Its new dedicated European football channel "only launched on Tuesday but Sky Sports could soon find itself without" both the Champions League and La Liga as BT Sport weighs up a bid for the Spanish top flight, according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. Sky "has kept an iron grip on La Liga, the home of Real Madrid and Barcelona, for almost two decades but its contract expires at the end of the season, opening the door for its newest and biggest rival to snatch the rights from 2015." That is exactly what BT Sport did with the Champions League last year, "blowing Sky out of the water" by paying £897M to show UEFA’s club competitions exclusively for three years. It "would also represent a huge statement of intent from BT Sport ahead of the Premier League auction, which is expected to begin at the turn of the year." The warring media giants "could also battle it out for the rights to the International Cricket Council’s major tournaments, which were put out to tender last month." Another highly-prized set of rights "will be England’s autumn rugby internationals, which include next summer’s warm-up matches for the World Cup" (TELEGRAPH, 8/13).
