Sky Italia has announced it will launch a high-definition channel for its Formula 1 coverage joining their British counterparts.

The Italian pay-TV firm won the rights to live F1 coverage from free-to-air public broadcaster Rai at the end of the 2012 season.

The platform has now launched Sky Sport F1 HD, medicine which will broadcast 10 of the season’s races exclusively live, drug with the other nine shared with free TV – although a free-to-air broadcast deal has yet to be agreed.

The new channel will broadcast 30 hours of live shows on each race weekend and will air the Barcelona winter test event from February 28 to March 3 for the first time in Italy.

NIKE, Inc. today announced its intention to sell two of its wholly-owned affiliate brands – Cole Haan and Umbro – to sharpen its focus on driving growth in the NIKE, Jordan, Converse and Hurley brands.

Mark Parker, President & CEO of NIKE, Inc, said: “We see tremendous opportunity to accelerate profitable growth around the world by continuing to deliver innovation and inspire consumers through the NIKE brand. We also see significant potential in Jordan, Converse and Hurley, which have unique consumer relationships that complement the NIKE Brand.*

“Divesting of Umbro and Cole Haan will allow us to focus our resources on the highest-potential opportunities for NIKE, Inc. to continue to drive sustainable, profitable growth for our shareholders.”

Cole Haan, which specializes in casual and dress leather footwear and bags, was acquired by NIKE, Inc. in 1988. The company is based in New York. Umbro is a football (soccer) specialist brand based in Manchester, UK, acquired by NIKE, Inc. in 2008. The process of divesting of these two businesses will begin immediately, and is expected to be complete by the end of NIKE, Inc.’s fiscal 2013 (May 31, 2013).

The readiness of the venue to host the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Istanbul in March is in doubt.

The event, which is due to take place between March 9 and 11 and has already attracted entries from a record 170 countries, is seen as an ideal opportunity to showcase the Turkish city’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

But work on the Ataköy Athletics Hall is behind schedule and a test event scheduled for last month had to be cancelled.

Can Korkmazoğlu, the general coordinatior of the Championships, though, insisted that there was no panic.

“Actually, we never worried the hall would not be ready, we have only been forced to cancel the races we promised to the International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF),” he told Hürriyet Daily News.

“Apart from that, we had events with two small-scale organisations scheduled that we had to cancel, but now we are running smoothly. We will begin operations inside the hall with the Turkish Indoor Athletics Championships January 27 to 29.”

Istanbul had been awarded the Championships by the IAAF in 2007.

The event was originally scheduled to be held at the Sinan Erdem Dome in the Ataköy district of Istanbul, but after the decision to use the Sinan Erdem Dome as the main court for the World Basketball Championship in 2010, it was decided to buld another hall next door to stage the World Indoor Championships.

Korkmazoğlu blamed the IAAF for the delays, claiming that it was nothing to do with financial difficulties in Istanbul.

“There were no such problems, and we were helped by the state at every stage. We were just forced to start later than planned because the project changed several times according to IAAF demands,” he said.

Korkmazoğlu is confident that the event will prove to be an outstanding success, with nearly half of the 15,000 tickets available sold already.

“As of last week, 47 per cent of the total tickets were sold out, with the main focus being on Saturday evening and Sunday. This was expected as it is when most of the finals are scheduled for,” he said.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday scrapped the contract with its broadcast rights holder Nimbus for defaulting on payments and forfeited the bank guarantee amount of $388m.

Nimbus held TV rights for all of the BCCI international and domestic matches played at home.

BCCI officials said the contract was terminated because Nimbus had not paid the 50% advance for both the recent England and West Indies series.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the BCCI’s Working Committee in Delhi.

Nimbus, which renewed its rights for Indian cricket in October 2009, had requested a delay in payment. The development will affect the finals of the domestic Ranji Trophy, which begin on December 16th.

The termination of Nimbus means that the rest of the domestic season would not be televised. It was also learnt that the working committee members were unhappy about World Series Hockey (WSH) being promoted in the air time scheduled for cricket.

Nimbus released a statement claiming that it had “acted in compliance of its contractual obligations”

“Nimbus Communications Ltd (Nimbus) has seen reports in the media in relation to cricket rights licensed to Nimbus by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“Given the confidentiality provisions of such contracts, Nimbus is unable to discuss details with the media, but can confirm that it has acted in compliance of its contractual obligations and variations agreed between the parties from time to time.

“Nimbus is working towards achieving full resolution of any differences that may have arisen between the parties and is hopeful of a reasoned conclusion of these in the coming weeks.

“Obviously, it has fully reserved all its rights and options, including invoking the arbitration process if need be.

“No further statement will be made by Nimbus in this regard till its discussions with BCCI are concluded in the coming weeks.”

