North America

US cable television channel One World Sports has agreed a multi-year rights deal to distribute programming from the official television channel of Italian Serie A football club AC Milan.

Turf TV, the horseracing channel for betting shops in the UK and Ireland, has struck a deal to show its coverage of US racing in bookmaker William Hill’s betting shops.

Pay-television broadcaster ESPN and the Fox and CBS networks have submitted bids for the rights to show as many as eight Thursday night NFL American football games, according to the Reuters news agency.

American football league the NFL is seeking to adopt a simulcast strategy for its new package of Thursday night games, according to multiple US media reports.

Perform has announced a partnership with the North American Soccer League that will allow the digital sports media company to stream live coverage of the league’s matches through the NASL.com website.

TSN will be “aggressive” in bidding for sports rights after it was outbid by telecommunications company Rogers Communications for NHL ice hockey rights in Canada, according to Phil King, the president of CTV programming and sports at the pay-television sports broadcaster’s parent company, Bell Media.

North American media company Anthem Media confirmed today (Tuesday) that it will launch a new television channel dedicated to fantasy sports on March 4.

MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and internet company of Major League Baseball, has acquired an equity stake in multi-platform sports entertainment channel the Whistle as part of a broader content partnership.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case brought by several US networks against television streaming service Aereo.

American football’s NFL has invited broadcasters to bid for a new package of rights comprising Thursday night games.

Telecommunications company Rogers Communications has extended a rights deal in Canada with North America’s Major League Baseball for eight years, from 2014 to 2021.

The WWE wrestling organisation has confirmed that it will launch WWE Network, a new 24-hour pay-television streaming channel in the US, on February 24.

The Houston Rockets NBA basketball franchise has been granted additional time by a federal bankruptcy judge to negotiate on behalf of financially-troubled Comcast SportsNet Houston, the exclusive home of Rockets and Houston Astros MLB baseball games, according to the Houston Chronicle.

North American basketball league the NBA is close to agreeing a conditional deal that will end the payment of a share of national television revenues to the owners of the Spirits of St. Louis franchise in the defunct American Basketball Association, according to the New York Times newspaper.

NFL American football teams the Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals avoided local television blackouts of their weekend play-off games after businesses stepped in to purchase remaining blocks of tickets to ensure stadia were sold out.

US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications has extended the contract of its president and chief executive David Zaslav through to the end of the decade.