Europe

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has agreed a partnership with Transport for London under which the city’s commuters will be provided with live news and updates from the forthcoming 2015 Rugby World Cup national team tournament.

Online streaming website Spox.com, owned by digital sports media company Perform, has acquired rights to the NFL in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports will broadcast the American football league in the Netherlands.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 and French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus have acquired rights for the Uefa Youth League European club football tournament.

Internet video technology provider NeuLion has sealed a partnership with the Euroleague to support the club basketball tournament's new digital service.

Spanish agency Mediapro has been ordered to pay rival Canal Plus €32m ($35.8m) after a court found that the latter had overpaid on a football rights deal in the country.

Norway became the latest Scandinavian country to be afforded free live streaming of the top divisions of Spanish and Italian football, LaLiga and Serie A, over the weekend.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has agreed a two-year extension to its rights deal for the ADAC GT Masters motor-racing series.

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) has expanded its partnership with social networking platform Twitter to incorporate a new initiative utilising its live video broadcasting app, Periscope.

The English Premier League has entered into a partnership with content and platform security provider Friend MTS in an effort to protect live broadcasts of the club football competition in regions around the world.

Fewer NFL American football matches will be shown free-to-air in the UK in the 2015 season, but the league has secured deals which it believes will still reach a wide audience.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky last week bought rights to the upcoming England v Pakistan cricket series in an attempt to shore up its cricket content.

Rugby league’s domestic Challenge Cup rights were renewed by the BBC last week, with the public-service broadcast paying a rights-fee increase of about 14 per cent on its previous deal.

UK pay-television broadcasters Sky and BT Sport have extended rights deals for coverage of the Scottish Professional Football League’s Premiership.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has struck a deal to show coverage of this weekend’s matches from the Serie A and LaLiga top football divisions in Italy and Spain, while football-dedicated publication Tipsbladet has also acquired rights in Denmark.

UK horse racing pay-television broadcaster Racing UK has renewed its ties with production partner RaceTech.

International pay-television operator Eleven Sports Network has widened its reach in Poland by agreeing three-year carriage deals with East & West, City-Net and Gawex.