The Olympic Games are two weeks away, and NBC is teaming up with Adobe for two apps that will provide easy access to game details as well as live streaming from London.

The free Adobe AIR-powered apps – NBC Olympics Live Extra and NBC Olympics – are now available for iOS and Android. The first will allow for live streaming of more than 3,500 hours of Olympic content, while the second provides more indepth details about the athlethes, the games, and more.

In a nod to the TV Everywhere model, access to the “vast majority” of streaming content will be limited to U.S. users with a pay TV subscription. In order to watch, users will be asked to sign in with their cable login, whether that is Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cablevision, or a smaller regional provider.

Ashley Still, director of product management for Video Solutions at Adobe, said that 97 percent of all households that pay for TV can access the live streaming content. If you’re at home and also get Internet access via your TV provider, the app will automatically recognize that you are allowed to watch the live streaming content.

The app will allow users to set reminders, set up DVR-esque recordings, or opt to pause, rewind, or watch later.

In addition, you can switch between camera views to catch a glimpse of your favorite athlete and share favorite moments on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The NBC Olympics app, meanwhile, will include short-form highlights, event schedules, TV and online listings, results, athlete profiles, columns, and more

ESPN have announced they will broadcast USA Basketball’s warm-up matches leading to the London Olympics.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 will combine to air five USA Basketball Men’s National Team exhibition games presented by Nike+ beginning with the first ourting against the Dominican Republic on Thursday, July 12, at 9 p.m. ET. All games will be available on WatchESPN and generally carried on ESPN Mobile TV.

Mark Jones will provide play-by-play for all ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts with International basketball expert and analyst Fran Fraschilla.

USA Basketball are sheduled to play Dominican Republic on July 12, Brazil – July 16, Great Britain – July 19, Argentina – July 23 and Spain July 24.

The English Premier League will pay out record sums in TV money to its clubs this season with the bottom club guaranteed to receive at least £37m (US$60.5m).

Lucrative new overseas television deals will see top-flight clubs earn an average of nearly £5m ($8.17m) more per year than last season, with the title-winner set to pocket more than £57m ($93.2m). Although the Premier League has never confirmed the overall value of the overseas TV rights sales, Press Association Sport has calculated that they have doubled from £625m ($1.02bn) during 2007-10 to around £1.2bn ($1.96bn) over the next three seasons.

That total is roughly 10 times the amount Germany’s Bundesliga receives for foreign TV rights, five times what Italy receives and three times the amount Spain’s La Liga earns.

The Premier League distributes broadcast rights income based partly on performance and the number of times a team’s matches are screened live on domestic television on top of a basic equal share. This season, each club will receive £13.8m ($22.5m) as the equal share of domestic TV rights and £17.7m ($28.95m) as the equal share of overseas TV rights revenues, while every place in the Premier League table is also worth £752,000 ($1.23m).

Football finance expert Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business at Coventry University, told the Press Association: “To have balanced competitions you have to have fair and equitable distribution of revenues. What the Premier League has done by allocating this extra £5m ($8.18m) from overseas TV is say, ‘we know we can’t increase the disparity between top and bottom’.”

Orange French multinational telecommunications corporation has obtained the mobile broadcasting rights to French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 football matches until June 2016.

Live matches will be available on mobile and tablet devices, ed while near-live content will be available on the Dailymotion website.

Orange has held the mobile rights since 2004 but this is the first time that tablets have been included in the deal.

Axpo Super League Swiss soccer club Neuchâtel Xamax are set to be purchased for an undisclosed fee by Bulat Chagaev, order one of the main financial backers of Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny.

The sale from existing president Sylvio Bernasconi is expected to be ratified during the club’s general assembly on May 12 and Chagaev stated: “I’m very happy to lead Neuchâtel onto the path of national victory. With a motivated and well-prepared team, discount we will quickly accept the most incredible challenges in Europe, starting with the Champions League.”

In December 2010, Chagaev was named vice president of Chechen Republic-based Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny, whom he played for during the 1980s. Since then, he has invested more than US$4 million into the club and helped to attract the signature of renowned Dutch manager Ruud Gullit as head coach, who personally thanked Chagaev for helping him to secure the post.

Sports.ru quotes Chagaev, when commenting on the takeover, saying: “I have decided to buy Xamax because I love football. How much did I have to pay? You’d better ask those who sold the club – I don’t remember. I just wanted to buy Xamax and I bought it.”

All 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge matches will be broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN, health FOX Soccer, buy Univision Deportes Network and Univision Radio, while TSN, Sportsnet and RDS will be the event’s broadcast partners in Canada, it was announced today by Major League Soccer (MLS) and CAA Sports.

In the U.S., ESPN networks, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3, will televise five matches. ESPN2 will kick off the Herbalife World Football Challenge broadcasts on July 18 live from Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, when three-time defending U.S. Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders FC host UEFA Champions League winner Chelsea FC.

FOX Soccer will broadcast four Herbalife World Football Challenge games, including the August 5 match in Las Vegas between Spain and Mexico’s current league champions, Real Madrid and Santos Laguna, respectively.  For the July 22 match, the FOX Soccer broadcast will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a special pre-game show. Spanish language network FOX Deportes will air three matches. See below for broadcast times.

Univision Deportes Network, a national MLS broadcast partner, will broadcast one Herbalife World Football Challenge match, the first-ever soccer match at the new Yankee Stadium on July 22 featuring Chelsea FC and France’s Paris Saint-Germain.

In Canada, TSN and RDS, as well as Sportsnet, will be the official broadcast partners of the 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge.  TSN and TSN2 will air four matches, including the ever-growing rivalry between the current MLS champion LA Galaxy and La Liga champions Real Madrid on August 2.  RDS2 will air the July 22 New York match.

Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific will air the July 21 event at Rogers Centre, when four-time defending Canadian championship winner Toronto FC hosts Liverpool FC of the English Premier League.  The complete broadcast schedule is below.

The 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge currently features 11 teams playing nine matches at eight venues across North America July 18 through August 11. The clubs currently confirmed to participate in the competition include UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea FC, La Liga champion Real Madrid, Scottish Premier League title holder Celtic FC, Mexico’s Primera Division champion Santos Laguna and European powerhouses Liverpool FC, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan, as well as Major League Soccer’s (MLS) current champion LA Galaxy, four-time MLS Cup champion D.C. United, three-time defending U.S. Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders FC, and four-time defending Canadian championship winner Toronto FC.

English nPower Championship soccer club Queen’s Park Rangers have gained promotion to the Premier League, winning the league title in the process, after it was revealed on Saturday that they would not face a points deduction this season or next after breaching transfer regulations.

The club were found guilty of two of the seven charges they faced regarding the transfer of Argentinian midfielder Alejandro Faurlin in 2009 and consequently fined £875,000 (US$1.43m).

The verdict unveiled at the weekend came just an hour before the kick-off of the final game of the season versus Leeds United, with QPR still fearing a points deduction of up to 10 points which would have seen them drop into the league play-offs, ending the possibility of Cardiff or Swansea moving into an automatic promotion place at QPR’s expense.

The decision not to dock the west Londoners points was made by an independent tribunal convened by the Football Association (FA) who imposed a fine of £800,000 ($1.31m) for a breach of FA Rule E3 – which relates to bringing the game into disrepute – and a fine of £75,000 ($122,740) for breaking Rule A1, which outlaws the use of unauthorised agents.

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Related Discussion – QPR and Alejandro Faurlin – can someone enlighten me?

 

Liverpool Football Club today announced that ESPN will televise two U.S. matches on Liverpool FC’s 2012 North America Tour presented by Standard Chartered in over 50 countries and territories in the United States, malady Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and the Pacific Rim.

“World football has experienced consistent growth in the U.S. over the last two decades and ESPN has played a critical role in that growth through its award-winning coverage and analysis, and by providing Barclays Premier League fans with live access to key matches across its network”

The live broadcasts of both the July 25 AS Roma vs. Liverpool FC match at 6:30pm ET and the July 28 Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool FC match at 1pm ET will air on ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes in the United States.

The deal was negotiated by Fenway Sports Management, the sales and marketing arm of Fenway Sports Group, parent company of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Roush Fenway Racing and New England Sports Network.

Liverpool FC Chief Commercial Officer Billy Hogan, said: “World football has experienced consistent growth in the U.S. over the last two decades and ESPN has played a critical role in that growth through its award-winning coverage and analysis, and by providing Barclays Premier League fans with live access to key matches across its network. This partnership will allow our U.S. supporters to see the club live in action this summer and presents a signature opportunity to introduce Liverpool football to new audiences across the globe.”

After completing a drawn out takeover bid for Scottish Premier League champions Rangers this weekend, new owner Craig Whyte has insisted his acquisition represents the best possible deal for the club.

David Murray’s record breaking 22-year association with the club effectively came to an end after Whyte agreed the buy-out after six months of negotiations. The Independent Board Committee (IBC) of Rangers have however, expressed concern over the deal.

The IBC stated: “The IBC and Wavetower (a company set up to complete the transaction) have differing views on the future revenue generation and cash requirements of the club and the IBC is concerned about a lack of clarity on how future cash requirements would be met, particularly any liability arising from the outstanding HMRC case.”

Whyte responded by saying: “The statement from the board is complete and utter nonsense and actually they know it is nonsense. I think maybe certain individuals have different agendas and obviously people enjoy their positions with the club and don’t necessarily like change.

“The guiding principle from the outset has been to get the right deal for Rangers. I know the time this has taken has created a lot of frustration, but it was vital we secured a deal that meant we could maximise investment in the team and that is what has been achieved.”

Murray added: “I have had the privilege of being the majority shareholder of our great football club for over 22 years. During this time, we have seen many highs and lows together, and I trust that the successes will continue for many years to come.”

Streaming media innovator Octoshape announced today that it has been chosen by Digiturk, order Turkey’s premier Satellite TV provider, generic for Internet video streaming services for the Turkish Football League and various other Digiturk online content offerings.

“We are honored to partner with Digiturk to further improve the overall content viewing experience of a brand as strong as Digiturk”

With Octoshape, troche Turkish consumers will be able to enjoy a significantly improved user experience without buffering for high quality video and advanced features like Digital Video Recording (DVR), preventing viewers from missing a moment.

Digiturk has elected to use Octoshape’s Infinite HD-M federated multicast broadband TV platform for linear over-the-top (OTT) video distribution. This technology enables the quality, scale and economics of traditional broadcast technologies over the Internet. Telco and cable operators that are part of the Infinite HD-M federated network are able to receive signals via native IP Multicast in a way that allows them to easily manage large volumes of traffic without needing to upgrade their Internet capacity.

“We tested many technologies and service offerings to find the best quality experience for our audience,” said Hatice Memiguven, Chief Officer of Technology and Operations, Digiturk. “Octoshape offered the best overall consumer viewing experience, including a pathway to enhanced functionality and the ability to scale our broadband audience in a sustainable fashion.”

“We are honored to partner with Digiturk to further improve the overall content viewing experience of a brand as strong as Digiturk,” said Michael Koehn Milland, CEO of Octoshape. “Infinite HD-M continues to underscore the benefits for large media broadcasters. Our unique combination of quality, scale and economics enables Digiturk to facilitate both the consumer experience and successful business models they require.”