USA

Boxing

Boxing television rights distributor and sports marketing firm Octapixx Live has been selected to exclusively market the international broadcast rights for Warriors Boxing Promotions’ upcoming world championship cards in the US on October 4 and November 1.

Private equity company Bridgepoint Capital could exploit the global expansion ambitions of the two major US sports marketing companies – WME/IMG and CAA – to secure a price in excess of €1bn ($1.32bn) for the Infront Sports & Media agency, experts say.

Golf

Golf’s PGA Tour has launched a new paid channel on video-sharing website YouTube that will allow fans to access archived video footage from historic tournaments.

The SEC Network, a new pay-television sports channel dedicated to college sport’s Southeastern Conference, has further expanded its reach by agreeing a carriage deal with pay-television provider Verizon FiOS.

Football

US investment company RSE Ventures enjoyed a substantial increase in the value of the global media rights for the 2014 International Champions Cup, the summer friendly club tournament involving some of Europe’s top clubs.

Basketball

The Fox Sports division of US network Fox has announced the 2014 Las Vegas Invitational and Las Vegas Classic regular-season college basketball events will be broadcast on its Fox Sports 1 pay-television channel.

American Football

The athletics division of US college Syracuse University has signed a new multi-year multimedia rights deal with IMG after last month electing to break its contract with the agency in favour of seeking a more lucrative agreement.

Kickboxing

Glory Sports International, the parent company of kickboxing promotion Glory World Series, has exercised its renewal clause with Spike TV to retain the US pay-television channel as its television partner through 2015.

Baseball

Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles have been granted an extension to an injunction preventing the league from forcing the franchise to pay rival the Washington Nationals higher payments from their jointly-owned US regional cable-television broadcaster MASN.

American Football

US sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed a new long-term media rights deal with the Mid-American Conference US collegiate sports competition.

American Football

The Learfield Sports agency has extended its multimedia rights partnership with the athletics division of Boise State University through the 2024-25 season.

Ajit Pai, a member of the Federal Communications Commission board in the United States, has said that the “time has come” to repeal the so-called ‘blackout’ rule that blocks certain sports events from being shown live on television in their local market if they fail to meet a specified level of ticket sales.

IMG Sports and Entertainment president George Pyne is leaving the newly combined WME/IMG agency to pursue new business interests.

Olympics

US media company NBCUniversal has committed to airing 24.5 hours of the upcoming 2014 Youth Olympic Games on the NBC network and pay-television broadcaster NBC Sports Network – the first time the event will be afforded coverage on the two platforms.

Baseball

A US district judge has ruled that Major League Baseball cannot use an antitrust exemption to avoid facing a lawsuit from fans who claim that the league unfairly dictates broadcast markets for its clubs.

American Football

The Learfield Sports agency has agreed a 10-year deal to manage the multimedia rights of the athletics division of Northern Illinois University.

Ice Hockey

North American pay-television broadcaster One World Sports has agreed a three-year deal for the rights to new pan-European club ice hockey competition the Champions Hockey League.

Boxing

Kazakh boxer Gennady Golovkin’s promoter, K2 Promotions, has signed a multi-fight rights deal with US pay-television broadcaster HBO.