Americas

US cable-television operator Time Warner Cable Sports has agreed a three-year regional television deal with college sports’ Mid-American Conference.

Mixed martial arts promoter the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Mexican media group Televisa have announced that their new UFC-dedicated pay-television channel will launch on September 1 across 20 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.

US media group NBCUniversal has confirmed Rhys Beer is to take up the newly created role of vice-president of sports distribution and business development at the company.

US regional pay-television channel Yes Network has agreed a multi-year deal with Manchester City to televise games featuring the English Premier League football club on a tape delay basis.

ESPN president Jon Skipper has insisted that the North American NBA basketball league remains a “critical product” for the US pay-television broadcaster.

Internet company Google has held talks with the National Football League (NFL) American football competition about the possibility of acquiring live rights for its YouTube video-sharing website, according to the AllThingsD.com technology news website.

US cable-television operator Time Warner Cable will offer a free preview of pay-television broadcaster Tennis Channel to customers who cannot access the CBS network during the US Open tennis tournament due of a contract dispute.

The CBS Sports division of US network CBS has acquired rights from pay-television broadcaster ESPN for the American Athletic Conference college sports competition.

The CBS Sports division of US network CBS has acquired rights for the Mountain West Conference college sports competition’s American football championship game.

Private equity company Forstmann Little has begun formally soliciting buyers for the IMG agency and is distributing financial information to potential suitors, according to the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

Randy Freer, chief operating officer and co-president of the Fox Sports division of US network Fox, has said that the broadcaster would be interested in bidding for Thursday night NFL American football rights.

The US Tennis Association has begun talks on alternative broadcast plans for the US Open tournament if CBS remains off the air in the New York area due to the network’s ongoing dispute with cable-television operator Time Warner Cable.

US regional television broadcaster WBBZ-TV has acquired rights to American football games from college sport’s Atlantic Coast Conference ahead of the 2013 season.

Brazilian pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports Brasil has announced that it will provide live coverage of all 64 games of the 2014 Fifa World Cup and will launch a second channel next year.

NBC Sports Network, the cable-television sports channel of US network NBC, will use its coverage of English Premier League football to promote its NBCSN rebranding.

The IEC in Sports agency has announced rights deals for the 2013 World Fly Fishing Championship with pay-television broadcasters in Croatia, Israel and Chile.