Europe

Ice Hockey

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

Gazprom Media chief executive Dmitry Chernyshenko has said the division of state-owned energy company Gazprom intends to streamline operations of the new Sport 360 project following the deal struck with state-owned broadcaster VGTRK last month.

Olympics

ProSiebenSat.1, a major commercial broadcaster in Germany, is in preliminary discussions with publishing house Axel Springer about a possible merger.

Football

Soon-to-be-launched pay-television broadcaster Eleven Sports Network has sealed an agreement in Belgium, Malaysia and Poland with the MP & Silva agency covering various sporting properties.

Football

The German Football League (DFL) will introduce new game windows on Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons for the Bundesliga’s next domestic broadcast rights tender, according to multiple media reports.

Football

Benfica TV, the pay-television channel operated by Portuguese Primeira Liga football club Benfica, has acquired rights for the top divisions of football in Italy and France.

Rugby Union

Telecommunications firm UPC Ireland, a wholly-owned subsidiary of media company Liberty Global, has entered into an agreement with British private equity fund manager Doughty Hanson to acquire Irish commercial broadcaster TV3.

Olympics

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have said that they were not given the opportunity to increase their bid for the rights to four editions of the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024.

Football

Russian state broadcaster VGTRK has acquired rights to the 2015 International Champions Cup pre-season club football friendly tournament for its pay-television sports channel Sport 1.

Paralympics

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has secured rights to the inaugural World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge, which takes place in London later this year.

The agreement between Russian state-owned broadcaster VGTRK and Gazprom Media Holding which will lead to the formation of a new state-backed sports broadcaster also includes the country’s most popular sports website, Sportbox.ru, according to Kommersant.

Football

The Mediapro agency has agreed a sublicensing deal with Brazilian media company Globo to market international rights to the country’s domestic football tournaments.

Football

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said he expects the international rights sales process for Spanish football’s top two divisions to generate €600m ($671m).

Cycling

The Velon umbrella group of WorldTour cycling teams has agreed a partnership with US camera manufacturer GoPro under which more on-bike footage will be provided from races, starting with the 2015 Tour de France.

Danny Menken has been appointed as the group managing director of new international sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network.

Football

Norwegian commercial and pay-television broadcaster TV2 has completed a deal to take over pay-television broadcaster C More’s sports operation in Norway.

US media group Scripps Networks Interactive has concluded its deal to buy a majority stake in Polish media company TVN for €584m ($652.9m).

Football

International sports broadcaster Eurosport has revealed plans to offer Spanish-language content for its Eurosport 2 television channel, while its new local channel in Denmark has launched.