Americas

The SEC Network, a new pay-television sports channel dedicated to college sport’s Southeastern Conference, has further expanded its reach by agreeing a carriage deal with pay-television provider Verizon FiOS.

A federal court will not hear online streaming service Aereo’s argument that it should be allowed to operate in a similar way to a cable-television company.

Fox Sports Latin America and ESPN International were forced to increase their fee for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League pay-television rights in Latin America this month to see off aggressive rival bids from Qatari-owned broadcaster beIN Sports and Spanish telco Telefónica.

US investment company RSE Ventures enjoyed a substantial increase in the value of the global media rights for the 2014 International Champions Cup, the summer friendly club tournament involving some of Europe’s top clubs.

Growing anticipation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro helped Fina, the global governing body of aquatic sports, to seal an increase in the value of its Brazilian rights in an eight-year deal with pay-television broadcaster Globosat.

Argentinian media conglomerate Grupo Clarin has confirmed a deal to sell seven pay-television channels, including TyC Sports, to US investment fund 34 South Media.

The Fox Sports division of US network Fox has announced the 2014 Las Vegas Invitational and Las Vegas Classic regular-season college basketball events will be broadcast on its Fox Sports 1 pay-television channel.

Golf’s PGA Tour has extended a rights deal with pay-television broadcaster ESPN International in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The athletics division of US college Syracuse University has signed a new multi-year multimedia rights deal with IMG after last month electing to break its contract with the agency in favour of seeking a more lucrative agreement.

Glory Sports International, the parent company of kickboxing promotion Glory World Series, has exercised its renewal clause with Spike TV to retain the US pay-television channel as its television partner through 2015.

Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles have been granted an extension to an injunction preventing the league from forcing the franchise to pay rival the Washington Nationals higher payments from their jointly-owned US regional cable-television broadcaster MASN.

Pay-television broadcaster ESPN has extended its rights deal for the NFL in Brazil through the 2016 season of the American football league.

US sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed a new long-term media rights deal with the Mid-American Conference US collegiate sports competition.

The Learfield Sports agency has extended its multimedia rights partnership with the athletics division of Boise State University through the 2024-25 season.

Ajit Pai, a member of the Federal Communications Commission board in the United States, has said that the “time has come” to repeal the so-called ‘blackout’ rule that blocks certain sports events from being shown live on television in their local market if they fail to meet a specified level of ticket sales.

North American pay-television broadcaster One World Sports has signed a multi-year, multi-platform carriage agreement with US pay-television operator Charter Communications.