Apart from the current payment, the BCCI and Nimbus also had a long-pending ‘issue’ over radio rights. Nimbus was not happy with the All India Radio’s offer and had asked the BCCI to deal with them directly.

Numbus owns the NEO Cricket channel launched in 2008. It had exclusive broadcast rights for all International and domestic cricket played in India from 2006-2014.

To read more on this topic go to iSportconnect’s discussion: Where next for BCCI sponsorship?

IEC in Sports, the major international sports marketing agency, has secured rights to distribute six-event Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments across Asia Pacific in 2011, following the re-appointment by key organizers in Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Uzbekistan, China and Indonesia.

Tournaments include WTA Kuala Lumpur, WTA Auckland, WTA Pattaya, WTA Tashkent, WTA Guangzhou and the season-ending WTA Tournament of Champions in Bali.

China Tennis Association (CTA) has again partnered with IEC to exclusively manage all television rights for WTA Guangzhou through to 2013, with Deputy Director Xiao Ning adding: “We have been working together for the past seven years. We are very confident in the strong broadcast distribution on a pan-Asia and global basis, that IEC achieves.”

IEC in Sports MD Asia, Middle East and Africa Karl Samuelsson stated: “We are delighted to witness the rapid development of tennis in China. In a few short years, China has gone from a nation without much of a foundation in this sport to a place producing world-renowned female players such as Li Na, Zheng Jie, and Peng Shuai, with Li Na now inside the top 10. These young Chinese tennis talents prove that China has begun to shine in this global sport.”

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced today that Kenny MacLeod will join the ITF as Executive Director, cheap Commercial.

He will be responsible for leading the ITF’s Commercial Department of seven that concentrates on the ITF’s sponsorship and television portfolio.   

MacLeod comes to the ITF from the Scottish Football Association where he was Commercial and Marketing Director from 2009 as well as Global Performance Consultant for FIFA from 2012. Prior to working for the Scottish FA, he was Commercial Manager for Celtic Football Club from 2006-2009, and has also worked in the travel and airline industry and as a Sports Editor for publications in both Australia and Russia.

“We are very happy to welcome Kenny to the ITF as Commercial Director,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “His experience in football will bring some fresh ideas to the ITF and offers us some new perspectives on implementing our commercial strategies.”

“I am looking forward to my new position at the ITF,” said MacLeod. “I am a big fan of tennis and think my past experience has prepared me well for new challenges at the ITF. Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas are well known, successful competitions and form just a part, albeit a large one, of the ITF’s overall commercial properties. Junior tennis, seniors tennis, wheelchair tennis, beach tennis and the ITF Pro Circuit span the game in all age groups; and the ITF’s highly regarded Development, Coaching and Technical departments offer sponsorship opportunities that we will explore over the next period.”

MacLeod will take up his new position effective 2 June 2014 and will be based in the ITF’s Roehampton offices.    

British Cycling have opened their tender to host the 2014 National Road Championships.

After the remarkable success of the 2013 British Cycling National Road Race and Time Trial Championships in Glasgow, find their will be significant interest in hosting the Championships.

“The status that the championships now have and the calibre of riders who contest them make the National Road Championships into a compelling major event proposition for any town, arthritis city or region looking to establish itself as a host of major sporting events,” British Cycling’s Cyclesport and Membership Director Jonny Clay said.

The 2014 National Road Championships incorporates the men’s and women’s Time Trial Championships and Road Race Championships and is scheduled to take place on 26 June and 29 June 2014 respectively.

Tender applications for the 2014 championships remain open until 1 July 2013 with the winning bid anticipated to be announced in September 2013.

The Sochi 2014 Organising Committee has launched a large-scale project for training 25, try 000 volunteers for the next Winter Games. 

It will be the largest volunteer training program in the history of the Games.

 The programme consists of three main parts: “My Game, unhealthy ” “Job Specific Training” and “Venue Specific Training,” and a special English language course with an emphasis on an Olympic and Paralympic theme.

Each volunteer can expect at least 36 hours of free training. The programme will be a unique legacy for organisers of future major sporting events, not only in Russia but throughout the world. 

For the first time in the history of the Games, volunteers will be trained not only in the host city, but across the whole country, in 17 cities at 26 volunteer centres from Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg. 

The organisers of the 2014 Games face the task of giving the volunteers the necessary knowledge and skills within a very tight schedule and of inspiring the volunteers to make the Sochi Games the best in history. 

The President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said: “The Sochi 2014 Volunteer Program, launched in 2009 by the Organsing Committee, has truly changed the attitude to volunteering in Russia. We have succeeded in raising the prestige of volunteering and in taking it to a new level. This is possibly one of our most important achievements and a legacy that will remain after the Games.”