Europe

US sports broadcaster ESPN, which organises the X Games, has agreed multi-year rights deals for the action sports franchise in Denmark, Sweden and Finland which include coverage of the new X Games Oslo event in Norway.

John Manning, research analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, reviews television audiences across the big five markets for the recently concluded Formula One World Championship

UK public-service broadcaster BBC is considering ending its rights deal for the Formula One motor-racing championship three years early, with commercial broadcaster ITV poised to take over coverage of the series in the UK, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Nova Broadcasting Group, part of multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster Modern Times Group, has agreed a three-season deal for rights in Bulgaria to Liga ACB, the top division of basketball in Spain.

French basic-tier sports broadcaster Ma Chaîne Sport has struck a rights deal for coverage of International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup events that are held in Austria.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has acquired live rights to the 2016 edition of the British Darts Organisation’s World Professional Darts Championship.

LaLiga, the organising body of the top division of Spanish football, along with the Segunda Division and Copa del Rey knockout competition, has set a deadline of December 22 for offers concerning four domestic rights packages, after opening a new bidding process.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel, the French football league, has agreed a four-season deal with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions for rights to the Coupe de la Ligue knockout competition.

Russian free-to-air broadcasters Channel One and Russia-1 will share rights to the Uefa Euro 2016 national team football tournament with new sports television platform Match TV, according to Sovsport.ru.

Telecommunications company OTE has renewed a rights deal in Greece for football’s English Premier League.

FIDE, the global governing body of chess, has secured its first long-term media rights deal through a new partnership with Norwegian public-service broadcaster NRK.

Fred Kogel will replace Bernhard Burgener as the chairman of the management board at media company Constantin Medien, which operates German sports broadcaster Sport1.

UK racecourse owner and operator Arena Racing Company has agreed a deal to distribute audio-visual coverage of South African horse racing to betting shops in the UK and Ireland.

Pay-television boxing channel BoxNation has secured a carriage deal with UK digital-television service Freeview.

The MP & Silva agency has agreed a content distribution deal for multi-platform digital media company Deluxe Entertainment Services to deliver live coverage of the NFL American football league in territories across Europe.

Belgian pay-television broadcaster Telenet has confirmed it has extended a rights deal for football’s English Premier League.