Global

The office of the Swiss Attorney General (OAG) confirmed today (Thursday) that it has opened a criminal proceeding against former Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chief executive of beIN Media Group, in relation to the award of media rights for the World Cup national team football tournament.

Spring Media, the Stockholm-based agency, has struck a deal to distribute the media rights of the Elitserien, the top tier of Swedish speedway, on an exclusive basis.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has reached an agreement with social media platform Twitter to stream live coverage of American football games from the Ivy League US collegiate sports conference.

Digital media platform Motorsport Network has signed up telecommunications provider Tata Communications to serve as a content delivery network partner.

English Premier League football club Chelsea has struck new carriage deals with pay-television platforms in a number of countries for its Chelsea TV in-house channel.

Content Arena, a marketplace that connects sellers and buyers of sports-media rights, will launch at the Sportel Monaco trade show in Monaco later this month.

The Octagon sports marketing agency has appointed William Mao to its new Octagon Media Rights Consulting business.

When FBI raids brought the Fifa scandal to public attention in May 2015, one of the burning questions was: how will football benefit from the crackdown on corruption? The outcome of the Conmebol tender this week provided the clearest answer so far.

IMG’s acquisition of Austrian skiing federation international rights has surprised the industry, as the move could change the balance of power in the winter sports media-rights market.

The European Handball Federation is expected to secure a large increase in the value of its club competition and national team media and marketing rights, with bids due in six weeks.

Sources close to the promoter and broadcaster say the event will comfortably exceed 1m PPV buys in the US, with some experts expecting close to 1.2m.

Golf’s PGA Tour has renewed its global streaming partnership with social media platform Twitter for the 2017-18 season.

The Pro Basketball League, the top-tier club competition in Belgium, has agreed a partnership with sports streaming service Fanseat.

Social media platform Facebook has furthered its move into sports content by agreeing a multi-year global partnership with American football league the NFL.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has acquired rights to live stream Serie A games in Italy, while the top division of domestic football is set to enter into private negotiations with bidders for its international rights.

London Marathon Events has extended its global rights distribution agreement with the TCB Sport Media agency.