Europe

ECB suffers drop as competition dries up

ESPN2 hangs on tender outcome

EBU splits again over World Cup bids

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF agreed to pay a big increase in rights fee to jointly acquire rights for the Uefa Euro 2016 national team football tournament

The Infront Sports & Media agency is in talks with Russian football’s Premier League to acquire rights for the country’s top tier of club football in a deal that would allow state-owned broadcaster VGT…

Open 13, an annual ATP World Tour 250 men’s tennis tournament, extended a deal for the IEC in Sports agency to distribute the competition’s worldwide media rights for four years, from 2012 to 2015.

US pay-television service HBO acquired rights for the welterweight boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley in a deal with promoter Top Rank

Sporever, the new-media sports information company, is in talks to acquire French sports information channel Orange Sport Info, according to Le Parisien

German-based pay-television broadcaster Motorvision TV acquired exclusive rights to US motor racing’s Nascar Sprint Cup series in German-speaking Europe.

Sky Deutschland chief executive Brian Sullivan said the German pay-television broadcaster was willing to discuss partnerships with telecommunications companies around the domestic rights for Bundesliga…

Modern Times Group, the multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster, extended its rights in the Nordics for American football’s National Football League in a five-year deal, from 2012-13 t…

A top aide to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Russian free-to-air television should show the Paralympic Games in full for the first time, adding the state-owned Rossiya channel would be the ideal…

Georgian pay-television operator Global Media Group acquired the rights to the Uefa Europa League for the remainder of the 2011-12 season in a deal brokered by the Team Marketing agency

The IEC in Sports agency agreed a three-year deal, from 2012 to 2014, with the organisers of the Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meeting to distribute the global television rights for the event

Pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera and commercial broadcaster M6 acquired rights for the Uefa Europa League in France for three seasons, from 2012-13 to 2014-15

French commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 have not given up hope of showing the Euro 2012 and 2016 football tournaments, despite reports that pay-television broadcaster Al Jazeera has already acquired…

The English Premier League launched an advertising campaign warning UK pubs and clubs using foreign pay-television services to show league matches that they are under threat of legal action

Fifteen bidding companies were approved by the board of the Deutsche Fussball Liga, the German football league, to take part in the full tender for its next cycle of the domestic rights, from 2013-14 to…