Time Warner Cable have reached a multi-year broadcast partnership with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

Beginning with the season opener May 18, 10 Sparks games during the 2012 season will be shown on KDOC and 12 on Time Warner Cable SoCal 101, before transitioning to a minimum of 25 games per year, starting in 2013 on Time Warner Cable Sports’ new L.A.-based English and Spanish language RSNs, which will launch in fall 2012.

The company plans to seek agreements with all satellite, cable and telco distributors in the Sparks’ territory to carry the new Regional Sports Networks.

Mark Shuken, senior VP and GM for Time Warner Cable Sports Regional Networks, said: “We are excited to announce our partnership with the Los Angeles Sparks,one of the most accomplished franchises in women’s professional sports. 

“The Sparks are a great addition to our roster of marquee programming partners, and we look forward to offering their fans access to more in-depth coverage of the team they love.”

by Ismail Uddin

Sheffield Wednesday has confirmed that Milan Mandaric has completed the takeover of the club with his company UK Football Investments for £1 (US$1.55).

Mandaric has negotiated terms to wipe out the clubs debt which totals at around £30m ($46.59m). Sheffield Wednesday had owed £23m ($35.71m) to the Co-operative Bank of which the new owner has paid £7m ($10.87).

The takeover means that Mandaric, allergist 72, will now leave Leicester City after a 4-year reign as owner of the Midlands club. Sheffield Wednesday chairman, Howard Wilkinson in now keen to put all their financial woes behind them after relegation last year was followed by the club reaching the verge of administration.

Wilkinson spoke of the deal, “I believe this to be one of the most important days in the recent history of our great club,”

“Our trials and tribulations have been well documented, but I can now see a brighter future for Sheffield Wednesday.

“Our club has been on the brink of administration and if this were to happen then so many people around our club would have suffered.”

The takeover has come just in time after a winding-up hearing at the High Court on November 17 ordered payments of £1.4m ($2.17m) to be made within 28 days to avoid administration.

Even after shadow left by Rangers over the Scottish Premier League, advice they have still manageg to go about securing commercial deals with the announcement that Fox Soccer is adding the SPL to its schedule to go along with the top leagues of England, Italy and France.

Fox said Tuesday it had reached an agreement to televise the SPL on its Fox Soccer Plus (FSP) network in the U.S. and Caribbean through the 2013-14 season. Its first game will be between Rangers and Dundee United on Saturday, and it will televise its first the Old Firm derby between Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers on March 25.

Celtic leads Rangers by 25 points. Rangers, who feature Americans Carlos Bocanegra, MauriceEdu and Alejandro Bedoya, have been in financial turmoil after filing for bankruptcy last month.

FSP plans to televise up to two Scottish matches per week and a half-hour highlights show.

by Ismail Uddin

Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan is confident that there will be no repeat of the referees’ strike.

Category one officials withdrew their labour at the weekend.

And Regan told BBC Radio 5 live: “We have recognised that we do need to support referees more and we have made a certain number of offers to do that.

“If we can put those measures in place, we can satisfy the referees that we are taking their point seriously.”

On Saturday, all four Scottish Premier League matches went ahead with foreign officials in charge but 10 Scottish Football League games were called off.

“Our understanding is it’s one weekend to make a point. Hopefully they’ll be back next week,” Regan added.

Scottish referees have already made it clear that they will be working as usual next weekend.

They are unhappy that their integrity is being continually questioned and, despite assurances from the SFA that it would take a firm line with critical clubs, the officials refused to call off their strike at the weekend.

And Regan is determined to push ahead with the promises made to the disgruntled match officials.

“We will be very tough on any player who challenges or abuses referees in a way that is unacceptable,” he continued.

“There is a process in place already for dealing with anybody from any club that steps out of line. Those individuals are dealt with through the various committees that operate within the SFA and that will continue.

“But obviously we will take a much tougher stance, going forward.

“I came out last week and said that I sympathised with the position referees have found themselves in.

“Over a period of weeks they have taken an awful lot of stick in the press. Their integrity had been challenged, lots of questions had been asked about them.

