Sky Italia

Italian pay-television operator Sky Italia has acquired the rights to the qualification matches of all European national teams for Uefa Euro 2016 and the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Last week’s Serie A rights-sharing deal between Italian pay-television operators Mediaset Premium and Sky Italia does not appear to presage a wider truce between the two companies, including a sharing of Uefa Champions League rights.

Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport is considering taking legal action following the award of domestic rights for Serie A, the top division of football in Italy, on Friday.

Italian Serie A football clubs have voted to approve the award of the next three-year cycle of media rights, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, with pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium’s parent company RTI securing the main packages.

A vote by Serie A clubs on the award of packages of domestic rights for the next cycle of Italian football’s top tier has been postponed by two days, until tomorrow (Wednesday).

The 20 clubs of Italy’s Serie A are trying to pick the best possible combination of bids from a rights auction marked by an extraordinary degree of tactical bidding that has thrown the process into confusion.

Andrea Zappia, the chief executive of pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia, has complained that football media rights in Italy are disproportionately expensive and urged the national government to introduce legislation to help the growth of the pay-television sector.

The renewal of the National Basketball Association’s domestic media-rights deal, expected later this year, is the most eagerly awaited in US sport and will no doubt be the biggest of the year.

Interviews with Matt Brabants, senior vice president of global media distribution and business operations, and Elsa Memmi, vice president of global media distribution across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, on the NBA’s global media rights strategy.

The bidding for the rights for the competitions of European Professional Club Rugby, the new European governing body for club rugby, is set to be a battle between incumbent rights-holders Pitch International and the IMG Media agency.

The Telecom Italia telecommunications company will show the 2014 Fifa World Cup through its TIMvision video-on-demand service after agreeing a sublicensing deal with the national team football tournament’s rights-holder in the country, pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB could seal a deal this summer to gain control of sister pay-television broadcasters, Sky Italia in Italy and Sky Deutschland in Germany, in a move that would consolidate Rupert Murdoch’s European pay-television assets.

Italy’s Bike Channel looks to expand abroad

National team qualifier rights values tumble in Italy and Spain

The Infront Sports & Media agency’s contract as media adviser to Italian football’s Serie A was approved as expected yesterday, but not without some of the usual drama which has come to mark the league’s assemblies.

Clubs are real winners from BT-Sky sharing deal for European rugby