Europe

Modern Times Group, the multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster, has acquired exclusive rights across the Nordic region for the LaLiga and Serie A top football divisions in Spain and Italy.

The NBC Sports Group division of media company NBCUniversal has struck a deal to assume live coverage in the US of golf’s Open Championship from the 2016 edition of the British event – a year earlier than planned.

Media company Liberty Global has acquired a stake in London-based digital media company Copa90, which specialises in football content.

Documents have been confiscated from Lega Serie A offices and several clubs in the top division of Italian football as part of an ongoing investigation by the country's financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, into the sale of domestic media rights, according to the Ansa news agency and the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

The Sportsman Media Group agency has signed a long-term partnership with the Badminton Europe Confederation through which it will market the exclusive worldwide media rights to its European Championships events.

International pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group has agreed a two-year rights deal in France with the Rugby League European Federation.

Russian Football Union president Vitaly Mutko has said a deal has been agreed for broadcast rights in the country to the Uefa Euro 2016 national team tournament.

Pan-regional pay-television broadcaster DirecTV has agreed a three-season extension to its rights deal in Latin America with club football competition the English Premier League.

The Premier League has signed a multi-year partnership with Pulselive, the digital division of sports technology company Hawk-Eye, which will result in a complete overhaul of the official web and mobile properties of the top division of English club football.

The European Broadcasting Union consortium of free-to-air broadcasters has entered into a digital and television content partnership with sports media and technology company Deltatre.

Strong competition in the Nordics between established media groups and an as-yet unidentified player helped the Premier League double its income in the region – continuing the remarkable start to its new international sales cycle.

The Russian government’s move to create a sports broadcast monopoly, as well as the depreciation of the rouble, hit the income of the Russian Premier League in last month’s deal with Gazprom Media.

The value of Formula One media rights increased strongly in Portugal last week, thanks mainly to the aggressive intent of sports broadcaster Eurosport.

The BBC paid a significant increase to retain rights to the Wimbledon tennis championships, one of its crown jewels, despite cuts elsewhere in its sports budget.

John Manning, research anaylst for SportBusiness Intelligence examines US Open tennis television audiences in selected European markets and the USA

The Formula E electric car-racing championship has agreed a new broadcast rights deal in Iceland, along with extending existing agreements in Albania and Cyprus.