Football

Uefa is hoping the improved fees and ratings secured by Major League Soccer in Canada indicate a rising tide of football interest that will lift the value of its Champions League and Europa League rights, which went on sale last month.

Mediapro’s agreement with Turner-owned Chilevisión to lead sales of Chilean national team rights is the first phase of a wider alliance between the agency and the media group, TV Sports Markets understands.

Selling global rights exclusively to pay-television broadcaster Sky has netted the Austrian Bundesliga the biggest media-rights deal in the country’s history.

Uefa is considering selling Champions League and Europa League rights in a new cycle exclusively to a pay-television broadcaster to maximise value in Greece.

Uefa has earned a healthy increase in the value of its national team rights in a new deal covering Indonesia with the IMG agency.

Chairmen of English Premier League football clubs have backed plans to increase the number of games available for live broadcasts each season from 168 to between 190 and 210.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus has struck a sublicensing deal with commercial broadcaster TF1 for rights to the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup.

The Premier Soccer League, organising body of the top two divisions of South African football, has extended the tender process for its next set of media rights, with a number of parties in contention for the packages on offer.

Mexican pay-television operator Televisa and Brazilian media group Globo were part of a $15m (€12.9m) bribery scheme for media rights to the 2026 and 2030 editions of national team football tournament the Fifa World Cup, according to a prosecution witness in the ongoing US trial into corruption in world football.

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus is set to offer free-to-air coverage of the top divisions of domestic football and rugby union, Ligue 1 and the Top 14, by utilising its general entertainment channel C8.

The English Football Association has entered into a partnership with Cognizant, through which the professional services company will support the organisation’s new digital engagement programme.

A series of leading media companies paid bribes to secure multi-year rights deals for football matches, according to the testimony of a prosecution witness in the ongoing US football corruption trial of three of the sport’s former administrators.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said the organisation which oversees the top two divisions of Spanish club football expects to earn €2.3bn ($2.66bn) per year from its broadcast rights within three seasons, adding that the organisation can now look to take its rights to market as the political situation in Catalonia has improved.

The French Football Federation has awarded commercial broadcaster M6 and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus rights for the country’s leading women’s football and youth-level football properties.

Spanish-language sports broadcaster Telemundo Deportes has picked up rights in the United States to the 2017 Fifa Club World Cup and has agreed a deal to show the second leg of the Fifa World Cup play-off between Peru and New Zealand.

Sportsfix, an OTT service serving Southeast Asia, has acquired rights in Malaysia for Serie A, the top division of Italian football.