Handball: EHF Marketing, the commercial arm of the European Handball Federation, signed media-rights deals with broadcasters in several territories. These included: pay-television operator Digi Sport, owned by Romanian telco RCS-RDS, for the rights in Hungary for the men’s and women’s Champions Leagues and European Cup; Turkish pay-television broadcaster Sports TV for the men’s Champions League; North and Central American pay-television broadcaster Televisa Deportes Network for the men’s Champions League.
Hockey: Wige TV-Marketing, a subsidiary of German media production company Wige Media, signed a deal with the German hockey federation to distribute the international television rights for the men’s and women’s 2011 EuroHockey Nations Championship, a national team field hockey tournament taking place in Germany this year. Wige will also provide satellite play-out services for match and news coverage. This is the first year that the EuroHockey Nations Championship will combine women’s and men’s competitions in one tournament.
Mixed martial arts: UK pay-per-view platform Primetime TV signed a one-year deal from 2011 to 2012, with Shine International for exclusive coverage in the UK of the US-based mixed martial arts series Strikeforce (page 2).
Motorcycling: Dutch pay-television broadcaster Sport1 acquired rights for MotoGP in a two-season deal, covering 2011 and 2012, with Dorna Sports, the series’ commercial rights-holder. Sport1 will show live coverage of races, qualifying and practice sessions from the three classes of race, MotoGP, Moto2 and 125cc. The deal was brokered by IMG Media.
Netball: Fijian commercial broadcaster Mai TV acquired rights in the Pacific region for the 2011 World Netball Championship in Singapore in a deal with the host broadcaster, ESPN Star Sports. Mai TV will show all 34 matches in high definition. All matches featuring the Fiji and Samoa teams will be shown live on free-to-air television.
Rugby Union: MyVideoRights, a UK digital media agency, acquired distribution rights on the internet for highlights, archive and magazine programming from Premiership Rugby, English rugby union’s top league division. MyVideoRights will be responsible for distributing the content on internet video platforms including YouTube, DailyMotion and Metacafe, generating advertising revenue and controlling unauthorised use of the content on the websites.
Tennis: US tennis broadcaster the Tennis Channel extended its rights for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Hopman Cup in deals with the International Tennis Federation and the United States Tennis Association. The deals cover rights for matches featuring the US team in the Davis Cup from 2011 to 2013 and all matches in the other competitions from 2011 to 2015.
US sports: Technology company Apple agreed deals with US baseball league Major League Baseball and basketball league the NBA to make their live video content available via Apple TV.
Wrestling: Brazilian free-to-air sports channel Esporte Interativo acquired the rights for the WWE Raw show in a one-year deal, from 2011 to 2012, with World Wrestling Entertainment.
You need to have a subscription to access this content
