Global Media Group (GMG) has been awarded media rights in Georgia for the 2012–15 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

Further to the recent allocation of UEFA Champions League rights to Rustavi 2 and the Georgian Public Broadcaster, buy cialis pay television operator GMG will show two live matches each matchnight on GMG Football and GMG Sport 1 until the end of the group stage. A highlights programme will also be screened every matchweek throughout the season on GMG Football.

During the round of 16 and quarter-finals, GMG Football will also broadcast one live game on Tuesdays, as well as transmitting the semi-finals and the final on a co-exclusive basis.

As for the UEFA Europa League, GMG has been granted all pay rights. Each matchweek it will screen two live matches per kick-off slot on GMG Football and GMG Sport, with a highlights show on GMG Football. All rights have been awarded on a platform-neutral basis, with the rights also being exploited on internet via gmg-tv.com and on mobile.

„ran” an den Korb! kabel eins zeigt in der kommenden Saison 2012/2013 die Beko Basketball Bundesliga (Beko BBL) live. Das vereinbarte Rechtepaket beinhaltet bis zu zehn Top-Begegnungen aus der höchsten deutschen Basketball-Spielklasse. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Partien des FC Bayern München. Alle TV-Übertragungen werden von der “ran”-Redaktion produziert und sind auch im Live-Stream auf www.ran.de und www.myvideo.de zu sehen.

Zeljko Karajica, Chief Operating Officer der ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland GmbH: “Die Beko BBL ist eine junge und moderne Marke, die sehr gut zu ‘ran’ passt. Die Liga hat ihre Attraktivität in den letzten Jahren kontinuierlich gesteigert – nicht zuletzt auch durch den FC Bayern München. Wir freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit mit der Beko BBL und den besten Basketballern Deutschlands.

The NBC Sports Group have secured a major multi-year renewal for French Open rights in the U.S.

In the agreement reached with the French Tennis Federation, NBC has secured multiplatform rights for the clay court Grand Slam event through 2024. The extension, superseding the final year of a contract that was set to expire at the end of the 2013 tournament, calls for 10 more hours of TV coverage annually.

NBC will air the opening Sunday of the French Open, as it did this year for the first time, as well as middle weekend tennis, the men’s and women’s semifinals and the men’s and women’s finals.

This extension brings key days of the tournament to the network, including Memorial Day coverage, and the women’s semifinals rounding out the network’s championship weekend. Some of that action had been carried by Tennis Channel, which last October inked a renewal with the FFT. The pact covers the Grand Slam fortnights from 2016 through 2022. Tennis and the FFT originally signed a contract encompassing Roland Garros from 2007 through the 2015 event.

At the conclusion of its new agreement, NBC will have served as the broadcast home of the French Open for 42 consecutive years.

“The French Open is one of the world’s most celebrated sports events,” said Jon Miller, president of programming for NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network, in a statement. “This ground-breaking agreement will extend our relationship with Roland Garros through 2024, and provides tennis fans with more comprehensive coverage than ever before, including live streaming of more matches.”

NBC has been covering some portion of the tournament since 1975–with a two-year break in 1980-82, when CBS held the rights.

As it is doing with the London Olympics, NBC will live stream all of its coverage on NBCSports.com.

English Premier League soccer club Blackburn Rovers say they are planning to start a club and feeder academy in the western Indian city of Pune.

The Lancashire-based club, who are owned by the Indian poultry-giant Venky’s, were purchased last year for US$73m by the Pune-based company.

Venky’s director B. Balaji Rao said: ”We are getting an academy and a stadium in Pune. The site is near the Mumbai-Pune highway and will be ready in a year and a half or two years.

“We are looking to launch a team based around players from the academy,” he said. “We have already registered the team name Blackburn Rovers FC Pune.”

Rao intends for the club to play in India’s professional I-League.

He added: ”We are looking to launch a team based around players from the academy. The academy will be run exactly like the Blackburn academy, with trainees starting when they are in the 11-12 age group, and train under coaches from Blackburn.”

Blackburn is also planning an exhibition match against a local team in Pune on July 22 and will field a full-strength squad, including its top players like Chris Samba, Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson and Ryan Nelsen for different teams in a local tournament on July 23.

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed a multi-year deal with Entercom Communications to broadcast all Hornets games  live on WWL radio beginning with the upcoming 2012-13 season.

The agreement, along with full game coverage, will include a post-game show, as well as a weekly Thursday night coach’s show with Hornets Head Coach Monty Williams hosted by Deshazier.

“We enjoy a great partnership with WWL radio and are thrilled that Hornets games will be broadcast on New Orleans’ leading radio station and become part of the great momentum we are enjoying this summer,” said Owner/Chairman of the Board Tom Benson. “WWL radio has long been the recognized leader in sports coverage. We couldn’t be happier about this partnership for Hornets basketball.”

“WWL radio, the News, Talk & Sports leader in the Gulf South, home of the New Orleans Saints and everything LSU, is proud to add New Orleans Hornets basketball to our lineup,” said Chris Claus, Vice President and General Manager of Entercom New Orleans. “The Hornets had the NBA’s best off-season and we are proud to have the opportunity to broadcast their games. Great new ownership, top draft picks, terrific free agent signings and smart trades have the entire region talking. We can’t wait to deliver Anthony Davis, Eric Gordon, Austin Rivers…exciting Hornets basketball to WWL listeners beginning Halloween night against San Antonio.”

In addition to using the power of WWL radio, Entercom will use its other amazing radio stations B-97, Magic 101.9, Bayou 95.7 and ESPN 1350am to market and promote Hornets basketball to the New Orleans metro and beyond. 

