MENA

Sports broadcaster ESPN will show live and on-demand coverage of the 2015 IndyCar motor racing series in Europe, the Middle East and Africa via a new channel on its digital subscription service ESPN Player.

Horse Racing

UK horse racing pay-television broadcaster Racing UK has acquired rights for the finale of Qatar’s International Equestrian Sword Festival.

Horse Racing

Free-to-air and pay-television broadcaster Abu Dhabi Media has launched a new sports channel dedicated to increasing the exposure for traditional Emirati sports in the Arab region.

Football

State-owned television channel Dubai Sports has acquired rights in the UAE for the Omantel Professional League, the top division of football in Oman.

Wrestling

Pay-television broadcaster OSN has struck a deal to distribute WWE Network, the pay-television channel operated by the WWE wrestling organisation, to subscribers in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Rugby League

Rugby league’s Super League, which comprises clubs from England and France, has agreed new broadcast deals in Australia, New Zealand, France, North America and the Middle East.

Football

There are number of reasons why the Confédération Africaine de Football rights, including the flagship Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament, will be more valuable in the new contract period.
Athletics

The IEC in Sports agency has agreed a four-year deal to distribute the global media rights for the Dubai Marathon on an exclusive basis with immediate effect.

BeIN Media Group’s recent rights deals in Canada, as well as negotiations in Spain and Turkey, demonstrate the company’s ability to adapt to market conditions in expanding its pay-television operation beyond its core market of the Middle East and North Africa.

Football

British Eurosport, the UK division of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport, and UK free-to-air channel Quest will broadcast live coverage of the 2014 Dubai Challenge Cup one-off exhibition football match.

Football

The German Bundesliga is set to more than double its international rights value from 2015-16 onwards following a host of deals agreed in recent weeks.

Badminton

Sports content company Aurora Media Worldwide has signed a two-year agreement with the Falcon and Associates agency to support host broadcaster, state-owned Dubai Sports, in its coverage of badminton’s World Superseries Finals event, which will be held in Dubai next month.

Football

All UAE-based sports broadcasters have united to boycott the acquisition of rights to the forthcoming 2014 Gulf Cup of Nations national team football tournament amid a dispute over the sales process, according to the Gulf News website.

Football

Yousuf Al Sarkal, the president of the UAE Football Association, has criticised the media rights-sales process for the 2014 Gulf Cup of Nations and called for a committee to be established to avoid future difficulties in relation to the national team football tournament.

Tennis

The operators of the International Premier Tennis League have announced that the inaugural 2014 edition of the tournament will be shown in more than 125 countries worldwide.

Football

Pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports will resume full live coverage in the Middle East and North Africa of English Premier League football matches that kick off at 15.00 on Saturdays in the UK.

Basketball

The North American NBA basketball league has signed up a host of regional partners for its new NBA Sundays localised broadcast initiative.

Cricket

Pay-television operator OSN has secured the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East and North Africa region for all 18 International Cricket Council tournaments and qualifiers under the global governing body’s 2015 to 2023 rights cycle.