Frank Dunne

Sub-Saharan Africa has become the hottest sports-rights market in the world, but that dynamism could be brought to an abrupt halt if the proposed merger between France’s Canal Plus and South Africa’s MultiChoice goes ahead.
USA

Amazon’s proposed agreement with Diamond Sports Group to secure local streaming rights to US sports leagues has been hailed as a “brilliant, brilliant deal”, though approval of the plan is far from certain.

Mauro Balata, president of Italy’s second football division, Serie B, has called on football’s governing bodies to be more aware of the negative impact their constant expansion of competitions has on the value of domestic leagues.
USA

The National Basketball Association’s next round of domestic rights deals seems certain to look very different to those of the last two decades, as streaming technology and changing user behaviour drive change in the US media market at an unprecedented pace.

Amazon has found that premium sports properties drive acquisition of new customers to its Amazon Prime premium service but are not necessary for their retention.

The English Premier League’s first domestic media rights auction for almost six years has produced an overall uplift of just over three per cent, prompting sighs of relief across offices in Paddington, Isleworth and Chiswick.

Serie A clubs, in accepting a total of €900m per season from DAZN and Sky Italia for five seasons, opted for guaranteed rights fees in the face of their high operational losses and debts.

SportBusiness Media this week talked to LaLiga’s executive director, Óscar Mayo Pardo, about why Ocho Sport Advisors was chosen to form a joint venture to transform LaLiga’s global media rights strategy, and how it will work.

Peak, the newly created JV between Spain’s LaLiga and Simon Denyer’s Ocho Sport Advisory company, will consider aggregating LaLiga rights with those of other football leagues, as part of a planned transformation of the Spanish league’s future media rights strategy. 

This summer’s influx of star footballers to the Saudi Pro League has helped boost its international media rights revenues by 650 per cent, contributing to an annual figure of $100m (€95m) from global med…