SportBusiness Media staff

US pay-television broadcaster ESPN has said it will continue to distribute rights to the US events of its X Games extreme sports franchise around the world after announcing the end of the series’ international events.

Uefa, football’s European governing body, has invited bids for the media rights in the UK to the Uefa Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup club football competitions.

Spanish agency Mediapro has signed a two-year extension to its Formula One media rights deal, covering the 2014 and 2015 seasons of the motor-racing championship.

TF1 has joined fellow French commercial broadcaster M6 in stating it will not bid for the next cycle of media rights to the French Open tennis tournament.

The US PGA Tour golf organisation has expanded its multi-year marketing partnership with the USA Today Sports Media Group to include new digital content initiatives.

The Barclays Center sports and entertainment arena has agreed a deal with the Fox Sports division of US network Fox for the rights to its upcoming Brooklyn Hoops college basketball season.

The IMG Productions division of the IMG agency is providing consultancy services on a new sports television channel in Myanmar as part of a five year deal with the Forever Group media company.

IMG’s owner, private equity firm Forstmann Little, has attracted more than 20 first-round bids for the agency, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

The IMG Media agency has announced a seven-year strategic partnership with US video-sharing website Livestream to show and distribute live events around the world.

Charly Classen, the senior director of digital media, commercial and marketing for sports broadcaster ESPN in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, this week described sport as “the saviour of television.”