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RTL Group has acquired Sky Deutschland (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), for €150m, creating a media business with some 11.5m subscribers.

The deal –  which is subject to regulatory approvals – combines Sky’s premium sports rights, including Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, Premier League and Formula 1, with RTL’s entertainment and news brands across RTL+, free-to-air and pay TV. It also unites the streaming platforms RTL+ and WOW.

RTL Group chief executive Thomas Rabe described the deal as “transformational for RTL Group”.

He said: “It will bring together two of the most powerful entertainment and sports brands in Europe and create a unique video proposition across free TV, pay TV and streaming.

“It will boost our streaming business, with a total of around 11.5 million paying subscribers, further diversify our revenue streams and make us even more attractive for creative talent, rights holders and business partners.”

Rabe said the synergies are estimated to be around €250 million per annum within three years after closing, creating “significant shareholder value”.

He added: “Together, RTL and Sky will be in an even stronger position to invest in people, content and technology in Germany and in Europe to compete with the global tech and streaming players. I want to recognise the outstanding work of the Sky Deutschland team, whose strong performance over recent years has laid the foundation for this next phase.”

Rights deals and strategic content partnerships

At the end of 2023, RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland struck a two-year partnership for seven Formula 1 races to be broadcast live on RTL in Germany, alongside one game from the English Premier League per match week on RTL+, and three conference broadcasts of the 2nd Bundesliga on RTL.

As part of the commercial agreement, Sky Deutschland received rights to two Europa League or Europa Conference League games per match week, providing subscribers access to premium live sport every Thursday.

At the time, RTL said “sharing live sport and content is the start of a broader partnership between RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland, with the ambition of finding further ways to share content in the future”.

And, at the end of last year, RTL Deutschland secured for the 2025/6 Bundesliga season onwards the exclusive free-to-air TV rights to broadcast the Saturday evening games of the 2. Bundesliga, as well as a highlights rights package for Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga on RTL+.

At the time, RTL Deutschland said its portfolio now includes matches of the German national team, the Uefa Europa League and Uefa Conference League and – in cooperation with Sky Deutschland – three live conference broadcasts of the 2. Bundesliga per season, and a top match from the English Premier League per match week.

According to the agreement, RTL Group will fully acquire Sky’s businesses in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, including customer relationships in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol on a cash-free and debt-free basis. The purchase price consists of €150 million in cash and a variable consideration linked to RTL Group’s share price performance of up to €377m.

Barny Mills, Sky Deutschland CEO, will continue to lead the Sky Deutschland business until the transaction is completed. Stephan Schmitter will stay in his current role as CEO of RTL Deutschland until closing of the transaction and then lead the combined company. RTL Deutschland will remain headquartered in Cologne and Sky Deutschland in Munich.

Dana Strong, Group CEO at Sky, added: “Sky Deutschland has made significant progress over the past three years, delivering strong operational performance and reaching a record number of customers.

“The business is on track to achieve EBITDA break-even, reflecting the success of our turnaround plan. Combining the strength of our brand with RTL builds on that momentum and opens up even greater opportunities. This deal provides a strong platform for long-term success, and ensures Sky continues to share in the growth of the combined business.”

COMMERCE – The East Texas A&M University track and field team had four scholar-athletes named to the Academic All-District team, as selected by the College Sports Communicators.
 
On the men’s side, Jonas Gran (Riehen, Switzerland) was selected, while Romi Griese (Salzkotten, Germany), Veronika Kramarenko (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine), and Cassandra Rendon (San Antonio – Madison) were honored on the women’s side.
 

All four East Texas A&M honorees advance to the national ballot. The CSC Academic All-America teams will be released on July 15.
 
Gran is a biological sciences major and named to the Southland Conference All-Academic team, SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, President’s List and earned the silver medal in the decathlon at the outdoor conference championships this year as well.
 
Griese was named the Southland Women’s Outdoor Student-Athlete of the Year as she also won the discus conference championship this season, while earning SLC All-Academic, SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and President’s List honors. She is also a biological sciences major.
 

Kramarenko won the outdoor high jump crown this spring, the second SLC title of her career, reaching the podium in both the outdoor and indoor high jump this year. She is a health kinesiology & sport studies major, being named to SLC All-Academic team, SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and the President’s List as well.
 
Rendon is a wildlife conservation science major and finished third at the conference championships in the discus this year. She has medaled in the event in each of the past two seasons. Rendon is the current discus school record holder and is also a SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and President’s List honoree.
 
The full CSC Academic All-District team can be found HERE.

 

-ETAMU-

GRAND FORKS — The UND athletic department officially announced Friday afternoon the university would opt in to the NCAA vs. House settlement, a landmark legal case paving the way for direct payments from schools to athletes.

UND athletic director Bill Chaves said UND communicated its intent to opt in with the NCAA on Friday, June 27.

“As an NCAA Division I member, in a non-defendant conference, our thought process has always been to do what is best for our student-athletes and the University of North Dakota,” Chaves said. “With the information that we have today and the requirement to make a decision by Monday, June 30, we felt that this was the most prudent course of action. There was always a chance that when the final settlement occurred that it could be different than what was initially provided by both the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ attorneys and sure enough that was the case.”

