North America
Chicago Bears extend with local rights partner
NFL American football franchise the Chicago Bears has extended its deal with local broadcast rights partner Fox32.
HBA Media extends Pegasus World Cup Invitational deal
Media consultancy HBA Media has extended its deal to distribute international media rights to the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, the world’s richest horse race.
NHL Network pens USA Hockey extension
Pay-television broadcaster NHL Network has extended a rights partnership with USA Hockey.
Breeders’ Cup secures UK rights deals
UK pay-television broadcasters At The Races, Racing UK and Sky have all secured rights to this year’s edition of the Breeders’ Cup US horse racing event.
Minute Media links up with Sports Illustrated
Sports media company Minute Media has struck a video content provision deal with Sports Illustrated.
Six Nations signs off long-term NBC deal but suffers fall in Italy
The Six Nations last week secured a long-term deal with media company NBCUniversal in the US, but is understood to have suffered a 40-per-cent fall in the value of its rights in Italy.
Fox committed to World Cup coverage despite US failure
Fox has reaffirmed its coverage plans for football’s 2018 Fifa World Cup in the United States despite an analyst estimating that the US national team’s failure to qualify for the tournament could have a negative impact on the network of between $10m (€8.4m) and $20m.
Uefa launches rights tenders in Canada
European football’s governing body Uefa has launched tender processes for broadcast rights to its Champions League and Europa League club competitions in Canada.
Big South switches strategy with Van Wagner partnership
The Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment agency has agreed a multi-year rights partnership with US college sport organisation the Big South Conference.
ESPN picks up Fiba rights in US
Sports broadcaster ESPN has acquired rights in the US to a range of national team events operated by the International Basketball Federation (Fiba).
DAZN opens up NFL coverage in Canada
DAZN, the OTT service operated by digital sports media company Perform, has opened up its coverage of the NFL American football league in Canada by agreeing carriage deals with cable television providers Shaw and SaskTel.
Hulu adds esports coverage with ESL deal
US subscription video-on-demand service Hulu is to expand its sports coverage into the esports market after agreeing a development and production deal with the ESL organisation.
Rakuten builds NBA presence with league partnership
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten has furthered its ties to the NBA by agreeing a multi-year media and marketing partnership with the basketball league.
Altice USA seals ESPN carriage through Disney deal
Media company Altice USA has struck a new carriage deal with Disney covering the latter’s portfolio of channels, including sports broadcaster ESPN.
Eleven teams up with Twitter on Ivy League initiative
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.
Learfield confirms IMG College merger
The Learfield Sports agency has confirmed that it has merged with the IMG College division of the WME|IMG agency.
NBC Sports adds Six Nations to rugby portfolio
The NBC Sports division of media group NBCUniversal has agreed a multi-year deal to become the new US rights-holder of the Six Nations rugby union championship.
Alibaba takes Pac-12 content to China under expanded partnership
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has extended and expanded its partnership with US college sports organisation the Pac-12 Conference, taking in media rights distribution for the first time.