The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the South African Football Association (Safa) on Tuesday signed a three-year agreement which will make the SABC the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster of the national football teams.

Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, Safa President Kirsten Nematandani said: “Today indeed is a historic day. It took us more than 12 months and finally we’ve arrived where we wanted to be. 

“The days of blackouts are over. This ground-breaking signing ceremony is the beginning [of bringing in] a new chapter in South African football. Going forward, all our games will be broadcast live; the nation will be able to watch and cheer their national teams even if they would be playing outside the country. To us this exciting news and a mission accomplished.” 

SABC Group CEO Lulama Mokhobo added: “This is a day to smile. We’ve walked a very long way with Safa to reach where we are today. 

“Our commitment towards the good game is unquestionable. We are excited about the new era we are entering with Safa. Since the ending of the last contract, we were negotiating on a match to match basis, which posed challenges in our ability to plan adequately for transmission.

“This also caused in some instances a situation where we broadcasted delayed matches.”

Mokhobo said viewers would now be able to enjoy more live matches without the worry that they will not be able to watch the national teams playing. 

She said the partnership empowered them to serve the needs of soccer loving fans, adding that there would be no more delayed matches. 

Safa CEO Robin Peterson said the total value of the deal was in the region of R215 million for a period of three years. 

“This has been a long journey which has now reached a good destination. We are delighted with the contract, which is a substantial improvement of the previous one and will go a long way to help us to fund the development and other football needs of the association,” he said. 

The terms of the agreement are that the SABC will have all the free-to-air broadcast rights of Bafana home matches and any away friendly matches. The rights will also include Banyana matches and the SABC will be obliged to broadcast four of these matches a year; the rights to broadcast all under-23 home matches and any away friendly matches. The SABC will be obliged to broadcast three of these matches a year. 

The deal also includes a new Safa magazine programme to be launched in the new soccer season as well as new initiatives in the SABC regional radio stations.

Modern Times Group (MTG), medic the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it has acquired the television broadcasting rights to England’s Barclays Premier League in Sweden and Denmark from the start of the 2013/2014 season until the end of the 2015/2016 season from the Premier League.

The rights include coverage of all 38 rounds of the Barclays Premier League, comprising matches played in close to 200 individual time slots. All of the rights are exclusive on all platforms in Sweden. The rights to approximately 280 of the matches are exclusive on all platforms in Denmark, while the rights to approximately 100 matches are non-exclusive.

MTG currently holds the exclusive broadcasting rights to the Barclays Premier League on all platforms in Sweden until the end of the 2012/2013 season, and also holds the pay-TV broadcasting rights in Denmark for the same period.

Under the terms of the new agreement, the matches will be shown in Sweden on the Viasat premium pay-TV sports channels. The channels will broadcast coverage with local commentary from all time slots from every Premier League round from August to May, as well as additional programmes featuring highlights, profiles, interviews and analysis. MTG’s Viasat sports channels are available on the Viasat satellite platform, as well as through all major third party IPTV and cable networks.

The Danish TV3 free-TV channels will broadcast coverage with local commentary from all time slots from every Premier League round from August to May, as well as additional programmes featuring highlights, profiles, interviews and analysis.

MTG currently holds the broadcasting rights to the Barclays Premier League not just in Sweden and Denmark, but also in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, said: “The Barclays Premier League is the most popular domestic club football competition in the world and has a huge fan base in Scandinavia. We are therefore delighted to have both prolonged our exclusive TV rights in Sweden and now secured an enhanced rights package in Denmark. We will continue to provide viewers with premium coverage of matches for the next three years in SD, HD and 3D, and on as many platforms and devices as possible. High quality delivery of the best entertainment content on an ‘anytime anywhere’ basis is what Viasat is all about.”

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, added: “We are extremely pleased that Modern Times Group has won the rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League in Sweden and Denmark. I am sure they will continue to deliver fantastic coverage of the League to our many fans in both countries.”

