USA

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.

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.

Media company Altice USA has struck a new carriage deal with Disney covering the latter’s portfolio of channels, including sports broadcaster ESPN.

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.

The Learfield Sports agency has confirmed that it has merged with the IMG College division of the WME|IMG agency.

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.

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.

Sports broadcaster ESPN has struck a multi-year deal to replace the NBC Sports division of media group NBCUniversal as the US rights-holder to the Formula One motor racing championship.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to take its US broadcast rights to the open market after an exclusive negotiating period expired with current partner, pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports.

US telecommunications company AT&T has agreed a deal to broadcast coverage of the inaugural edition of the World Boxing Super Series annual elimination tournament across a number of its platforms.

Pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports has widened its coverage of US sports in Italy by acquiring rights to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball and American football.

US satellite-television provider DirecTV is offering refunds for its NFL Sunday Ticket package to fans that are unhappy with the wave of protests that are sweeping through the American football league, according to multiple reports.

Sports broadcaster ESPN has joined forces with a number of rival operators in the US to simulcast coverage of the Liga MX, the top division of football in Mexico, as part of a fund-raising initiative designed to support people affected by a series of natural disasters in the Americas.

Social media platform Facebook has furthered its move into sports content by agreeing a multi-year global partnership with American football league the NFL.

The NBC network, rights-holder to the Olympic Games in the United States, has confirmed it won’t broadcast any games from North American ice hockey league the NHL during the 2018 winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

Showtime has secured the US rights to unified heavyweight world boxing titleholder Anthony Joshua’s mandatory defence against Kubrat Pulev after reportedly seeing off a strong bid for the fight from pay-television rival HBO.