Europe

French media group Vivendi has raised its stake in telecommunications company Telecom Italia to 14.9 per cent under a deal in which it replaces Spanish telco Telefonica as its largest shareholder.

UK sports production and media company Sunset+Vine has secured the host broadcaster contract for the International Cricket Council’s 2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier.

The European Broadcasting Union consortium of free-to-air broadcasters has confirmed an agreement with European football’s governing body Uefa for exclusive media rights on all platforms in 26 countries to the Euro 2016 national team tournament.

The collective international rights deal for LaLiga, the new brand name of the Spanish Football League, will not include champion Barcelona, Espanyol, Celta Vigo or Real Sociedad, while US technology company Microsoft has denied reports that it has struck a deal with Real Madrid for its international rights.

The beIN Media Group could finalise a deal to take over Turkish pay-television broadcaster Digiturk “within weeks,” sources have told the Bloomberg news agency.

The Belgian Football Association (URBSFA/KBVB) has agreed three-season rights deals with pay-television broadcaster Telenet, commercial broadcaster RTL and public-service broadcaster VRT for the Belgian Cup club knockout competition.

Welsh Culture and Sports Minister Ken Stakes has called upon the UK government to press for the Six Nations rugby union championship to remain protected as a free-to-air television event.

German public-service broadcaster ZDF has acquired rights for the 2015 Audi Cup pre-season football club competition in Germany.

The Infront Sports & Media agency has said it will reorganise its Nordic business operations by the end of this year, with a new company being formed.

Swedish communications company Ericsson has signed a multi-year broadcast and media services deal with BT Sport to help the UK pay-television broadcaster launch three new channels and an interactive red button service.

LaLiga, the new brand name of the Spanish Football League (LFP), has said that international deals for the Spanish top tier will be struck regardless of whether it has complete control of clubs’ media rights for the 2015-16 season.

The B4 Capital agency has retained international rights for the Coppa Italia club football knockout tournament in Italy.

The Polish launch of Eleven Sports Network, the new media platform backed by co-founder of the MP & Silva agency Andrea Radrizzani, has come under question amid confusion over the sports rights it claims to hold.

German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has acquired exclusive rights for Marco Huck’s World Boxing Organisation cruiserweight title defence against Krzysztof Głowacki on August 14.

The Saran Media agency has expanded its multi-year partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to take in rights to the Wimbledon Championships in a further nine markets.

The Mediapro agency has agreed a deal with the LFP, the body that operates the Spanish football league, to allow a centralised rights-sales process to be introduced from the start of the 2015-16 season.