Azerbaijan public broadcaster AZTV has acquired free-to-air media rights to the Champions League for the 2012-15 campaigns.

Two live matches will be broadcast each matchnight on the channels AZTV and Idman Azerbaijan, capsule followed by a highlights programme on Idman Azerbaijan.

All rights will be exploited by the internet and on mobile.

Abu Dhabi Media have secured a deal with Sky News Arabia to broadcast the highlights of the English Premier League (EPL).

According to the deal, the Middle East’s latest 24 hour news channel will air the closing stages of this year’s top EPL and provide the highlights of next season’s two hours after each match, with pre and post-match and half time footage available in real time.

Abu Dhabi Media currently holds the EPL’s regional TV rights. Mohammed Najeeb, Head of Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya Channels, Abu Dhabi Media’s sports broadcasting department, said that the new partnership with Sky News Arabia will further extend the reach of the league to more viewers across the Middle East.

Apart from the EPL deal, Sky News Arabia will also provide an extensive coverage of this year’s  UEFA Euro football tournament to be held in Poland and Ukraine from 8 June to 1 July 2012 and the London Olympics from 27 July to 12 August.

College sports Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) has announced a new 15-year television agreement with ESPN and AB, asthma a deal narrowing the divide in television dollars between the ACC and other power conferences.

The deal is worth $3.6 billion and will keep the ACC on ESPN and ABC through the 2026-27 academic year. The ACC deal goes into effect July 1.

The new deal will pay each ACC member program $17.1 million per year on average, pharmacy an increase of $4 million per year from the $1.86 billion deal the conference signed with ESPN and ABC in 2010.

The ACC’s decision to bring Syracuse and Pittsburgh into the conference last year allowed the conference to renegotiate its television deal with ESPN and ABC. Broadcast rights keep increasing as networks are in search of events that can draw large live audiences in this age of fractured cable audiences and DVR.

“We are excited to have further enhanced our partnership with ESPN through the extension of our multimedia contract,” said ACC commissioner John Swofford in a release. “We are proud that ESPN has invested so deeply in the ACC both from a resource and exposure standpoint. As we look to the future, this relationship will be tremendous for our schools, fans, coaches and student-athletes.”

Reaching a new agreement was critical for the ACC as the conference had fallen significantly behind other power conferences in terms of TV revenue.

The Pac-12 signed a $3 billion television deal last year, while the Big 12 announced a $2.6 billion media rights deal with ESPN and FOX earlier this week. Programs in each of those conferences will earn on average $20 million per year under their new deals.

The Big Ten has its own network and deals with ABC and ESPN, netting each conference member $22 million last season.

The SEC signed landmark deals in 2008 with ESPN and CBS worth a total of $3 billion over 15 years, though that deal is also expected to be renegotiated after the SEC added Texas A&M and Missouri last year.

Television rights fees have grown exponentially since the SEC signed a six-year, $85 million deal with CBS in 1996.

The ACC will continue to have football games nationally televised on ESPN on Thursday and Saturday nights.

Under the leadership of David Bernstein, treat the Football Association (FA) has launched a new tactic in an attempt to stamp out bad behaviour from fans and players by launching its own soccer club, herbal Respect FC.

The fictional side have their own website, arthritis www.RespectFootballClub.com, where fans can unite in their respect when playing or watching the game at all levels. For every person that joins to become a member of the site, the FA have pledged to put £1 (US$1.60) back into the Respect initiative within grassroots football – up to the value of £50,000 ($80,000).

In becoming a member, fans of the Club will be able to vote online to say how this money is used at the end of the 2010 / 2011 season. 

Mark Watson, a British comedian and avid Bristol City fan, has been appointed as club chairman and the club has been founded through concern from both the top level of the game and the grassroots community around abuse towards referees and poor sideline behaviour.?

