October 10 – Brazil’s top league, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, has agreed a $150 million international streaming deal with sports tech startup Fanfoot which will launch its OTT platform in 2019.
October 8 – Facebook has expanded its live football output picking up rights to South America’s Copa Libertadores matches in a four-year package from 2019-2022 for its Watch platform.
October 3 – OTT streaming service Eleven Sports has challenged the English FA’s ban on the broadcast of live football matches on Saturdays between 2.45pm and 5.15pm by showing live coverage of Barcelona’s match against Athletic Bilbao last weekend.
September 26 – Although the victim of aggressive piracy of live sports rights in Saudi Arabia, beIN Sports has not slowed its commitment to football with the announcement of a new four-season deal through to the end of the 2021/22 season with the English Football League’s (EFL) three divisions and Cup competition.
September 18 – UEFA is poised to take a deeper step into the broadcast business with the launch of its own OTT streaming platform which will air content outside the big money TV deals of its Champions League, Europa League and national team competitions.
August 22 – Saudi Arabian pirate broadcaster beoutQ is showing no signs of easing up on its copyright theft, stealing every match of the round two of the new Premier League season for broadcast into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
August 22 – The English Football League (EFL) is halfway through its first midweek round of EFL fixtures to be streamed in the UK and Ireland. 31 games across the Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One and Sky Bet League Two will have been live-streamed by the end of tonight’s matches.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – The Saudi Arabian competition authority has today released a ruling that bans Qatari-based broadcaster beIN Sport from transmitting into the kingdom. The cancelling of the beIN Sport license means that the only way to view top level international football in Saudi Arabia will be illegally via the pirate channel beoutQ.
November 16 – France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) has written to the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission calling for support in investigating the piracy activities of Saudi-broadcast beoutQ and demanding the copyright theft is stopped.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – Pirate satellite broadcast beoutQ, which has been stealing the rights to beIN Sport broadcast content, has continued where it left at the World Cup, with every game of the first Premier League weekend stolen and broadcast via the Arabsat satellite. beoutQ also stole six of the 10 opening games of France’s Ligue 1, including PSG vs Caen.
August 16 – Facebook has added more football broadcast rights to its rapidly growing portfolio, this time bringing to its streaming platform UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup rights in Spanish-speaking Latin American territories.
August 15 – Facebook has confirmed it has snapped up the rights to show Spain’s LaLiga on Indian sub-continent in a three-year deal that starts Friday with the kick-off of the new league season.
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – Qatar-owned sports broadcaster beIN SPORTS has renewed its exclusive Premier League broadcast rights deal for a further three years starting from the 2019/20 season. beIN’s rights will cover the Middle East and North Africa.
August 9 – Borussia Dortmund is re-launching its club TV channel – BVB-TV – using Sportradar’s OTT platform. The channel will provide free content and a subscription service for €1.99 a month.
August 8 – Sports agency IMG, that is rapidly expanding its broadcast capability, has launched Serie A Pass for OTT subscribers.