Europe

UK sports production company Sunset+Vine has been awarded the contract to produce the next cycle of rights to non-live programming for International Cricket Council events.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has acquired rights to the final round of fixtures of England Hockey’s Super 6s domestic competition.

Russian media group Gazprom Media Holding and China’s state-owned Shanghai Media Group have joined forces under a strategic partnership.

The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), Spain’s competition regulator, is looking into the agreement signed between telecommunications company Telefónica and the Mediapro agency for carriage of the new beIN Sports LaLiga pay-television channel, according to multiple reports.

English Premier League club Arsenal has entered into a partnership with Total Soccer, the leading football programme on the CCTV Sports channel operated by the Chinese state broadcaster.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, wants to introduce a ‘no single buyer’ rule in the next cycle of rights for the Bundesliga, the top division of Germany football, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has agreed a deal to acquire a package of football rights previously held by digital terrestrial sports television channel Gazzetta TV, according to Milano Finanza.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has acquired rights in Poland for the British Speedway Elite League.

ESPN has entered into a partnership with the International Cricket Council that will grant the international sports broadcaster digital rights in the UK and Ireland to ICC events over the next four years.

Securing some Scottish club football on an exclusive basis was the primary reason BT Sport invested in rights to the revamped Scottish League Cup competition.

Canal Plus’s recent loss of English Premier League rights in France helped the value of Coupe de la Ligue media rights increase by 119 per cent last month.

Portuguese telco Nos has won the battle for premium domestic football rights, beating rival Altice to deals with nine more clubs.

The kind of portability clauses included for the first time by England’s Premier League in its recent European rights tenders look set to become an industry norm.

Concurrent auction processes for three UK media rights deals in recent weeks generated strong competition between free-to-air broadcasters, helping each rights-holder to a healthy fee increase.

Uefa has agreed a deal in principle with the Telesport agency for Euro 2016 rights in Russia, a deal which appears to have been worth the wait for European football’s governing body.

The Saran Media agency has suffered mixed fortunes in Turkey over the last fortnight, securing rights to England’s Premier League but losing out on Euro 2016 to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.