Europe

Sky Italia’s investment in this summer’s two major football tournaments – Euro 2016 and the Copa América Centenario – came as a surprise as the broadcaster had said it has abandoned its strategy of acquiring rights to major events. It does not, however, represent a U-turn – the deals were last-minute, opportunistic acquisitions.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship bolstered its UFC Fight Pass OTT subscription service last month, maintaining its position as the world’s most content-rich combat channel.

John Manning, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at television audiences for Super Bowl 50

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has further broadened its reach in the Polish market by reaching a carriage agreement with cable operator Promax.

Irish public-service broadcaster RTÉ has reached an agreement to sub-licence commercial broadcaster TV3 rights to 22 of the 51 games at the Uefa Euro 2016 national team football tournament.

The Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) motorcycling series has agreed a rights deal with UK commercial broadcaster ITV.

The German Handball Association (DHB) has said it will meet with the International Handball Federation in mid-March in a bid to secure free-to-air coverage for the 2017 Men’s World Championship.

International sports broadcaster Eurosport has secured an exclusive digital streaming rights deal with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Catalan public-service broadcaster TV3 has struck a sublicensing rights deal with Spanish telco Telefónica to show coverage of the Formula One motor racing world championship.

The English Football League has commenced a review of its collective digital platforms through its wholly owned digital subsidiary Football League Interactive (FLi).

International sports broadcaster Eurosport has acquired rights in the UK and Ireland to this year’s All England Open Badminton Championships, which begin next week.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has struck a rights deal with the German Handball Federation for coverage of two friendly matches featuring the country’s national team.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky will retain the ability to extend its rights deal with the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland after a motion to make all televised championship games available free to air was defeated.

Italian Serie A football clubs have approved the distribution of media-rights revenues for the 2015-16 season.

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE has decided to stop showing recaps of matches from the country’s top-tier football Liga in protest at a ruling from Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, the national competition regulator.

The Fox Networks Group division of media company 21st Century Fox has acquired exclusive rights to broadcast all racing from sailing’s 35th America’s Cup in the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Israel.