Uefa

Portuguese pay-television broadcaster Sport TV has acquired rights for the Uefa Euro 2016 national football team tournament.

Free-to-air sales in sub-Saharan Africa for the Euro 2016 tournament are well underway, with the CAA Eleven and TV Media Sport agencies enjoying some success in their respective territories.

Uefa will secure an increase of just over 30 per cent in the value of media rights to the Euro 2016 tournament compared to Euro 2012, according to research by TV Sports Markets.

Greek public-service broadcaster ERT’s acquisition of two blue-chip properties is a sign it may slowly be recovering after its short-lived closure almost two years ago.

Chinese sports marketing company Shankai Sports is expected to make a substantial profit on the streaming rights to Uefa properties it acquired last year.

Huge debts and the threat of insolvency mean TVR, Romania’s public-service broadcaster, is struggling to agree a deal for this summer’s Euro 2016.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT is set to sublicense a package of Euro 2016 matches to pay-television operator Digiturk.

Sky Italia’s investment in this summer’s two major football tournaments – Euro 2016 and the Copa América Centenario – came as a surprise as the broadcaster had said it has abandoned its strategy of acquiring rights to major events. It does not, however, represent a U-turn – the deals were last-minute, opportunistic acquisitions.

Concurrent auction processes for three UK media rights deals in recent weeks generated strong competition between free-to-air broadcasters, helping each rights-holder to a healthy fee increase.

Uefa has agreed a deal in principle with the Telesport agency for Euro 2016 rights in Russia, a deal which appears to have been worth the wait for European football’s governing body.

The Saran Media agency has suffered mixed fortunes in Turkey over the last fortnight, securing rights to England’s Premier League but losing out on Euro 2016 to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.

BeIN Media Group this week finalised its acquisition of English Premier League rights in the Middle East and North Africa, and is close to taking two properties – Uefa European Qualifiers and Wimbledon – from its main local rival, Abu Dhabi Media.

Uefa is the latest rights-holder to feel the pinch from the new-look Russian sports rights market, as the income from its club competitions in the territory has plummeted well below previous cycles.

Uefa opened its international competition rights to the US market early in its sales cycle to take advantage of the competitive environment, and was rewarded with a significant uplift.

After protracted negotiations over a UK deal for Euro 2016 and 2020, Uefa last week signed off on a valuable deal with long-term partners the BBC and ITV.

French commercial broadcaster TF1's deal to show a further 11 matches from Euro 2016 will enhance the tournament’s free-to-air reach.