golf’s Open Championship with a free service plan.

Portuguese pay-television operator Cabovisão has joined telecommunications companies Nos and Vodafone in an agreement to share broadcast rights for sports events.

International sports broadcaster Eurosport has acquired rights in Russia to the English Championship and League Cup club football competitions, according to Television-Sport.com.

French telecommunications company SFR has formed a new unit that will group together all of its media activities in the country, including the SFR Sport operation.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to complete a new deal in the UK and Ireland with incumbent broadcaster BT Sport which will more than double its current media-rights income.

Mediapro last week acquired the remaining two packages of domestic Spanish LaLiga rights for the three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19, after a second round of bidding.

Strong competition drove up the value of rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Ireland this week, despite a much worse time zone than in 2015.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumer & Markets (ACM) has asked the European Commission for permission to handle the proposed merger between Ziggo, the cable-television operator held by media company Liberty Global, and mobile phone operator Vodafone.

Irish telecommunications company Eir has appointed Glen Killane as its first managing director of Eir television and sport.