SportBusiness Media staff

US cable-television operators Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks have agreed carriage deals with sports broadcaster ESPN for the SEC Network, a new pay-television sports channel dedicated to college sport’s Southeastern Conference.

Mike Kiernan, Analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, looks at television audiences in the major European markets and America for the 2014 Fifa World Cup

Russian pay-television sports channel Sport 1 has acquired rights to the 2014-15 season of the Eredivisie, the top division of Dutch football.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB is set to confirm deals to acquire sister companies Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia in Germany and Italy from media company 21st Century Fox tomorrow (Friday) morning.

The Fight Sports pay-television channel will launch in Germany this October.

Leading MPs for the opposition Labour party in the UK parliament have vowed to implement a “proper levy” on the sale of domestic media rights for football’s English Premier League.

The NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal has struck a deal with Fathom Events, a company that shows unique entertainment events in movie theatres, to show live English Premier League football matches in cinemas during the upcoming 2014-15 season.

The 3Vision Distribution agency has secured a deal to distribute rights for the 2014 Cosafa Cup, which features national football teams from sub-Saharan Africa.

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has rebranded its live streaming platform, beIN Sports Play, as beIN Sports Connect in the US.

Dutch commercial broadcaster SBS has acquired rights to friendly matches played by the Netherlands national football team, along with highlights to the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of domestic club football, for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.