Streaming services will be responsible for one-fifth of all sports rights spend this year across Europe’s largest markets according to Ampere Analysis research, covering nearly 1,300 rights deals. In the big five European markets –UK, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain – Ampere expects OTT platforms to account for 20 per cent of all spend on […]

SES is spending $450 million (€408.8m) to buy DRS Global Enterprise Solutions, a US subsidiary of Italian Leonardo DRS. The transaction, which is expected to be completed during H2/2022 subject to regulatory approvals, the GES business will be combined with SES Government Solutions (SES GS), a wholly owned subsidiary of SES, which SES says will […]

Eleven Italy and OneFootball have announced a distribution partnership for Serie C to make Italian football’s third tier more accessible to fans. The deal will see OneFootball supplement Eleven’s package of Serie C football with a mix of paid and free content. The distribution agreement begins immediately will run until the end of the 2022-23 […]

Telecom Italia (TIM) is starting formal talks with the KKR fund on its €10.8 billion offer. KKR made an initial approach for TIM in November 2021. TIM has now said that it would start talks with KKR while simultaneously exploring its alternative of possible merger with state-backed broadband operator Open Fiber. TIM carries €29 billion […]

MFE-MediaForEurope has announced that, directly and indirectly, it has crossed the threshold of 25 per cent of secured voting rights of Germany broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE through purchases of shares on the market. The company, headed by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was already the biggest shareholder in the broadcaster with a 23.9 per […]

Beyond Rights has secured new deals with five Italian broadcasters, resulting in 518 hours being placed in the territory. La7 has acquired the topical documentary The Prince and the Paedophile (1 x 60), BriteSpark Films’ investigation into the friendship between Prince Andrew and American multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. As well as documenting their relationship, it also […]

Sports streaming platform DAZN is planning to offer more subscription options in Italy, starting in time for the 2022/2023 football season. Instead of the single monthly fee of €29.99 (although many are still paying the promotional price of €19.99), there will be a wider tariff portfolio possibly based on the number of registered devices, streams […]

Netherlands-based MFE-MediaforEurope (former Mediaset) has posted 2021 net consolidated revenues of €2.91 billion, up 11 per cent on 2020. Net profit in the period increased 169 per cent, year on year, to €374 million, almost double the pre-Covid level of 2019. In Italy, consolidated net revenues amounted to €2.04 billion (+13 per cent), while net […]

Italian Serie A football clubs lost between 20 and 50 per cent of their TV audience during the first half of the  season, compared to a year earlier. The figures come from Auditel data, published by local daily Italia Oggi. The country’s top football club, Juventus, saw its audience fall by nearly 50 per cent, […]