By David Owen
June 7 – Spain’s La Liga may overhaul the Bundesliga as the second-highest revenue-generating football league by the season after next, as the long-awaited switch to a collective sales model for TV rights provides a substantial boost to broadcasting income.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 25 – Russian broadcaster NTV Plus has reportedly agreed the terms for extending its current broadcasting deal with Russia’s Premier League (RPL). The new contract is for a three-year period, and it is estimated to be worth at least RUB 5.6 billion (€101 million).
April 13 – Sports media services company delatratre has teamed up with TV graphics producer Vizrt to launch a new virtual sports graphics solution for broadcasters.
March 26 – Copa90, the digital football network, will showcase a new broadcast distribtuion option for rightsholders and sports-sponsor brands at the Stade de France tonight when the Brazil World Tour kicks off.
March 26 – Spain’s 42 professional clubs have put strike plans on hold in order to give authorities more time to draw up proposals for a collective bargaining agreement for TV rights.
February 25 – Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur will become the first club to produce and broadcast on their own platforms their own Cup Final show this Sunday. The matchday show will be streamed by Spurs TV on Facebook and tottenhamshotspur.com before the kick-off of the League Cup Final against Chelsea.
By Alexander Krassimirov
February 23 – A serious row is brewing in the Bulgarian A group over the distribution of TV rights money with two of the country’s biggest clubs – CSKA Sofia and Levski – threatening to boycott the league unless they receive the lion’s share of the TV cash.
By Mark Baber
February 19 – The award of the US broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup to Fox and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo – they also hold rights to 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar – has raised a storm in US media circles.
By Mark Baber
February 18 – The FC Barcelona board has agreed to sell their audiovisual rights for 2015/16 to Madrid-based multinational Telefónica, ditching long-standing partner Mediapro, in a strategic move ahead of legislation in the Spanish parliament expected to impose collective bargaining for television income on Spanish clubs.
By David Owen
February 12 – FIFA has completed deals selling media rights for the 2026 World Cup in the key United States and Canadian markets. The deals give exclusive broadcast rights to FIFA competitions between 2023 and 2026 in the US to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo, and in Canada to CTV/TSN.
January 4 – Fast growing German media channel SPORT1 has acquired a three-year package of Europa League rights starting next season.
January 29 – Major League Soccer has sold its KICKTV digital-media assets to the online fans’ network Copa90, the League announced today.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 19 – The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) and Football Pro Media have reached an agreement on a new contract for the television rights for Bulgaria’s top division – A group. The contract, which will start at the beginning of 2016 and runs through to the end of 2020, will see the BFU receive a total of BGN 30 million (€15 million).