Russia

Russian state-controlled commercial broadcaster Channel One has acquired rights to the national football team’s forthcoming friendly games, which will also be live streamed by social media platforms VKontakte and Odnoklassnik.

The Russian Olympic Committee has said it will launch an online streaming channel in December.

Alexander Fayfman, general producer of state-controlled commercial broadcaster Channel One, has said no progress has been made on securing a rights deal for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in host nation Russia, adding that the negotiating parties are still seeking a compromise.

Any new deal for domestic Russian Football Premier League rights will likely be completed next March at the earliest, far later than the November estimate of league president Sergey Pryadkin, TV Sports Markets understands.

Eurosport Gold, a new channel containing programming from the international sports broadcaster’s Eurosport 2 channel, has launched on telecommunications platform Rostelecom in Russia.

Russian Premier League president Sergey Pryadkin has said talks are being held with privately-held broadcaster Match TV over a three-season extension to its rights deal for the top division of domestic football.

Russian social media and video-hosting platform VKontakte has acquired rights to the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch club football, and the Championship, the second tier of the English game.

The MP & Silva agency has agreed rights deals in a host of territories for the inaugural season of the World Boxing Super Series.

The Telesport agency is aiming to take advantage of Match TV’s weakened financial position and become the main buyer of sports rights in Russia, wresting control of the market from the Gazprom Media-owned broadcaster.

The Telesport agency has acquired exclusive rights in Russia to LaLiga, the top football division in Spain, according to Kommersant.

Russian state-owned sports broadcaster Match TV has rejected reports that it will not broadcast the 2018 winter Olympic Games, stating that it expects to complete a rights deal in the autumn.

FC Rostov has become the latest Russian Premier League football club to secure a local broadcast rights deal for the 2017-18 season.

The Lagardère Sports agency has renewed an agreement with the Kontinental Hockey League to continue distributing the international media rights for the ice hockey competition.

The Russian Premier League, the top division of domestic football, is targeting a 50 per cent increase in the value of its next broadcast contract as it emerged that two clubs have agreed rights deals with local broadcasters ahead of the start of the 2017-18 season.

The International World Games Association has said the 2017 edition of its showpiece event will receive record levels of exposure across the world.

State-owned sports broadcaster Match TV has acquired rights in Russia for the 2017 Uefa Women’s Euro, according to the Sports.ru news website.