Football

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has struck a three-season extension to its rights deal in Belgium for LaLiga, the top division of Spanish club football.

Italian state broadcaster Rai has acquired rights to a host of top football content, including the return of the Uefa Champions League to its screens for the first time in six years, while pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has secured rights to the Euro 2020 national team tournament.

The China Sports Media agency has struck a five-year extension to its rights deal for the Chinese Super League, the top division of domestic club football.

French commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 have confirmed the acquisition of rights for France national football team matches over four years, from 2018-19 to 2021-22.

Pay-television broadcaster O2 TV has acquired exclusive rights to the Uefa Champions League club football competition in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Czech public-service broadcaster Česká Televize has secured a package of rights to competitions organised by Uefa, football’s European governing body.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has acquired rights in Belgium to football national team qualifiers for the Uefa Euro 2020 and Fifa 2022 World Cup tournaments, as well as the inaugural Uefa Nations League.

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has renewed rights to LaLiga, the top division of football in Spain, according to French daily newspaper L’Équipe.

Lega Serie A, the organising body of the top division of Italian club football, has said it will enter into private negotiations with bidders for its domestic broadcast rights after offers opened yesterday (Monday) failed to meet the minimum revenue target of €1.05bn ($1.26bn) per season.

The International Bank of Qatar has denied reports linking it to the ongoing domestic rights-sales process in Italy for Serie A, the top division of football in the country.

Turner’s intense battle against Fox over the acquisition of Chile’s Canal del Fútbol has produced a price almost double Fox’s opening offer in July.

Uefa increased the value of Champions League media rights in Belgium by about 31 per cent last month, while the Europa League grew in value by about 19 per cent.

Italian media group Mediaset said this week it expected to make a healthy profit on its acquisition of 2018 Fifa World Cup rights by showing all matches free-to-air.

Italy’s Lega Serie A is hoping to earn €1.05bn ($1.26bn) per season for its domestic live rights in this month’s tender process. To hit that figure, or even come close to it, the league will need to do something it has failed to do in previous auctions: secure an offer which meets its valuation of its OTT rights.

Uefa has secured an increase of about 33 per cent from Dutch telco Ziggo for pay-television Champions League rights, but is yet to agree a deal for its free-to-air rights in the Netherlands.

BeIN Media Group has recouped just under 44 per cent of its total fee for Ligue 1 international rights from sublicensing deals in sub-Saharan Africa this month.