ESPN beefs up ‘MLS Decision Day’ coverage with all 12 end-of-season matches live
October 5 – US broadcast giant ESPN are set to carry a record amount of coverage this weekend for the final round of the regular MLS season.
Broadcast
Bundesliga lands ESPN broadcast deal for US
October 1 – Germany’s Bundesliga, which has been targeting commercial expansion in the US market, has secured a six-year broadcast deal with subscription streaming service ESPN+.
TV parity: UK government wants to ‘list’ major women’s events for free broadcast
September 20 – The rapid rise of the women’s game and the profile of the Women’s World Cup has prompted the UK government to call for a number of top tier women’s events to be added to the country’s ‘listed’ sports events that must be broadcast in free-to-air television.
Rights owners tell Saudis to stop ‘abusing’ football and end Arabsat’s beoutQ transmissions
By Paul Nicholson
September 17 – Football rights owners have issued another demand to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, satellite distributor Arabsat and IPTV platforms to stop the broadcast of pirate TV channel beoutQ that has been stealing their rights and rebroadcasting across the region.
LaLiga to launch TV channel in UK in all-encompassing Premier Sports deal
September 11 – The troubled UK TV deal for LaLiga’s live broadcast rights has now found a multi-platform solution with Premier Sports in a deal that will see live matches on Premier Sports 1 and 2, as well as LaLigaTV as a standalone channel as part of the Premier Sports package.
ESPN triple USL live output with expanded 3-year rights deal
August 28 – US sports broadcaster ESPN is taking a deeper step into domestic soccer with a new three-year deal the United Soccer League (USL) which will see it triple its coverage of the league.
ESPN digs deeper into women’s game with global rights for NWSL
August 19 – The US women’s national team may hold the attention and hearts of the nation but their women’s professional league has never enjoyed anything like the same profile. A new deal with ESPN could be a step towards changing that.
English FA to launch OTT platform with Women’s Super League games live
August 7 – The English FA will launch a new over-the-top platform that will provide free live coverage of every Women’s Super League game from the start of the 2019/20 season.
Warner’s Trinidad claim reopens old wounds of FIFA’s dodgy Caribbean TV dealing
By Paul Nicholson
August 5 – The court filing in Trinidad by Jack Warner claiming that the Trinidad and Tobago FA owes him TT$15,761,003 ($2.3 million) has sparked the re-opening of an old claim by Selby Browne and his CSTN broadcast company over Caribbean TV rights – rights that Warner sold to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) for $4.25 million.
Lagardere banks on bumper $400m beIN deal to make up bulk of CAF guarantee
By Osasu Obayiuwana
August 5 – beIN Sports, the international pay-tv broadcaster, financed by the government of Qatar, is officially the number one financial partner of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
LaLiga’s failure to secure UK TV deal reflects wider broadcast and schedule uncertainty
August 1 – La Liga has not found a home for its broadcasting rights in the UK and Ireland for the 2019/20 season, leaving the big kick off in August in doubt for fans across the UK.
Football’s united condemnation of beoutQ demands Saudis stop supporting TV theft
By Paul Nicholson
July 31 – Football’s most powerful governing bodies and rights holders have issued the largest combined statement to date condemning the theft of their broadcast rights by pirate broadcaster beoutQ and “requesting” the Saudi Arabian (KSA) government to immediately take “swift and decisive” action.
Clubs push deeper into OTT trials as Pay-TV operators re-prioritise rights buys
July 22 – The changes taking place in the ‘disrupted’ sports TV market are highlighted in a new analysis that finds that 23% of the world’s top leagues and federations now have their own OTT streaming services.
Brazil’s 2019 Copa America triumph to star on the small screen with Amazon
July 22 – Amazon Prime Video has bought the series ‘All or Nothing’ featuring Brazil’s 2019 Copa America win on home soil, TV sales agency Pitch International has announced.
Man City launch club OTT platform with 2019 season-end doco and pre-season games
July 18 – Manchester City has launched its own streaming service, Man City for TV, for fans globally with a free month’s trial before pricing goes to £1.99 per month.