Germany

German regional public-service broadcaster WDR has given its approval to the acquisition of 2022 Fifa World Cup national football team media rights by national public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

German pay-television broadcaster Sportdigital has struck a carriage deal with cable-television broadcaster Kabel Deutschland for its new Sportdigital HD channel.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has acquired rights to the ADAC GT Masters motor-racing series.

German broadcasters and the German Handball Federation (DHB) have expressed their frustration that a rights deal has yet to be agreed in Germany for handball’s 2015 men’s World Championships.

Public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have extended their deal with the German Football Association (DFB), which includes national team and club competition rights, through to mid-2018.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has acquired platform-neutral rights to the European Volleyball Confederation’s 2015 women’s championship national team event.

BSkyB is to be renamed as Sky after the UK pay-television broadcaster confirmed that it had completed acquisitions of Sky Italia in Italy and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland in Germany and Austria.

SportA, the sports rights agency for ARD and ZDF, has agreed a deal with sports broadcaster Sport1 to extend the German public-service broadcasters’ coverage of the Handball Bundesliga through the 2016-17 season.

The German Handball Federation (DHB) national governing body is to launch a new magazine television programme dedicated to the country’s men’s and women’s national teams.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB has said it will own 87.45 per cent of Sky Deutschland once its takeover of the German pay-television broadcaster closes.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has acquired rights to the German national men's and women's handball teams' away qualifying matches for the 2016 and 2018 European Handball Federation (EHF) European Championships.

Publishing group Axel Springer has agreed a sublicensing deal with telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom for rights to the Basketball Bundesliga, the top division of the sport in Germany.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has launched a new OTT platform that will allow subscribers to access premium sports content directly through the internet.

German pay-television broadcaster Sportdigital will launch a high-definition channel on November 4.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 has extended its rights deal with the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) through the 2017-18 season.

The Sauerland boxing agency suffered a cut in the value of its events as commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 replaced incumbent rights-holder ARD.