An online viral has been released to promote the initiative featuring former Liverpool captain Neil Ruddock, Portsmouth legend Steve Claridge and Sky Sports commentator Chris Kamara.

Alex Horne, FA General Secretary said of the initiative: “Football fans from all clubs and all leagues have a collective responsibility to let others know that they will not stand for this behaviour from the grassroots of the game up to the international stage. That’s why we’re asking everyone, to ask everyone, to join the club and together win the match against bad behaviour.”

Sirius, the official Internet Radio Partner of MLB.com is unveiling 30 play-by-play channels that are specifically dedicated to bringing their users the official radio broadcast of every MLB team both on their internet radio app, and online at their website.

The 30 channels, which are branded with each team’s respective logo, will, for the first time, allow Sirius subscribers the opportunity to hear both the home and visiting broadcasts for each MLB game.

The move expands on Sirius’ initial play of streaming live radio broadcasts of MLB games for Sirius XM subscribers.  That move came about after the company signed a multi-year deal with MLB’s media arm, MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advanced Media), in April.  Sirius is hoping that by providing subscribers with their home announcers, it will create a more positive fan experience.

“Baseball fans have a special connection with their team’s radio voices,” said Steve Cohen, SiriusXM’s SVP of Sports Programming. “Whether it’s Yankees vs. Red Sox, Cardinals vs. Cubs, Giants vs. Dodgers, or any other game, fans want to hear their team’s radio call when they tune in.  Our new channels on the SiriusXM App and online create an enhanced listening experience for our subscribers, giving them access to any MLB team’s radio broadcast, whether they are playing at home or on the road, on the same dedicated channel all season long.  And they get it all in digital quality audio.”

UK based talkSPORT, the world’s biggest sport radio station, has announced today plans to expand to Asia.

 

Speaking to an audience of public and commercial broadcasters from across Asia at Radio Asia 2012 in Jakarta, talkSPORT Director of Strategy Jimmy Buckland announced that the talkSPORT team aims to work collaboratively with Asia’s leading radio broadcasters to deliver the brand to sports fanatics across the continent.

The announcement follows talkSPORT’s recent agreement to become the official Global Audio Partner of the Barclays Premier League for the next four football seasons (2012/13 – 2015/16). The deal grants talkSPORT an exclusive package of audio rights outside Europe for the next four seasons, with internet users across Asia gaining access to an innovative new service fromAugust 2012, offering commentary on all 380 Barclays Premier League games in English, Spanish and Mandarin.

 

talkSPORT announced its desire to work with local partners to launch its new 24 hour sports FM radio services in key markets which include Jakarta, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand initially followed by India and the Philippines, with further services becoming available in markets in China and India. According to research, 56% of the population of Indonesia express an interest in the Barclays Premier League, with 70% expressing an interest in badminton, yet the country currently lacks a dedicated sports station.

 

A similar picture is replicated elsewhere in Asia. Launched in 2000, talkSPORT is the world’s largest dedicated sports radio station with an audience of more than 3.2 million adults in the UK and was named UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2011 Sony Radio Academy Awards. talkSPORT is part of UTV Media plc, which is one of the UK and Ireland’s leading media groups which also publishes Sport, the most widely read print and digital sports publication in the UK.

 

Jimmy Buckland, Director of Strategy, talkSPORT said: “Asia’s passion for sport and dynamic radio industry makes it the perfect market to replicate talkSPORT’s success in the UK. We are excited about the opportunity to work with partners in Indonesia and across Asia to realise this ambition and look forward to announcing our first new FM radio service showcasing the best of local and international sport.”

 

Scott Taunton, Chief Executive, talkSPORT added: “Our expansion into Asia builds on the significant progress the station has made in the UK in establishing itself as the world’s largest sports radio station. Our recent agreement with the Barclays Premier League to become its global audio partner provides the perfect platform for this next stage in our development as we seek to forge a range of exciting partnerships with some of Asia’s leading radio broadcasters.”