The New Orleans Hornets and FOX Sports have announced that they have reached a long-term television rights agreement that establishes “FOX Sports New Orleans” as the new local television home of the Hornets.

Under the new agreement, FOX Sports New Orleans will televise approximately 75 regular-season Hornets games per season, including any games not selected for exclusive distribution by the NBA’s national TV partners. 

FOX also announced that its regional sports network currently serving the New Orleans market (FOX Sports Southwest) will be re-launched as “FOX Sports New Orleans” in October to coincide with the start of the Hornets’ 2012-13 season.  

“This is great news for our market, for our fans and for our region. This will be tremendous for the New Orleans Hornets and our continued growth.  It’s important that we continue to brand our great city and we see no better way than our partnership with FOX Sports and the creation of FOX Sports New Orleans,” said Tom Benson, Chairman of the New Orleans Hornets. “We will be able to further integrate our assets including with our local affiliate WVUE-TV Fox 8. There are many positive moves happening with the Hornets such as the improvements to the Arena and of course our upcoming selection of the number one overall pick in the NBA Draft and this announcement is just the beginning.”

“We are pleased to welcome the Hornets to the FOX Sports family,” said Jeff Krolik, Executive Vice President of FOX Sports Networks. “This is an exciting time for the Hornets and their fans. The team has generated tremendous buzz with the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. We are delighted to be partners with them and look forward to a long and successful relationship.”

“We’re excited to be the new home for Hornets basketball,” said FOX Sports Southwest Senior Vice President/General Manager Jon Heidtke. “We look forward to showcasing their games in New Orleans and helping the team grow its fan base throughout Louisiana and their television footprint. We’re committed to making FOX Sports New Orleans the premier destination for local sports programming.”

Hornets’ coverage on FOX Sports New Orleans will include HORNETS LIVE pregame and postgame shows and other team shoulder programming.   

FOX Sports New Orleans will become the 21st regional sports network in the FOX Sports Networks family. The network will offer a robust lineup of local sports programming, including SEC football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, Olympic sports and coaches’ shows. Other regional programming on FOX Sports New Orleans will feature Big 12 and Conference USA collegiate events, Texas Rangers baseball, and Dallas Stars hockey. FOX Sports New Orleans will be available to over 1.6 million cable and satellite TV homes throughout the Hornets territory.    

FOX Sports is the nation’s leader in offering hometown NBA coverage through FSN, the largest owned-and-operated regional sports network group in the country.  FSN serves as the local television home to more than half of all NBA teams, producing more than 1,000 live NBA telecasts per season.

Read New Orleans President Hugh Weber’s exclusive iSportconnect interview here>>

Martin Kallen, dosage ed UEFA Euro 2012 director, sick  is confident, online despite admitting that a number of projects for the tournament may not be completed on time, that the tournament will go ahead in Poland and Ukraine as planned.

Speaking to an audience at the Soccerex European Forum in Manchester yesterday, March 30, both Kallen and Poland 2012 president Marcin Herra were upbeat, despite preparations for Euro 2012 having been turbulent from the outset, particularly in Ukraine.

Kallen stated: “Some of the huge numbers of projects may not ultimately be completed but these will not be directly related to football assets. They will be projects which will not directly affect the running of the competition.”

Herra acknowledged Poland’s evident hooliganism problem but said that there were already signs of a change and that the ‘party atmosphere’ and family friendly nature of Euro 2012 would help ensure the potential problem was contained.

He added: “The tournament will have a strong football legacy as well as a legacy for tourism and the infrastructure of our country. For example sky boxes at the stadiums are being bought by corporations. That would not happen if the experience was likely to be ruined by hooliganism.”

Herra told the audience that the soccer legacy would “extend beyond the stadia built for the tournament to the grass roots”.

Ooyala, generic the fastest growing online video technology company, anabolics today announced it is working with The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and The Championships at Wimbledon to broaden distribution of Wimbledon video content.

