Basketball

The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the top division of the sport in Germany, has said it will continue to offer near-live clips of games via social media platforms Facebook and Twitter following a successful pilot initiative at the weekend.

Caribbean telecommunications company Digicel has signed a multi-year broadcasting partnership with North American basketball league the NBA.

US pay-television network ESPN will expand its coverage of the National Basketball Association’s Development League in North America.

Media rights clips From March 12 to 25

French pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus is planning to close its Sport Plus television channel, according to L’Equipe.

US pay-television broadcaster Univision Deportes has agreed a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association to provide fans in the US with Spanish-language content from the North American basketball league.

Pac-12 Networks, the content and multi-platform media company for the Pac-12 US college sports conference, has agreed a multi-year distribution partnership with the Metta Sport agency covering the Latin America region.

Euroleague Basketball has agreed a partnership with digital sports media group Spox.com to provide online video content for fans of the pan-European club competition in Germany.

Media rights clips from February 26 to March 11

Nova Broadcasting Group, part of multi-territory commercial and pay-television broadcaster Modern Times Group, has agreed a deal with the National Basketball Association to show the North American basketball league in Bulgaria.

Pan-African pay-television operator StarTimes has agreed a two-year deal for the rights to the German Bundesliga football competition and will launch a new premium sports channel to exploit the content, according to Rwandan newspaper the New Times.

Russian sports news website Sports.ru has struck a deal to become an official premium media partner of the Euroleague Basketball club tournament.

NCAA Digital, a joint venture between the Turner Sports division of US cable-television broadcaster Turner Broadcasting Systems and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, has launched a channel on video-sharing website YouTube for this year’s NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.

US pay-television network ESPN has acquired rights for the 2015 edition of the Basketball Tournament, an amateur, single-elimination competition in the country.

ARD and ZDF will pay a decent rights fee, plus broadcast sponsorship, for EuroBasket 2015 rights in Germany - with value driven by the country hosting some matches.

Media rights clips from February 12 to 25

Italy’s RCS MediaGroup has launched its new Gazzetta dello Sport-themed television channel.

Italian DTT sports broadcaster Sportitalia has acquired rights to the 2015 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto, the annual knockout competition of Spanish club basketball.