Americas

Ice Hockey

The NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal has acquired rights to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2015 World Championship, while it has also expanded the reach of its live streaming product NBC Sports Live Extra.

Paralympics

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) expects the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to break all broadcast viewing records and exceed a cumulative global audience of four billion people for the first time.

The board members of Time Warner Cable and Comcast have admitted defeat in their efforts to salvage a proposed $45.2bn (€42bn) takeover of the US pay-television operator by the US media company.

Ice Hockey

Broadcast platforms from Italy, Canada, Japan, Russia and Germany have agreed deals to provide coverage of the International Paralympic Committee’s 2015 Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool.

Football

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke has maintained world football’s governing body did “nothing wrong” in negotiating its new US rights deal for the World Cup, adding the agreement was needed to protect date changes for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

Mixed Martial Arts

US pay-television provider Dish Network will not show the latest pay-per-view event from mixed martial arts series the Ultimate Fighting Championship this Saturday, with the two parties in talks over renewing their deal.

Boxing

BET, the Viacom-owned US cable and satellite television channel, has announced its first move into professional boxing.

The Fox Sports division of the Fox network and NBC Sports division of media company NBCUniversal have joined sports broadcaster ESPN in disputing US telecommunications company Verizon’s new ‘Custom TV’ service.

Olympics

Multinational telecommunications company Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) has acquired rights to the 2016 summer Olympic Games for the pan-Caribbean region.

Football

Sports broadcaster ESPN has launched a dedicated North American Soccer League channel on its digital streaming service ESPN Player.

Football

World football’s governing body Fifa has said the 2015 Women’s World Cup will receive the biggest and most advanced broadcast production for a women’s football tournament when it takes place in Canada later this year.

ESPN is objecting to telecommunications company Verizon’s new payment planning structure for its FiOS TV pay-television service, while long-time executive Sean Bratches has announced he will leave the US sports broadcaster at the end of the year.

US media and marketing company Gannett has entered into a partnership with video platform ViewLift to explore the development of a new digital sports video service.

Football

German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich has announced a US content partnership with Microsoft’s web portal MSN.

US telecommunications company Verizon is to launch a new mobile over-the-top service that will offer customers access to live coverage of college sports.

Football

Spanish-language US broadcaster Univision Deportes is partnering with Snapchat to offer sports video clips via the social media platform.

American Football

NFL American football franchise the Philadelphia Eagles has signed a regional broadcast partnership with US pay-television broadcaster Comcast SportsNet and the NBC10 regional affiliate of the NBC network.

Football

Major League Soccer will enjoy a substantial increase in exposure in Brazil in the 2015 season, which got under way at the end of March.