IMG

The IMG Events & Media agency picked up the media rights for the Concacaf 2015 Gold Cup and the Champions League but strong competition failed to materialise.

The IMG agency has appointed Mark Shapiro as its new chief content officer.

IMG has appointed Karen Brodkin as its new president of business affairs – a position in which she will oversee the agency’s worldwide business dealings.

The IMG agency has acquired exclusive international media rights for events operated by Concacaf, the governing body of football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

German pay-television broadcaster Sportdigital picked up the rights to four football leagues in recent weeks as it bolstered its international football programming.

The IMG Events & Media agency said this week that US stock car racing operator Nascar was open to all ideas for expanding its series beyond its core US audience, including bringing in international drivers and developing race circuits abroad.

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.

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

The IMG agency has struck a 10-year deal, from 2015 to 2024, to develop North American stock car-racing series Nascar’s international media business.

Chris Liddell has been appointed as the new chief financial officer at the WME-IMG agency.

Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus beat competition from main rival beIN Sports to pick up third-party European Qualifier football rights in France earlier this month.

Rupert Murdoch’s two Italian pay-television businesses – the Sky Italia satellite platform and the Fox Sports premium channel – reinforced their football portfolios this week as rival operator Mediaset inched closer to a deal to sell a stake in its Mediaset Premium platform to Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports.

Pay-television broadcaster Star India asked for a delay to the start of the Indian Super League because of internal issues with the franchise football tournament, not, as widely reported, to avoid a clash with the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament.

IMG said this week that its new merged events and media division would create efficiencies and provide opportunities that had been stymied by the compartmentalised management structure operated by private equity owners Forstmann Little prior to the sale of the agency late last year.

Interview with Michel Masquelier and Ioris Francini, chairman and president of IMG Events & Media respectively, on the WME/Silver Lake takeover of IMG and the creation of a new IMG division covering events and media.

The athletics division of US college Syracuse University has elected to break its multimedia rights contract with the IMG agency in favour of seeking a more lucrative deal.