TV Sports Markets Newslines
A round-up of the major headlines and TV rights news from TV Sports Markets and the world of televised sport. TV Sport Markets is the highly acclaimed industry reference tool for the main players in the broadcast and sport industry worldwide.
- France Telecom’s chief executive Stéphane Richard said this week that the company would not bid alone for the rights to the French football league, the Ligue de Football Professionel, when they come up for renewal in 2012. He also said that Telecom’s Orange Group was looking for partners for its pay-television channels.
- Greece’s broadcasters are pushing desperately to renegotiate major sports rights contracts as the country battles with its national debt crisis.
- Dutch public-service broadcaster NOS drew an average audience of 8.49 million viewers, an 87-per-cent audience share, for Holland’s 3-2 win over Uruguay in last night’s Fifa World Cup semi-final, according to audience data group Stichting KijkOnderzoek.
- The Danish parliament has ordered an investigation into whether the country needs to re-introduce listed-events legislation, as government and opposition parties continue to disagree over the issue. Denmark repealed its listed-events law in 2002.
- Today is the deadline for Prisa-owned pay-television broadcaster Sogecable to make a €90 million ($108 million) payment to the Mediapro agency for the rights for top-tier domestic football – a crucial moment in the ongoing football rights war in Spain.
- Jose Maria del Nido, president of Spanish La Liga Sevilla, has launched an outspoken attack on the unequal distribution of television rights in Spain, where Real Madrid and Barcelona account for about 50 per cent of the clubs’ combined revenues.