USA

The NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal has acquired rights to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2015 World Championship, while it has also expanded the reach of its live streaming product NBC Sports Live Extra.

The board members of Time Warner Cable and Comcast have admitted defeat in their efforts to salvage a proposed $45.2bn (€42bn) takeover of the US pay-television operator by the US media company.

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke has maintained world football’s governing body did “nothing wrong” in negotiating its new US rights deal for the World Cup, adding the agreement was needed to protect date changes for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

US pay-television provider Dish Network will not show the latest pay-per-view event from mixed martial arts series the Ultimate Fighting Championship this Saturday, with the two parties in talks over renewing their deal.

BET, the Viacom-owned US cable and satellite television channel, has announced its first move into professional boxing.

The Fox Sports division of the Fox network and NBC Sports division of media company NBCUniversal have joined sports broadcaster ESPN in disputing US telecommunications company Verizon’s new ‘Custom TV’ service.

ESPN is objecting to telecommunications company Verizon’s new payment planning structure for its FiOS TV pay-television service, while long-time executive Sean Bratches has announced he will leave the US sports broadcaster at the end of the year.

US media and marketing company Gannett has entered into a partnership with video platform ViewLift to explore the development of a new digital sports video service.

German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich has announced a US content partnership with Microsoft’s web portal MSN.

US telecommunications company Verizon is to launch a new mobile over-the-top service that will offer customers access to live coverage of college sports.

Spanish-language US broadcaster Univision Deportes is partnering with Snapchat to offer sports video clips via the social media platform.

NFL American football franchise the Philadelphia Eagles has signed a regional broadcast partnership with US pay-television broadcaster Comcast SportsNet and the NBC10 regional affiliate of the NBC network.

Mexican beer brand Tecate is offering a reduced pay-per-view television price in the United States for customers buying the boxing world title fight between pound-for-pound superstars Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, through its sponsorship of the bout.

US pay-television broadcaster CBS Sports Network has struck a deal with the Cage Fury Fighting Championship to broadcast at least four events from the mixed martial arts series on an exclusive basis in 2015.

The International Paralympic Committee has hailed “unprecedented” coverage of its 2015 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool through an agreement with the NBC Sports Group division of US media company NBCUniversal.

US broadcaster Fox Sports has acquired rights for the 2015 edition of pre-season club football competition International Champions Cup North America.