Global

Baseball

The World Baseball Softball Confederation has unveiled rights deals in the Americas, Asia and Oceania for its 2016 Women’s Baseball World Cup, which gets underway on Saturday in Gijang, South Korea.

The Yahoo Esports division of internet company Yahoo has agreed a two-year partnership with esports organisation ESL.

Olympics

The newly launched Olympic Channel will show live coverage of 37 events across 10 different sports before the end of 2016, it has been confirmed.

Paralympics

The International Paralympic Committee has agreed a partnership with video-sharing platform Dailymotion to deliver live streaming of the forthcoming summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has said the 2016 summer Olympic Games delivered record-breaking media coverage and “unprecedented” levels of digital engagement.

Football

Virtual reality broadcast technology company NextVR, through its partnership with the Fox Sports division of US network Fox, will provide coverage of the opening game of the 2016-17 German Bundesliga club football season in live virtual reality.

Football

LaLiga, the organising body of Spanish club football, has said games from the country’s top two leagues will be broadcast in over 170 countries this season.

Ice Hockey

Organisers of the Champions Hockey League have said media rights for the 2016-17 season of the pan-European ice hockey competition have been sold to 17 broadcasters and digital platforms worldwide, with new partners included in the roster.

Olympic Games

Japanese tyre company Bridgestone has stepped up its commitment to the Olympic Movement by signing on as the first founding partner of the International Olympic Committee’s new Olympic Channel.

Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed martial arts promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship has further bolstered the content available through its digital subscription service, UFC Fight Pass, by agreeing a global partnership with Canadian series TKO MMA.

Olympics

Olympic Broadcasting Services chief executive Yiannis Exarchos has confirmed that the International Olympic Committee’s new Olympic Channel will feature sports that are not part of the Games’ programme of events.

Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has struck a partnership with Facebook that will allow users of the social media website’s Facebook Messenger service to interact with a ‘bot’ about live updates and highlights from the Olympic Games in Rio, according to the Mashable digital news service.

Multi-sport

Virtual reality broadcast technology company NextVR is targeting global expansion after receiving significant funding from a raft of high-profile investors.

Squash

The Professional Squash Association has released details of its broadcast schedule for the upcoming 2016-17 season, with more live tournaments than ever before set to be made available.

Motorsport

The World Touring Car Championship has taken down the paywall for its WTCC Premium TV service for the remainder of the 2016 campaign.

Minor Sports

The International Orienteering Federation has pointed to the benefits of a new media strategy after stating a record number of territories will be able to see broadcasts from this year’s World Orienteering Championships in Sweden.

Tennis

Sports and betting-related services company Sportradar has usurped rivals IMG and Perform to win Tennis Australia betting rights.

Football

England’s Premier League clubs will enjoy much greater freedom from the 2016-17 season in how they can exploit content globally on social media. The benefits could be considerable in terms of expanding the reach of a club’s brand and could also help drive revenues for the biggest clubs.