Europe

Football

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”.

Boxing

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

Football

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

Football

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.

Football

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.

Football

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.

Football

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.

Football

Gazzetta TV, the Italian sports channel operated by the RCS MediaGroup, has acquired rights to French football’s Trophée des Champions, along with the English Championship and League Cup competitions.

Cricket

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has offered the England and Wales Cricket Board £40m (€56.3m/$62m) annually for the global rights to a proposed city-based Twenty20 tournament slated to launch in 2017, according to The Observer.

Football

Senior club officials from Bayern Munich and Hamburg have called for an overhaul in the Bundesliga’s broadcast rights model and a change in the method of revenue distribution for the top division of German football.

Telco O2 has been granted permission by the Czech Republic Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) to launch five new sports channels in the country, according to the Parabola.cz website.

Football

Spain’s LaLiga has leapfrogged Italy’s Serie A in media rights income to become Europe’s second most valuable league following deals agreed in recent weeks.

Golf

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is expected to increase its global media rights revenue by about 64 per cent from 2015 to 2017.

Mixed Martial Arts

Pay-television channel BTV, owned by Portuguese Primeira Liga club Benfica, this month acquired exclusive rights to three second-tier properties in Portugal.

Football

The value of Premier League internet rights increased hugely in deals in China, but the value of digital clips in the UK remained flat in this week’s deal with Sky.

Ice Hockey

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has agreed a one-year extension to its rights deal for pan-European club ice hockey competition the Champions Hockey League.

Football

Interview with Domingos Soares de Oliveira, chief executive of Benfica; Bernardo Faria de Carvalho, director of sales & international expansion at Benfica, on BTV's past, present and future.

Sailing

The 35th America’s Cup sailing event has secured broadcasting deals in Australia and Poland.