“The announcement of WWL radio as our flagship radio station is another addition to the excitement surrounding our upcoming season,” said Owner/Vice Chairman Rita Benson LeBlanc. “With both Hornets and Saints games broadcasting on WWL radio, as well as extensive coverage of both teams, it truly is our city’s leading station in regards to New Orleans sports.”

Dalian Wanda, a Chinese commercial real estate company, has agreed a US$77m financial package to support the Chinese Football Association (CFA) over the next three years.

A portion of their estimated US$21.6bn assets over the next three years into the Chinese Super League (CSL), and Dalian Wanda will assist in the management of the competition, which will be renamed the “Dalian Wanda Plaza CSL” from this season until 2013.

Money from the deal will be used to attract a world-class foreign coach to manage the Chinese national team, while up to 100 young players will be sent abroad for training and development.

CFA chairman Wei Di stated: “The progress of Chinese soccer depends on the emergence of high-level young players. China’s negligence in developing teenage soccer directly led to the slump in the sport in recent years.”

Dalian Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin said the deal would be extended if the partnership proved successful over the next three years, adding: “I hope our cooperation will reawaken people’s passion for soccer.”

The ESPN have obtained the multi-year rights to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and Irn Bru Scottish Football League until 2017.

The agreement means ESPN’s channels in the UK and Ireland will next season screen 40 live and exclusive matches from both leagues – more than ever before and ten more than in previous seasons on ESPN.

Under the deal, 30 Clydesdale Bank Premier League games will be shown on ESPN over the season alongside ten Rangers games from the Irn Bru Scottish Football League, including three home Rangers fixtures.

In addition to ESPN’s live and exclusive TV coverage, fans can catch coverage of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League online and on mobile with ESPN.co.uk and ESPNFC.com, the sports media company’s recently announced worldwide multimedia football initiative.

Live HD television coverage of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on ESPN is complemented by the company’s exclusive coverage of the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup, Aviva Premiership Rugby, UEFA Europa League, multiple weekly German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A matches and much more.

The New York Times Company (NYT) has sold more than half of its stake in English Premier League club Liverpool’s parent company, Fenway Sports Group (FSG).

NYT has been looking to reduce its shareholding in FSG for two years to raise funds for its publishing business and has now announced the sale of 390 of its 700 Class B units in the company for US$117m to three undisclosed separate buyers.

FSG’s majority owner is John Henry, who bought the Red Sox in 2002.

American group Fenway, formally known as New England Sports Ventures (NESV), agreed to acquire Liverpool in October 2010 in a forced sale for £300m ($483.5m) from their much maligned compatriots George Gillett and Tom Hicks. However, following the takeover, Hicks and Gillett announced plans to take legal action.

NYT said in 2009 that it had hired Goldman Sachs to sell its stake in the sports venture. The publishing group paid $75m for just over 17 per cent of FSG in 2002.

NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and Clear Channel have entered into an agreement to air all preseason and regular season games beginning next season.

Games will simulcast on both AM and FM frequencies on NewsRadio 1190 and 102.3 KEX, the team’s new flagships stations. Coverage will begin with the Trail Blazers preseason opener in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Oct. 10. The team tips off the 2012-13 regular season by hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 31. The move will return coverage to the stations that aired Trail Blazers games from 1979-85 and again from 1989-2001.

“The Trail Blazers’ partnership with KEX and Clear Channel Media & Entertainment goes beyond the ability to provide our fans with a simulcast of our broadcasts,” said Trail Blazers Senior Vice President of Digital Entertainment Dick Vardanega. “This partnership will also provide a number of new and innovative opportunities for our fans to engage in all things Trail Blazers. We are very excited about the possibilities and can’t wait to get things started.”

NewsRadio 1190 and 102.3 KEX will also air Trail Blazers Courtside, the team’s weekly talk show with broadcasters Mike Barrett, Mike Rice, Brian Wheeler and Antonio Harvey beginning Sept. 10. The show will simulcast on Comcast SportsNet and trailblazers.com. In addition, the team’s new flagship stations will carry The Fifth Quarter, a one-hour show following each postgame show, which will be dedicated solely to the fans.

“We are thrilled that the Portland Trail Blazers have decided to renew their partnership with Clear Channel Media & Entertainment and return to their longtime home, 1190 KEX and 102.3 FM,” said Robert Dove, Vice President and Market Manager, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Portland.

Luxury Italian brand Versace has entered into marketing partnership with Serie A giant F.C. Internazionale as the official suits provider for directors, unhealthy coach, arthritis technical staff and players of the club. 

Versace SpA CEO Gian Giacomo Ferraris stated: “We are very pleased to dress F.C. Internazionale, nurse because this club has familiarised the world with the style and top quality of Italian football as Versace has done in the field of fashion and luxury: this pairing could not be better.”

F.C.Internazionale Chief Executive Ernesto Paolillo added: “Not only are we happy to work with one of the most famous Maisons in the world, with their unmistakable class and style, we are also assured of the high professional qualities of Versace, which allow us to work with a Group that has been able to combine our practical requirements and elegance.”

Meanwhile, newly crowned German Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund have agreed a new sponsorship arrangement which will help make their home stadium energy independent.

Based in nearby Bitterfeld-Wolfen, leading solar specialist Q-Cells will add photo-voltaic panels atop Signal Iduna Park as part of the five-year deal worth a reported US$13m.

The news comes after Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 also recently concluded solar sponsorships.

In other news, Japanese carmaker Toyota has become the new shirt sponsor of Besiktas, one of Turkey’s top soccer clubs.

According to the Turkish media, the club will receive $26m over the course of three years thanks to the newly announced deal which will see Toyota get its logo on the team’s shirt fronts in return, as well as the right to use its players in ad campaigns.