January 26 – Media rights to broadcast England’s national team matches from 2018 until 2022 have been split between subscription and free-to-air channels. No figure has been released for the deal which was done under the new rights selling regime that consolidates all national federation rights into a single UEFA-backed sales agency.
November 22 – Digiturk, the Turkish digital TV platform has retained the broadcast right to the Turkish Super League in a $3 billion five year deal – $600 million a year – that is almost double the previous amount Digiturk paid in 2010 in a one-year deal that was extended for three years in 2011.
November 18 – Taking advantage of the burgeoning Chinese market, the English Premier League has sold its television rights in the country to streaming service PPTV for a staggering $700 million (£565 million), according to a number of reports in the UK and Asia.
November 16 – The biggest shake-up in the English professional football pyramid since the Premier League was set up in 1992 has been scrapped because of a calendar clash between the various parties running the national game.
By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – FOX Sport in the US have renewed their Gold Cup TV deal with North, Central American and Caribbean confederation CONCACAF. The new deal secures them the rights to the 2017 and 2019 tournaments.
November 1 – Manchester City have continued their rapid digital expansion with the launch of a new app for Amazon Fire TV allowing users to stream CityTV videos directly on to a connected TV via the Amazon platform.
October 25 – The English FA has confirmed an £820 million six-season international broadcast rights deal for its FA Cup domestic competition, the oldest club competition in world football.
October 11 – FIFA has begun the sales process for the broadcast rights to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, launching an invitation to tender (ITT) for the UK media rights.
September 16 – German pay-TV sports network Sky Deutschland has announced it will add a new web channel that will focus on video content, skysport.de.
August 24 – Chinese broadcaster LeSports is testing the pay-per-view model on broadcasts of some of Italy’s Serie A matches in China.
August 22 – Thai broadcaster Bangkok Broadcasting & TV Co. (BBTV) has extended its deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for exclusive terrestrial broadcast rights from 2017 to 202 for AFC competitions.
August 16 – Manchester City is continuing to set the pace in the digital media space, with its latest move being a content deal with India’s VEQTA to broadcast content on its sports platform.
August 16 – MLS team LA Galaxy has signed a multi-year partnership with Virtual Reality firm Laduma to create original 360-degree 3D VR content experiences around the club and its star players.
August 12 – Will he stick to his promise? Halfway through last season, as Leicester City, 5000 to 1 outsiders at the start of the campaign, looked like they might win the English Premier League title, former England striker and BBC television presenter Gary Lineker boldly proclaimed that he would appear in his underpants at the start of this season’s campaign if his beloved Foxes somehow went go all the way.
By Paul Nicholson
August 9 – The Premier League has been cleared to continue its UK broadcast rights sales after regulator Ofcom closed an investigation into how live rights are sold and whether the auction system restricted or distorted competition.