Sky UK

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at television audiences for Super Bowl XLIX

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has secured exclusive live rights for North American football competition Major League Soccer.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has agreed a one-year rights extension with the English Football League, which operates the three divisions below the top-tier Premier League, the League Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy club knockout tournaments.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky is set to increase its shareholding in Sky Deutschland, which operates in Germany and Austria, to 100 per cent in the coming weeks.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky holds a two-year extension clause to its rights deal with the Scottish Professional Football League, according to the Daily Record newspaper.

Sky corporate affairs director Graham McWilliam has defended the UK pay-television broadcaster’s decision to pay a significant increase in its rights fee for live domestic coverage of football’s English Premier League.

It is not yet clear whether Sky’s 83-per-cent increase in spending on Premier League rights was down to a blockbuster first-round bid to see off BT, a second-round reaction to aggressive BT bidding, or a combination of both.

UK pay-television operator Sky doubled the rights fee for the exclusive domestic rights to golf’s Open Championship last week in order to wrest it from public-service broadcaster the BBC.

The Ladies Golf Union and IMG agency have signed new five-year agreements with UK pay-television broadcaster Sky and public-service broadcaster the BBC for rights to the Women’s British Open.

Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch has said that the UK pay-television broadcaster has a “clear plan” to accommodate the cost of its new English Premier League domestic live rights deal, as the company’s share price took a significant hit today (Wednesday).

The UK pay-television market delivered another sensational boost to English Premier League revenues yesterday with new live domestic media rights deals worth £5.136bn ($7.8bn/€6.9bn) over the three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

UK public-service broadcaster the BBC “switched emphasis” when bidding for the domestic rights to Britain’s Open Championship to focus on highlights after the first round of offers for live coverage in the recent auction, according to Peter Dawson, the outgoing chief executive of the R&A, which operates the golf tournament.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has confirmed a five-year deal with the R&A, which operates the Open Championship, for the acquisition of exclusive live rights to the British golf major.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has agreed a deal with the R&A, which operates the Open championship, over the acquisition of rights for the British golf major, according to the Daily Mail.

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky has reportedly held talks with the R&A, which operates the Open championship, over the potential acquisition of rights for the British golf event, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB is thought to be paying a small increase for the rights to English cricket in its extension with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Even in a tournament in which the England national team disappointed, football matches from the Fifa World Cup dominated the top UK television audiences last year

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, reviews television audiences across the big five markets for the recently concluded Formula One World Championship