“A number of them had received threats, which is really not on.

“As a governing body, we met with the referees and proposed a number of areas of improvement but, unfortunately, they wished to have a weekend of action to make a point, which I personally didn’t agree with.

“That’s why we had to go elsewhere to bring in referees.”

Referee John McKendrick told BBC Radio Scotland: “It was always our intention to take a time out, have a moment of reflection, then get back to normal next Saturday.

“We’ve had an understanding response from everybody involved in football.

“Hopefully, next weekend there will be a different atmosphere towards referees and we’ll move away from referees being the centre of attention.

“We’ve had a check on the ridiculous over-the-top criticism, which is based on nothing to do with points of play.

“Things won’t change overnight. We have to work towards a climate where we can have an open discussion with clubs and players.”

Caribbean football fans will have a chance to watch one of the world’s most important football competitions as ESPN International has secured the rights to distribute the UEFA European Football Championship for 2012 & 2016 in the region. 

The rights are part of ESPN’s broad multimedia rights agreement with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for the UEFA European Football Championships until 2017. 

The UEFA European Football Championship 2012 will air on the ESPN Caribbean and ESPN2 Caribbean networks, symptoms and on ESPNPlay, no rx the recently launched broadband player servicing the region. 

Coverage will include all 31 UEFA EURO 2012 matches from Poland and Ukraine, from Friday, June 8 to Sunday, July 1, featuring the top 16 European national teams, including England, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. 

Additional coverage will include pre-match, half-time and post-match programming, news and highlights shows on match days, unlimited re-air rights across all networks and media platforms, magazine programs, and more.  

Four years later, the field will expand to 24 teams and ESPN International will present in the Caribbean all 51 matches of the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship in from France.  

The distribution agreement extends ESPN’s relationship in the Caribbean with UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, and includes airing on cruise ships sailing in the region; ESPN announced the extension of its agreement with UEFA for rights in the United States recently.  

ESPN, the sports media company, served as the U.S. and Caribbean television and U.S. digital home of the UEFA EURO 2008 and earned much praise for its coverage. 

“The continuation of ESPN’s relationship with UEFA confirms ESPN’s place as the home of highest quality soccer programming,” said Michael Walters, vice president, international programming. 

“UEFA is part of ESPN’s line-up of premier soccer properties from around the world presented to our viewers in the Caribbean, including the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, German Bundesliga, and Brazil’s National and Paulista championships.”

by Ismail Uddin

Viasat Broadcasting has retained on to its exclusive Baltic broadcasting rights for the FIA Formula One motor racing World Championship through to the end of the 2014 season.

The rights, sale acquired from Formula One Management Limited, include broadcast coverage on free TV, pay TV, mobile devices and the Internet. Premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport Baltic will air coverage in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of every race weekend live, including the practice and qualifying sessions. Free-TV viewers in all countries will be able to see recorded coverage of the races on their local TV6 channel, following the race.

Viasat has had continuous broadcasting rights to Formula One in Estonia and Lithuania since 2002, and in Latvia since 2009. The 2012 Formula One World Championship season begins the weekend of March 16 to 18 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and ends with the Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo on the weekend of November 23 to 25.

Karolis Dapkevicius, the head of Viasat Sport Baltic, said: “The Formula One World Championship is one of the sporting world’s most attractive properties and F1 has a huge fan base worldwide. We are delighted to extend our rights for another three years and be able to continue to bring viewers extensive coverage of each race weekend.

“This adds to what is already the strongest and most varied sports broadcast coverage in the Baltics, with English Premier League and UEFA Champions League football, the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Euroleague Basketball and the FIBA Basketball World Cup already available on our channels.”

by Ismail Uddin

Epson has signed a global sponsorship agreement to become Official Office Equipment Partner to Manchester United, one of the world’s most famous soccer clubs.

The agreement, worth a reported £3 million (US $4.7m)  which starts immediately, sees Epson, one of the leading manufacturers of printers, projectors and scanners worldwide, supply Manchester United with its equipment throughout Old Trafford. The deal will see Epson align its brand with the world-class club and raise its profile in Europe and globally where the club is followed.

