Europe

Football

Barcelona’s commercial director Francesco Calvo has said the Spanish Liga football club’s recent virtual-reality based initiative with social media platform Facebook will mark the beginning of a longer partnership between the two parties.

Rugby Union

John Manning, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, examines television audiences for this year’s Six Nations Championship

Multi-sport

Italian media company Mediaset has agreed a deal to sell its pay-television division, Mediaset Premium, to Vivendi as part of a broader alliance with the French media company, according to Bloomberg.

Polish pay-television broadcaster Motowizja has acquired rights to the Sprint Cup, the leading competition of North American stock car-racing series Nascar.

Football

The Damallsvenskan, the top division of women’s club football in Sweden, has launched a new online video platform in partnership with sports-rights agency Spring Media.

Football

Spanish commercial broadcaster Mediaset has been granted permission to broadcast clips of Uefa Champions League football games after the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia, the country’s competition regulator, ruled that matches were of “public interest to society.”

Football

The German Football League (DFL) has secured a deal to make video content available on the Amazon Digital Video store in the country.

Cycling

Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions will cover the 2017 Tour de France in its entirety, the first time it has elected to cover the cycling event in this manner.

Martial Arts

French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Équipe 21 has acquired rights for the 2016 European Judo Championships.

Multi-sport

Spanish agency Mediapro has recorded a 40-per-cent increase in its gross operating profit for the 2015 financial year, adding that it expects a further rise for 2016.

Horse Racing

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has struck a rights deal with the country's horse racing rights-holders, France Galop and LeTrot.

Ice Hockey

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has agreed a sublicensing deal with telco Deutsche Telekom for rights to the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the top division of ice hockey in the country.

French telecommunications company Numericable-SFR has announced plans to launch a new sports channel, SFR Sport.

Boxing

Specialist boxing pay-television channel BoxNation has secured the exclusive UK live broadcast rights to the forthcoming title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan.

Sky, Rupert Murdoch’s European pay-television company, which was created in November 2014 from the merger of previously separate platforms in the UK, Germany and Italy, has unified its sports operations by creating a single European sports division under the control of Andrea Zappia.

Austrian public-service broadcaster ORF has agreed a three-season extension to its rights deal for the Formula One motor racing championship.

Motorsport

Pay-television channel Motorvision TV has expanded its global reach by launching on six additional platforms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Cycling

The board of Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE has approved a renewal of a rights deal for the Vuelta a España cycling race.