On each day of The Championships 2012 Ooyala will deliver video-on-demand featuring highlights from each day’s matches, order interviews and special features. Tennis fans around the world will be able to keep up with one of the world’s most popular contests on the official Wimbledon website via their PC, iOS and Android devices.

Wimbledon is leveraging Ooyala’s advanced video monetization tools to promote premiere tournament sponsors, including Rolex and Evian, within the video player. The AELTC is working with Ooyala in part due to the Mountain View company’s market-leading position in delivering analytics, including the ability to track and measure viewer engagement across all devices. Ooyala’s Big Data architecture and video analytics deliver key insights on audience behavior that inform critical decisions for premium video broadcasters.

Caitlin Spaan, vice president of marketing for Ooyala, said: “The lines between broadcast and broadband are blurring as TV evolves into a mobile, multiscreen experience. Ooyala is proud to be part of this historic event, delivering some of the most exciting sports video of the year to a global audience. We’re committed to delivering the most powerful, personalized viewing experience possible, no matter what screen people use to keep up with The Championship.”

The work with Wimbledon and The AELTC builds on Ooyala’s strong momentum as a leading digital video solutions provider for premium video content. In recent months, Ooyala’s robust behavioral analytics and monetization tools have won the company partnerships with some of the world’s most innovative brands and media companies, such as Pac-12 Enterprises and Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company. Ooyala also powers online video for Tennis Australia and served live video around the world for the Australian Open earlier this year.

In his first television interview since his promotion to CEO, Ian Ayre has revealed that English Premier League soccer club Liverpool are actively seeking a naming partner for a new stadium, were they to relocate from Anfield.

The new owners the Fenway Sports Group, previously known as New England Sports Ventures, have stated a desire to increase capacity at home games and Ayre confirmed: “”We are actively seeking a naming partner if we move to a new stadium.” However he did add that the club were “definitely not consider renaming Anfield.”

In other news, the new CEO of Liverpool, has warned that UEFA’s financial fair play rules will be stifled if they are not applied “hard and fast”.

Ayre, formally the club’s commercial director, was speaking on the first day of the Soccerex European Forum in Manchester, and said that the new regulations, which should preclude a club from spending significantly more than it earned, have to be applied equally across the board.

Fears that a rich benefactor could simply write a cheque to cover the difference between income and expenditure, disguising it in the accounts, were allayed by UEFA’s head of club licensing Andrea Traverso, who claimed that a rigorous system of checks would be applied to prevent a rich benefactor inventing a ‘ghost’ sponsorship deal as a way of pouring money into a club.

Traverso stated: “We will refer any deal with related third parties which appear to be above the market rate to a commission.”

However, Ayre remained sceptical about the ability of outsiders to decide what is market value or not, adding: “This is a concern for us. Who can say what the market price is? After all, we renewed our sponsorship deal for a 200% increase. Would that have been acceptable?”

The Buffalo Bills and Galaxy Communications have announced that WTKW 99.5/WTKV 105.5 will now carry Buffalo Bills radio broadcasts throughout the Syracuse Market. 

The new deal includes a wide array of Buffalo Bills programming including pre and post-game shows, order as well as player and front office programming.

“This is a great opportunity for both the Buffalo Bills Organization and our fans, case ” said Syracuse native and Bills Chief Executive Officer, Russ Brandon. “TK99 is the station fans turn to for local Syracuse sports, adding the Buffalo Bills to their line-up enhances both of our brands.”

“We are proud to be the new home of the Buffalo Bills,” said Ed Levine, Galaxy Communications President and Chief Executive Officer. “We take a lot of pride in bringing our listeners the best live, local and regional programming. The Buffalo Bills radio broadcasts will certainly add another great option for our listeners.” 

Galaxy Communications is locally owned and operated in Syracuse. Galaxy owns 14 radio stations that fill the airwaves in the Syracuse and Utica/Rome markets with formats that include classic rock, new rock, classic hits and sports.  WTKW is also the flagship station for Syracuse Athletics.

