NFL

African telco Econet has continued to spend its billion-dollar sports-rights acquisition budget in recent weeks, buying Formula One, National Football League and Brazilian football rights.

Twitter’s “great global reach” helped the social media giant to become the NFL’s international streaming partner, the American football league told TV Sports Markets.

Increasing the value of its Thursday Night Football rights while dividing content once more illustrates the sheer power of the National Football League.

The National Football League has endured mixed fortunes in its early deals in Europe, earning increases in Germany and France but seeing the value of its rights fall in the Netherlands.

Fewer NFL American football matches will be shown free-to-air in the UK in the 2015 season, but the league has secured deals which it believes will still reach a wide audience.

The NFL’s deal with Yahoo for the 2015 International Series game earlier this month was driven by a desire to test the online waters.

MP & Silva’s deal to distribute National Football League rights in Europe is a “landmark” deal for the agency, according to senior vice president Daniel Cohen.

The CBS network’s renewal of its deal with the US National Football League for its Thursday Night Football package underlines the incredible power of the league in the US television market.

The National Football League’s deal with media company Multi Screen Media this month is seen by both parties as a long-term proposition to develop the sport in India.

The IMG Events & Media agency beat off strong competition for the Asian rights to the US National Football League earlier this month, including a bid by incumbent rights-holder Yes TV.

Two services due to launch soon show the increasing strategic and commercial importance of short-form content to the big US sports leagues and underline the degree to which US sport is leading the way in exploiting digital media.