Oceania

Active lifestyle and endurance events company Tough Mudder has continued its expansion drive by agreeing a content partnership with ESPN Media Distribution, the rights agency division of the global sports broadcaster, along with breaking into the New Zealand market for the first time.

Australian motor-racing series the Supercars Championship has secured new international broadcast rights deals, and has launched a new mobile application, for its 2017 season.

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has blocked a proposed merger of pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand and telecommunications company Vodafone New Zealand.

Fox Sports has launched a channel dedicated to the top division of rugby league in Australia, the National Rugby League, exclusively on pay-television broadcaster Foxtel.

Australian commercial broadcaster Nine has entered into a partnership with the Surfing Australia national governing body.

Free TV, the industry body representing Australia’s commercial free-to-air television broadcasters, has hit out at a proposal to ban all advertising of betting services during live sporting events.

Aussie rules football league the AFL has teamed up with domestic rights-holder, pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports, to launch a “groundbreaking” streaming service targeting international fans and Australians living or travelling overseas.

Australian pay-television operator Foxtel has said it will take action against at least two social media users who used the Facebook Live service to stream its pay-per-view coverage of the boxing match between Danny Green and Anthony Mundine on Friday.

Cricket Australia will earn about A$65,000 (€46,000/$49,000) per season from free-to-air deals struck in Fiji and Papua New Guinea late last year.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has placed Tennis Australia under investigation over allegations the national governing body’s rights deal with commercial broadcaster Seven for the Australian Open may have broken the law, according to Fairfax Media.

Australian free-to-air digital channel Racing.com has acquired exclusive rights in the country to the inaugural edition of the Pegasus World Cup horse-racing event.

Australian telecommunications company Telstra has entered into a six-year partnership with Perform through which it will aid the digital sports media company’s delivery of its media-rights and production contract with the Women’s Tennis Association.

Football Federation Australia’s new domestic deal for top-tier A-League rights has succeeded in squeezing a good increase from an uncompetitive landscape.

Social media platform Twitter has further bolstered its sports portfolio by striking a partnership with Australian commercial broadcaster Seven for the forthcoming 2017 Australian Open tennis grand slam.

The IMG agency has agreed a deal to represent and sell the global media rights for Nitro Athletics, a new sports entertainment series pioneered by Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt.

Tennis Australia president Steve Healy ordered an independent review into whether a fellow board member had a conflict of interest during talks in 2013 to sell media rights to Seven West Media, according to Fairfax Media.