Mediametrie: Lionel Nerrant and Sahar Baghery named international research directors

At Mediametrie, Sahar Baghery will now lead the international TV formats division while Lionel Nerrant will lead the international audience research division, the company said on 04/06/2014. Nerrant had worked at GfK Audimétrie, a ratings measurement agency in Belgium, since 1999. He was in charge…

Germany: Public broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquire TV rights to World Cup 2022

German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have purchased the rights to broadcast the 2022 World Cup (Qatar) in Germany, announced the executive committee of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), which met in Sao Paulo (BRA) on 07/06/2014. Neither the platforms nor the amount of…

The 2014-15 Serie A managers

Candidates for main lots of Serie A 2015-2018 TV rights: Sky, Mediaset, Fox and Eurosport

Pay-TV groups Sky Italia, Mediaset, Fox International Channels Italy and Eurosport have each submitted one or several bids for the purchase of lots of media rights for 2015-2018 Serie A, announced the Lega Serie A, the professional league that manages Italy's first division, on 05/06/2014. The…

Pay TV: Telefonica negotiates purchase of Mediaset's 22% share in Canal+ Spain for €350m

The Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica has initiated negotiations with the pay-TV group Mediaset España to purchase its 22% share in pay-TV group DTS (Canal+ Spain), according to U.S. and Italian outlets on 04/06/2014. The amount of the transaction could reach €350m. The Spanish media…

Brazil 2014: Google Street View providing virtual tours of 12 World Cup stadiums

Google Maps launched the ability to take virtual tours inside the 12 stadiums of the 2014 World Cup in its Google Street View app on 05/06/2014.Users can see the 12 stadiums from the stands and the pitch, and a listing of matches held in the stadium. Adjacent streets and over a hundred Brazilian…

Brazil 2014: "Audience will increase" compared to 2010 World Cup (Ericson, FIFA)

"We have some reasons to say the [television] audience will increase [for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, from 12/06 to 07/13/2014]. We worked very hard on the match schedule and the times. We think they will be very good for the football fan," said Niclas Ericson, television director for FIFA…

Spain: Prisa formalises sale of 56% stake in Canal+ Spain to Telefonica for €750m

The Spanish broadcaster Prisa formalised an agreement to sell its 56% stake in its subsidiary DTS, a pay-TV platform (known as Canal+ Spain, formerly marketed as Digital+) to the telecommunications group Telefonica. The amount of the sale was €750m, or 3.5% more than announced on 07/05/2014…

Brazil 2014: MetraWeather offers weather bulletins for broadcasters for each game

A service named Clipstore was launched on 02/06/2014 by MetraWeather, a New Zealand provider of meteorological services, in partnership with Red Touch Media, a software developer. It will provide short weather bulletins for precise locations to broadcasters of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (from…

Pay TV: Discovery Communications takes control of Eurosport International (51%) for €253.3m

U.S. pay-TV company Discovery Communications announced the completion of its acquisition of a 51% stake in the sports pay-TV group Eurosport International on 30/05/2014. Up to then, Discovery Communications owned 20% of Eurosport France and Eurosport International. Under the terms of an agreement…