North America

Technology giant Intel has signed a multi-year partnership to provide virtual reality content for US college sport, commencing with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s 2017 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, an event otherwise known as March Madness.

US mixed martial arts promotion Bellator is set to return to pay-per-view television for the first time since 2014 for an event held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has acquired rights in the United States to the Emirates Airline Twenty20 cricket tournament, just days after making its entry into the American market.

The NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal has retained the Vuelta a España and Tour Down Under in its cycling portfolio by striking extended rights deals for the events.

Modern Times Group, the multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster, has continued its transformation effort by selling off its free-to-air television, pay-television, digital and radio businesses in the Baltic region to US private equity investment firm Providence Equity Partners.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports has reached a deal to acquire “certain distribution assets” of troubled US broadcaster One World Sports.

North America’s National Lacrosse League has signed content partnerships with social media platform Twitter and over-the-top provider Xumo.

International sports broadcaster Eleven Sports Network is close to agreeing a takeover deal for troubled North American sports broadcaster One World Sports, according to multiple reports.

Sky Racing World, a distributor of horse racing content to the Americas, has expanded its partnership with US pay-television racing broadcaster TVG.

Social media platform Facebook has struck its latest significant sports rights deal through an agreement with Major League Soccer and US pay-television broadcaster Univision Deportes.

Social video production company Grabyo has appointed sports and entertainment executive Mike Kelley as its new president of the Americas to lead a new office in New York that will focus on new projects in North and South America.

Major League Baseball franchise the Los Angeles Dodgers and Charter Communications, the company that markets regional pay-television channel SportsNet LA, have opted to extend their rights partnership with LA-based broadcaster KLTA-TV.

Pay-television broadcaster ESPN has signed a multi-year extension to its rights deal for the Basketball Tournament, a US-based amateur, single-elimination competition.

Sports video and advertising platform SendtoNews has struck a multi-year extension to its rights partnership with golf’s PGA Tour.

Mexican media company AYM Sports has entered into a production partnership with the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA).

The Chinese division of North American basketball league the NBA has entered into a multi-year partnership with Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo.