October 2 – The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has defended its tender for the rights of the Mexican national team after a controversial extension with broadcaster Televisa and TV Azteca.
September 29 – In what is perhaps a sign of the times in football’s monied circles, the Premier League’s big six clubs are demanding a larger share of the new international television deals that will start in 2019. In the current three-year cycle clubs earn an equal £39 million annually from the aggregate £3 billion deal.
September 25 – UEFA has wasted no time securing its first media deals for its newly announced Nations League competition with China’s Super Sports Media stepping up to acquire exclusive digital media rights to the competition in China for the 2018-19 and 2020-21 editions of the competition.
By Paul Nicholson
September 13 – Sky and the English Football League (EFL) have agreed a five-year £600 million broadcasting deal starting with the 2019/20 season.
September 1 – Real Madrid has teamed up with GoPro to produce an eight-part behind the scenes documentary – Hala Madrid – that will broadcast on Facebook’s new Watch video platform in the US.
August 23 – Facebook Live has acquired the Indian digital streaming rights from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the remaining fixtures of the AFC Cup, the continent’s second tier club competition.
August 10 – Anyone expecting the football bubble to burst for premium broadcast rights will have a long wait. A survey by broadband and TV comparison website Broadband Genie found that 78% of sports subscribers would consider leaving or switching their TV provider if they lost the rights to their favourite sports.
July 24 – The Saudi Arabian-led boycott of Qatari-owned beIn Sport as part of the diplomatic dispute in the region has not prevented the channel being awarded Middle Eastern and North African broadcasting rights for the Champions League and Europa League.
July 11 – Manchester United has launched a new streaming service at mutv.com which will enable subscribers to sign up to the channel without having to go through a satellite subscription. The channel will only be available to subscribers in the UK and Ireland at the start.
July 6 – FIFA says it will not back down after scheduling next year’s World Cup final kickoff in Russia on the same afternoon as the Wimbledon men’s tennis final.
July 4 – Nearly half of Premier League fans have at some stage streamed a top-flight game online through an unauthorised provider, according to a survey conducted by the BBC.
June 21 – Telemundo is reporting record broadcast numbers on its digital platforms for its coverage of the Confederations Cup 2017 from Russia. Nielsen ratings report that the Portugal vs. Mexico reached 4 million total viewers on Telemundo and ranks as the most streamed match ever on Telemundo’s digital platforms.
June 15 – The English Football League (EFL) is expanding its broadcast platform for its three professional from next season with the launch of the iFollow service for overseas markets. Matches already being broadcast outside the UK and Irelands will not be available on iFollow. More than 1,500 games will be streamed digitally.
June 6 – Egyptian giants Al Ahly and Zamalek have announced they will boycott the Qatari-owned television network beIN Sports following the damaging diplomatic rift between Qatar and several Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
June 5 – With less than two weeks to go before the tournament starts, FIFA has secured a domestic TV deal in Russia to broadcast the 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup with national sports channel Match-TV.