United Kingdom

Football

Ace IPTV, a platform that showed pirated content from football’s English Premier League, has been forced to liquidate after agreeing to pay £600,000 (€681,000/$812,000) for breaching the league’s copyright.

Motorsport

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 has acquired rights to the World Rallycross Championship (World RX) motor-racing series.

Boxing

Sky has sealed a rights deal with Matchroom Boxing that will allow the UK pay-television broadcaster to show the promoter’s US fight nights.

Horse Racing

Sky Sports Racing, which is set to become the new identity for pay-television channel At The Races, has sealed its second major deal this week by securing exclusive rights in the UK and Ireland to the Melbourne Cup.

Rugby Union

The Pro14 cross-border rugby union league will almost double the value of its UK and Ireland media rights once it completes its remaining deals for 2018-19 onward.

Football

Eleven Sports’ surprise entrance into the UK sports-rights market will have been welcomed by rights-holders around the world.

UK viewing data for the week between Monday 23rd and Sunday 29th April, including data for BT Sport 1. Watching Brief Vol. 208
Multi-sport

UK telco BT, which operates pay-television broadcaster BT Sport, has today (Thursday) announced plans to cut around 13,000 jobs over the next three years as it admitted its structure is too complex and “overweight” when compared to rivals.

Horse Racing

Pay-television channel At The Races, which is set to rebrand as Sky Sports Racing, has struck a three-year extension to its rights deal in the UK and Ireland for US horseracing showpiece the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

Golf

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has extended its rights deal with golf’s Ladies European Tour.

Football

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports is considering a bid to acquire rights in the UK to football’s English Premier League, according to the Independent.

Multi-sport

BT, the UK telco that operates the BT Sport pay-television sports broadcaster, is set to announce plans to cut 6,000 jobs worldwide next week.

UK viewing data for the week between Monday 16th and Sunday 22nd April along with March's leading audiences on free-to-air television.
Football

The English Football League, which operates the three divisions below the top-tier Premier League, has agreed a four-season deal for free-to-air DTT channel Quest to become its new partner for highlights of its competitions.

Rugby Union

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 is set to enhance its rugby union coverage by acquiring rights to Wales’ three summer Test matches, according to multiple reports.

Horse Racing

Racecourse Media Group, the holding company responsible for media and data rights involving a host of British horse-racing destinations, has said that its 37 affiliated racecourses will receive a nine per cent increase in revenues generated from their media rights in 2017.

Football

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has today (Wednesday) moved into a new market after ousting pay-television broadcaster Sky as the rights-holder to LaLiga, the top division of Spanish club football, in the UK and Ireland.

Boxing

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has renewed an agreement for rights to boxing events organised by promoter Frank Warren, which will include British heavyweight fighter Tyson Fury’s comeback fight in June.