Europe

The Mediaset Premium pay-television service of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has acquired exclusive rights to the NFL American football league.

Telcos Orange and Vodafone have become the first two operators in the Spanish market to sublicense LaLiga content in the 2015-16 season from rival firm Telefónica, while public-service broadcaster TVE has agreed a deal for highlights rights.

German media company ProSiebenSat.1 and publishing house Axel Springer have said they have no further partnership plans beyond a new project for digital start-ups following multiple reports earlier this month they were considering a possible merger.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has partnered with pay-television broadcaster Sportdigital to launch a new football highlights programme for free-to-air television.

Premiership Rugby, the organising body for the top division of club rugby union in England, has signed a new international rights deal with the RDA TV agency and multinational telco Altice.

European pay-television group Sky today (Wednesday) said it expects to perform strongly in its new financial year after posting better-than-expected profits for 2014-15.

The ESPN International division of sports broadcaster ESPN has acquired rights in Spanish-speaking South America to LaLiga and the Segunda División, the top two divisions of club football in Spain.

Golf’s PGA Tour has said its new PGA Tour Live digital over-the-top subscription service will launch tomorrow (Thursday) with the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia and the UK serving as initial customer markets.

The MP & Silva agency has acquired media rights to LaLiga, the top division of Spanish football, across a host of European markets and Japan.

UK media regulator Ofcom has launched a supplementary consultation over whether pay-television broadcaster Sky’s demand that rival operators supply key sports rights in exchange for its own sports content “would prejudice fair and effective competition”.

The TSA agency has brokered deals in New Zealand and a host of eastern European markets for the AIBA Open Boxing.

BeIN Media Group has acquired exclusive rights in France to the Spanish Liga and Italian Serie A club football leagues.

Nova Broadcasting Group, part of multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster Modern Times Group, will launch a new HD sports channel in Bulgaria next month.

Spain’s competition regulator, the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia, has fined telco Telefónica and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus €15.5m ($17.1m) for alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the exploitation of football rights for the three seasons from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

Swiss telco Swisscom has said it will fight a CHF143m (€137m/$151m) fine that Switzerland’s Competition Commission (ComCo) is seeking to impose for alleged prohibited marketing of sports content via pay-television.

Canadian pay-television broadcaster Rogers Sportsnet has agreed a sublicensing deal with the Fox Sports division of US network Fox to broadcast coverage of the German Bundesliga in Canada.