The country’s largest schools, those competing in the power conferences such as the Big Ten, must opt in to the House settlement. UND, however, is among those smaller NCAA departments around the country mulling the decision on whether to join the settlement.

Prior to UND’s decision, South Dakota and South Dakota State announced intentions to opt in to House vs. NCAA. North Dakota State has yet to announce a decision with a June 30 deadline.

Chaves told the Herald on June 11 the university was leaning toward opting in after concerns about roster sizes were eased with the ruling’s last-minute language on grandfathering-in athletes impacted by the ruling.

“Given that roster grandfathering can only occur should institutions opt in at this moment of time, we believe that opting in is best for UND,” Chaves said. “Additionally, I believe the opportunity to expand our partnership with our teammates at the UND Alumni Association & Foundation, 1883 Collective and Ralph Engelstad Arena will provide us the best situation possible to our student-athletes this year and beyond. Further, the ability to potentially provide additional support through internal NIL will be intriguing for UND as we traverse this new era of college athletics.”

Roster sizes were an issue because the House settlement calls for a change from scholarship maximums to roster maximums. The terms of the settlement set a roster cap on each sport.

On Feb. 20, 2025, the Herald reported UND would opt out of the settlement in Year 1, with the possibility of opting in later. That stance changed in large part due to the grandfathering-in of impacted athletes.

UND is over the House-capped roster sizes in women’s track and field, softball, soccer and women’s golf. If the settlement had continued as originally depicted, UND would have likely had to cut athletes out of those sports immediately, potentially causing participation numbers to be non-Title IX compliant.

UND is at or under the roster limit in its men’s sports except for hockey, where the midseason addition of emergency goalie Aleksi Huson put UND at 27 players. The House settlement limits men’s hockey teams to 26.

Prior to the case being finalized, Yahoo Sports estimated more than 15,000 athletes across all Division I members could be cut, depending on how many schools opt in to the settlement.

The schools are instructed to use “good-faith efforts” to identify athletes who “were removed or would have been removed from the roster for 2025-26 due to the implementation of the roster limits.”

Those individuals won’t count toward roster limits for the rest of their eligibility. The guideline applies to current athletes, as well as incoming recruits. Schools have until July 6 to identify these athletes.

By Anthony Richards

A group of young volleyball players represented the area against teams from across the state as an under-13 team from St. Johns Volleyball Club won its division at the 52nd Annual AAU Girls Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando on June 13-16.

The team experienced adversity early on the first day of the event but bounced back in a big way and put the challenging start behind them to win all nine of their games over the final three days.

Held annually at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, AAU Nationals is recognized as the world’s largest volleyball tournament, drawing more than 6,800 teams and 70,000 youth athletes from across the United States and abroad.

For many clubs, including St. Johns Volleyball Club, it serves as the culminating event of the season.

What makes the team’s performance particularly noteworthy is that many of the players on the team only began playing volleyball within the past year and often compete against teams whose players have been training for two years or longer.

According to club owner and head coach Andor Gyulai, their rapid development reflects the club’s unique coaching model and training environment.

“Our system is designed to accelerate player growth,” Gyulai said. “With our grass court training model, we can set up more courts and create more repetitions and game-like touches for each player. Combined with our best-in-class Superior Coaching Systems, this leads to faster skill development and better long-term results.”

Founded in 2022, St. Johns Volleyball Club continues its rapid growth serving 4th through 8th grades in the Nocatee area and St. Johns County.

Earlier this year, the club expanded into high school beach volleyball with newly opened beach courts in Nocatee, and it also recently broke ground on a state-of-the-art indoor volleyball facility for both middle and high school players, scheduled to open in May 2026.

Tryouts for the 2025-2026 indoor club season will be held in July. More information about the club, programs, and tryout registration can be found at www.SJVClub.com.

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—CSUN Track & Field’s junior Jay Louison-Roe received Academic All-District Team honors by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) on June 24. 

The CSC academic awards programs recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The academic qualifications for the distinction are a minimum 3.50 cumulative grade-point average. Nominated student-athletes must be ranked in the top-50 in the region in a single event (indoor or outdoor). Select Academic All-District honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees in four divisions – NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA – will be announced in July. 

Originally from Heathcote, NSW, Australia, Louison-Roe had an outstanding first season with CSUN in 2025 after transferring from the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Louison-Roe would claim the triple jump title at the 2025 Big West Outdoor Championships, earning his first career conference crown of his career. His championship winning leap went for 15.67m (51-5), which set a personal record and ranked as the 10th-best in school history. Louison-Roe qualified for the NCAA West First Round for the first time in his collegiate career where he finished 31st overall with a leap of 15.37m (50-5.25). 

During the indoor season, Louison-Roe was fourth at the MPSF Indoor Championships in February with a leap of 14.72m (48-3.5). He would have a season-best leap in the triple of 15.32m (50-3.25), which ranked seventh-best in program history. 

An Economics major at CSUN, Louison-Roe claimed his first career CSC Academic All-District award this season. 

College Sports Communicators began the distinguished Academic All-America® program in 1952, and since then, has honored more than 38,000 deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions with these elite Academic All-America® scholar-athlete honors.

#GoMatadors