Football
Four-club breakaway threat to Mediapro’s grand design
Four Spanish Liga football clubs are putting pressure on sports rights agency Mediapro to pay them more in television rights fees by offering their domestic and international rights to rival operators.
Uefa tops UK viewing charts
In a major year of sporting action, Uefa events accounted for the biggest audiences for the BBC, ITV1, Five and BSkyB.
FASTRACK
UK pay-broadcaster Setanta’s audiences for Premier League football are up 56 per cent on last season, according to the latest figures.
Telecinco steps into Spain football war
Commercial broadcaster Telecinco entered Spain’s football rights war when it bought the television rights to this week’s domestic Copa del Rey round of 16 match.
RTL withdrawal kicks off new dispute
Greek commercial broadcaster Alpha is pulling out of its commitments to domestic football.
Pay-TV increase can’t stop fees sliding
Overall Champions League rights fees in Italy have fallen about 10 per cent, after the Team Marketing agency concluded its sales.
Show me the money: the Top 10 deals of 2008
New domestic deals for two of Europe’s top five football leagues accounted for two of the three biggest television rights contracts signed in 2008.
ASN launches in Asia after platforms say Yes to US sport
Yes TV has begun rolling out its new US sport channel, All Sports Network, with this week’s carriage deal with PCCW’s Now TV platform in Hong Kong.
SIC takes no chances to finally win some football
Portuguese commercial broadcaster SIC arguably bid over the odds in the recent auction for Uefa’s Europa League television rights.
TV Rights Deals 1: Football: the latest Fifa, Uefa and Americas deals
Football: Japanese pay-broadcaster SkyPerfecTV acquired the communication-satellite (CS) rights for all 64 matches of the 2010 World Cup in a deal with the Dentsu agency
TV Rights Deals 1: World Cup, Champions League and Europa League
Football: Philippines commercial broadcaster ABS-CBN acquired the rights for the 2010 World Cup in a $1m (€750,000) deal with the Football Media Services agency.
Balls wins 2010 World Cup rights
Leading Filipino commercial broadcaster ABS-CBN has struck a blow back at rival Solar Entertainment by winning the rights for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Football gambles on internet growth
Norwegian football’s top-tier domestic league, the Tippeliga, has turned down extra revenues from pay-television in order to give its internet partners more exclusivity.
Telecinco: Football will help us ‘fly through’ the crisis
Telecinco’s deal for Uefa’s second-tier competition, the Europa League, is its biggest-ever investment in football rights, showing that even advertising-funded broadcasters are still willing to back sport despite the market slowdown.
Rai enjoying solo run as cut-price deal caps positive year
Italian state broadcaster Rai has become the only real bidder for free-to-air rights to top sport in the country, forcing down the value of rights even for major football competitions like the Uefa Champions League.
FASTRACK
The court date set for this month that was to rule, once and for all, on the ownership of television rights to Spain’s football Liga has been postponed by at least six months, to next June or July.
TV Rights Deals 1: Bundesliga, Bulgaria and more
Football: The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL), representing the top two tiers of German football, Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2, agreed a number of media rights deals covering the four-year period from 2009-10…
China growth offers more options if not more revenue
Recent football and athletics rights deals in China show that opportunities are beginning to open up for sports rights holders in a country where it has been notoriously difficult to achieve ‘proper’ market value for rights.