Figures have shown that English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United sank £17.1m (US$27.5m) into the red as a result of relegation from the top flight in 2009 for the end of the 08-09 season, compared with a £15.2m ($24.4m) deficit in the season before that.

According to accounts filed with Companies House, turnover reduced 39 per cent to £52.4m ($84.2m), with owner Mike Ashley putting a further £42m ($67.5m) into the club despite an increase in gate receipts.

The latest figures do not reflect Newcastle’s return to the Premier League, with promotion worth anything up to £60m ($96.4m) to successful clubs, nor do the accounts include Andy Carroll’s £35m ($56.2m) sale to Liverpool in January.

Newcastle managing director Derek Llambias said: “Our overriding aim in 2009-10 was to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Relegation presented a considerable challenge for us financially.

“With such a marked reduction in turnover, largely due to reduced TV and media revenue, we needed to cut our operating costs accordingly without jeopardising our ability to return to top flight football straight away.

“It has been a significant achievement to keep our overall loss at a level similar to the year before despite the impact of relegation, and our ability to do this has been helped immeasurably by the continued financial support of Mike Ashley, who injected a further £42m ($67.5m) into the club last year interest-free.”

Revenue from television and other media fell 57 per cent to £16m ($25.7m), although new sponsorship deals were struck with Puma and Northern Rock.

Despite a 33 per cent drop, Newcastle’s determination to retain the services of enough Premier League-class players to launch a credible bid for promotion meant the wage bill still amounted £47.5m ($76.3m).

The Helsinki 2012 European Athletics Championships is to be streamed live with English-language commentary, prostate  European Athletics announced today.

Athletics fans around the world will be able to click through to the live stream link from the European Athletics website homepage and watch the championships live in their entirety.

Fans will be able to instantly rewind the action and watch video on demand of an event just a few minutes after it has finished.

English commentary will add colour to the live action throughout the 27 June to 1 July event.

The live stream page is scheduled to be opened on 20 June.

After it was announced that English Premier League soccer leaders Manchester United would play the Major League Soccer (MLS) All-Star team again this year, the club have confirmed the four remaining friendlies on their US tour, including a mouth-watering clash with FC Barcelona of Spain’s La Liga.

Additionally in the five-match tour in July, United will face MLS sides of New England Revolution on July 13, Seattle Sounders on July 20 and Chicago Fire on July 23.

The All-Star match-up will take place on July 27 before the tour ends with the exciting prospect of friendly against fellow UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists FC Barcelona on July 30 at the FedEx Field, Maryland, home of the National Football League’s (NFL) Washington Redskins.

NBC Sports Network will expand its coverage of this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 with more than six hours of coverage of the June 23 IZOD IndyCar Series event.

Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. (ET) with the latest episode of the all-access series INDYCAR 36.

The NBC Sports Network original series is produced by IMS Productions and gives viewers an all-access pass into the life of an IZOD IndyCar Series driver in the middle of race season. The cameras will follow a driver for 36 hours during a race weekend providing a behind-the-scenes look at the on- and off-track activities of the stars of the IZOD IndyCar Series. This week the spotlight shines on Charlie Kimball, who races for Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing.

Following INDYCAR 36, the network will televise the three heat races that will determine the starting lineup for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 followed by live flag-to-flag coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series race at 9 p.m. (ET).

NBC Sports Network’s coverage of the Firestone Indy Lights Sukup 100 will immediately follow the Iowa Corn Indy 250 as the network centers its coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series’ official developmental series closer to IZOD IndyCar Series events.

An announcement was made yesterday, March 28, by Major League Soccer (MLS) confirming that English Premier League leaders Manchester United will be the opponent in the AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 27 at Red Bull Arena.

Manchester United was the opponent for last year’s game, which they won 5-2, and this year’s game will be televised live on ESPN2, Galavision and TSN.

The match is part of United’s 2011 North American tour, details of which will be formally announced today, March 29, at a media event at Red Bull Arena.