Europe

Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica has today (Friday) signed an agreement with LaLiga, the new brand name for the Spanish Football League, for the domestic pay-television rights to club football in the 2015-16 season.

Russian Premier League chief executive Sergey Cheban has said an agreement in principle has been reached for pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus to extend its rights deal for the top division of domestic football.

Austrian commercial broadcaster Puls 4 has agreed a three-year extension to its rights deal with American football league the NFL.

Imagina, the operator of the Mediapro agency, has categorically denied that it is involved in an investigation into allegations of football rights corruption after the Reuters news agency reported that an affiliate of the Spanish media company is one of the unidentified sports marketing companies to have been allegedly implicated in the scandal by the US Department of Justice.

New pay-television broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has acquired rights in Poland for the FA Cup, the top knockout club football competition in England.

French commercial broadcaster TF1 has agreed a late sublicensing deal with pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group to broadcast the semi-final clash between Richard Gasquet and Novak Djokovic at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC and commercial broadcaster ITV have agreed a new six-year deal under which they will share rights to the Six Nations from next year’s edition of the national team rugby union tournament.

Russian pay-television broadcaster NTV Plus has agreed a five-year production and distribution contract with pan-European club ice hockey competition the Kontinental Hockey League.

Spanish Liga football club Barcelona has launched a subscription-based video-on-demand service.

Telecommunications companies Vodafone and Orange have submitted appeals in Spain’s High Court over rival Telefónica’s takeover of pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus, according to daily newspaper El Economista.

French pay-television broadcaster Equidia Life, a specialist channel for equestrian sports, has acquired rights for events during the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

LaLiga, the new brand name for the Spanish Football League, will proceed with a tender process for the domestic rights to the top two divisions of Spanish football following the receipt of a report from the country’s competition regulator, the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC).

The NFL American football league is set to receive unprecedented free-to-air coverage in Germany under an agreement with commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1.

The WWE wrestling organisation’s WWE Network pay-television channel is now available in Italy.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC has teamed up with commercial broadcaster ITV to submit a joint bid for the rights to the Six Nations rugby union national team tournament.

Swedish public-service broadcaster SVT has secured a rights agreement for International Ice Hockey Federation events including the annual IIHF World Championship.