Mercury13: Mata-backed women’s football group lines up Spanish club Sport Business Juan Mata-backed investment group Mercury13 is in advanced negotiations about buying a stake in Spanish top-flight women’s club Levante Badalona. Mercury13, which bought FC Como Women in 2024 before investing in WSL2 club Bristol earlier this year, has pledged $100m to build a global portfolio of clubs, with Badalona earmarked to be its next investment. [...]
Sky back in profit ahead of cutting 900 UK jobs Media Media and telecoms giant Sky recovered from losing almost £800m to return to the black in 2024 before preparing to cut hundreds of jobs. Sky, which was bought by the US media company Comcast for £30bn in 2018, has posted a pre-tax profit of £253m for its latest financial year. The total comes after Sky fell [...]
Europe’s Ryder Cup drama draws 5m UK viewers on Sky Sports Sport Business Europe’s nail-biting Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black pulled in 5m UK viewers across three days of coverage on Sky Sports, the broadcaster said. Average viewing was up 45 per cent on the last Ryder Cup in Rome two years ago, while the audience for Sunday’s final session peaked at 24 per cent higher than [...]
LaLiga overseas game set to be axed as Fifa delays decision September 24, 2025 LaLiga’s hopes of staging a match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami in December have suffered another setback with Fifa opting against ruling on the request at its forthcoming council meeting next month. Sources with knowledge of Fifa’s deliberations have told City AM that it has no plans to formally discuss the controversial issue of [...]
Ryder Cup should be reserved for free-to-air TV, say nine in 10 golf fans September 18, 2025 Nine in 10 golf fans believe the Ryder Cup should be added to the UK’s so-called crown jewels of sports broadcasting and made available on free-to-air TV. Sky Sports has held the exclusive live rights to the biennial golf contest between Europe and the US for the last 30 years, during which the event has [...]
TNT Sports wins race for British and Irish Lions documentary September 16, 2025 TNT Sports has bought the rights to an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary of the British and Irish Lions’ Test series victory in Australia this summer. The 90-minute documentary is currently in production and is scheduled to be screened on TNT at the end of October, to tie in with its coverage of the Autumn Internationals the [...]
Hundred sees 600,000 tickets sold with TV audiences up September 1, 2025 Organisers of The Hundred sold nearly 600,000 tickets for this year’s competition, with viewing figures also up for the fifth edition of the controversial cricket format. The Northern Superchargers beat the Southern Brave in the women’s final on Sunday in a match that drew 22,000 fans at Lord’s in north London. The subsequent men’s final [...]
Sky Sports expands NFL coverage with new three-year deal August 29, 2025 Sky Sports has agreed an expanded three-year deal with the NFL that will see the broadcaster show up to five live games per weekend in the UK. Sky will have first pick of games at both 6pm and 9pm on Sunday, as well as showing up to three more games from those timeslots concurrently. In [...]
Are franchise IPOs the end game for The Hundred’s £1bn investors? August 28, 2025 Have The Hundred’s investors figured out yet how they will make a return? Look out for minority stake sales and maybe even listings in India, says Ed Warner. Never make an investment without having a plan on how to sell it. Illiquidity can scupper the most enticing of propositions. The very best portfolio managers, especially [...]
Gary Neville’s The Overlap and Mark Goldbridge win Bundesliga TV rights August 20, 2025 British Premier League YouTube character Mark Goldbridge and Gary Neville’s The Overlap will broadcast Bundesliga matches after the German top flight confirmed its rights structure. The personality, whose real name is Brent Di Cesare, has specialised in Manchester United hot takes for a number of years, often going viral for reactions to capitulations at Old [...]