Europe

The Russian Premier League has formally approved a new three-season deal with pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus, which will be worth R1.98bn (€27.4m/$30.3m) for the ongoing 2015-16 season.

German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich has signed a global media partnership with specialist digital football platform Goal.com.

Mediaset has complained to football’s European governing body Uefa after coverage of a Champions League match was made available in Italy, apparently diluting the Italian media group’s exclusive coverage of the tournament.

Norwegian pay-television operator RiksTV has struck a carriage deal for a portfolio of channels operated by media and entertainment company Discovery Communications, including Eurosport Norge.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC has signed an extension to its rights deal with the Rugby Football League, the governing body of rugby league in England, to continue broadcasting the Challenge Cup club knockout competition.

The German Football Association (DFB) has agreed a four-year extension to its rights contract with pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport and has launched a tender process for domestic rights to its DFB-Pokal club competitions.

The Handball-Bundesliga, the sport’s top division in Germany, has said its global broadcast reach will extend to beyond 40 countries in 2015-16 through new rights deals agreed by the MP & Silva agency.

The Saran Media agency has acquired rights in Turkey for the 2016 summer Olympic Games.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has acquired rights for the England national cricket team’s tour against Pakistan later this year.

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has acquired rights to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fight against Andre Berto.

US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications has struck a deal with Russia’s National Media Group to form a new company that will allow it to distribute pan-regional sports broadcaster Eurosport in the country.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport this week blindsided its main rival Sky by picking up Ashes cricket rights, paying a rights-fee increase of about 20 per cent.

Italy’s top basketball league, Lega Basket Serie A, is satisfied with the outcome of its recent domes-tic rights negotiations, even though total fees remain well below the level of five years ago.

Formula One’s broadcast rights value in Germany will fall by about seven per cent when the latest renewals, agreed last week, kick in from 2016.

Multi-territory broadcaster Modern Times Group renewed National Hockey League rights across the Nordics late last month, but missed out on the sport’s World Championship rights in Sweden.

French telco Altice signalled its intent to bid aggressively for sports rights late last month, teaming up with RDA TV to buy international Premiership Rugby rights.