Europe

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.

Equestrian

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.

Football

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).

American Football

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

Wrestling

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

Rugby Union

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.

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.