Euroleague Basketball

Euroleague Ventures – the joint venture between Euroleague Basketball and the IMG agency – has agreed a one-season extension to its deal with telco Telefónica in Spain and is close to a new deal in Germany.

IMG’s packaging of Euroleague and Eurocup basketball rights has led to another big increase, this time in France from a deal with SFR Sport

It is thought Fox was Discovery’s only rival bidder, but the broadcaster’s limited budget for sports rights did not allow an aggressive bid. Discovery, on the other hand, was very keen on the rights

Euroleague Basketball has increased its media-rights income in the 2016-17 season by 36 per cent compared to 2015-16, and this will rise further in 2017-18 thanks mainly to a blockbuster deal in Greece.

The Euroleague has earned an increase of almost 170 per cent on the value of its media rights in Spain, reviving the property’s fortunes in the territory after a tough sales process last time.

Basketball’s Euroleague is close to a new media-rights deal in Greece even though its existing contract has two seasons to run, TV Sports Markets understands.

The Sports Channel has renewed a host of rights in recent weeks as it seeks to solidify its position in the Israeli broadcast market.

Basketball’s Euroleague said this week the complaint it lodged at the European Commission against the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) in February could have far-reaching consequences. 

Interview with Eduard Scott, chief operations officer of Euroleague Basketball, on the league’s complaint to the European Commission about Fiba and the recent Munich Court injunction against Fiba Europe sanctions.

Decisions made by national basketball federations to commit clubs to a new Fiba-run competition could scupper IMG’s hopes of refinancing its 10-season, €630m ($682m) joint venture with the Euroleague.

The IMG Events & Media agency said this week the income projections behind its newly-created 10-season joint venture with basketball’s Euroleague were “aggressive, but realistic”.

Increasing the value of its media rights is an essential bargaining chip for the Euroleague as it faces a threat to its long-term survival from Fiba, the sport’s global governing body.

The Euroleague doubled the value of its media rights in Turkey this month as pay-television operator Digiturk ousted incumbent rights-holder, NTV Spor.

German sports broadcaster Sport1 last month picked up rights to the Fiba World Cup, which takes place in August, in a cash and airtime deal.

Top 14 rights saga is case study in the use of market power