The partnership is launched at Old Trafford today, ahead of Saturday’s game against Blackburn Rovers, with manager Sir Alex Ferguson, chief executive David Gill and the entire first team squad in attendance.

Speaking at the launch event Epson’s Global President, Mr Minoru Usui, said: “The partnership with Manchester United aligns Epson with an exciting and globally recognised brand, bringing us closer to our customers worldwide. Leading the way through constant creativity and innovation both brands share a commitment to achieving the highest standards. Our vision to excite and inspire customers is represented by Manchester United’s success on the pitch and the unique printer and projector technologies for which Epson is renowned.”

Manchester United’s chief executive David Gill said: “We are obviously delighted to have Epson as one of our commercial partners with immediate effect and are looking forward to developing an exciting communications programme that helps us both achieve our business goals. Epson is a superb global brand, that sits perfectly alongside our existing partners.”

The agreement will be announced to fans at half time during the game against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday 27 November.

Selected territories in the Balkans have been awarded certain media rights for the 2012–15 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

Public broadcaster RTS has been awarded rights in Serbia for the best-pick UEFA Champions League match every Wednesday and the best-pick UEFA Europa League match every matchweek. RTS will broadcast both live matches as well as a highlights programme for either competition each matchweek.

Telekom Srbija has been awarded the rights for all remaining matches in both competitions. Tuesday’s best-pick UEFA Champions League game will be shown on basic tier channel Arena Sport 1, followed by a highlights programme. A comprehensive selection of matches for both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League will be screened live across the Arena Sport family of channels.

The semi-finals and the final of each competition, as well as the UEFA Super Cup, will be broadcast on a co-exclusive basis by RTS and Telekom Srbija.

In Montenegro public broadcaster RTCG has been awarded rights for the best-pick UEFA Champions League match every Wednesday and the best-pick UEFA Europa League match every matchweek in Montenegro. Both the live coverage as well as a highlights programme for either competition each matchweek will be shown on RTCG.

Telekom Srbija has been awarded the rights for all remaining matches in both competitions. The best-pick UEFA Champions League game on Tuesday will be shown on basic tier channel Arena Sport 1, followed by a highlights programme. A comprehensive selection of matches for both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League will be screened live across the Arena Sport family of channels.

The semi-finals and the final of each competition, as well as the UEFA Super Cup, will be broadcast on a co-exclusive basis by RTCG and Telekom Srbija.

Makedonski Telekom has been awarded all rights in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for the UEFA Champions League – except for the best-pick match on Wednesday – as well as all rights for the UEFA Europa League, except for the best-pick match each matchweek. As a minimum, three UEFA Champions League games and six UEFA Europa League games will be shown live each matchnight, followed by a highlights programme.

Croatia Telekom has been awarded all rights in Croatia for the UEFA Champions League, except for the best-pick match on Wednesday. As a minimum, three UEFA Champions League games will be screened live each matchnight, followed by a highlights programme.

Die Übertragungen von der Biathlon-WM in Ruhpolding haben sich im Fernsehen als großer Erfolg erwiesen: Im Durchschnitt schalteten 4, ampoule 63 Millionen Zuschauer die Live-Berichterstattung im Ersten ein, ambulance was einem Marktanteil von 31, medical 5% bei den Übertragungen von Dienstag bis Sonntag, 6. bis 11. März 2012, entspricht. Das ZDF verbuchte mit insgesamt 4,59 Millionen Zuschauern und einem Marktanteil von 31,4% ähnlich hohe Werte. Das furiose Finale mit dem letzten WM-Rennen von Deutschlands Vorzeigebiathletin Magdalena Neuner ließen sich am Sonntag, 11. März, 6,34 Millionen Zuschauer nicht entgehen, so dass mit dem Massenstartrennen der Damen ein Marktanteil von 31,6% erreicht wurde. Bereits zuvor verfolgten durchschnittlich 5,60 Millionen Fernsehzuschauer (31,9% MA) den Massenstart der Herren.

Die höchsten Einzelmarktanteile der gesamten elftägigen Berichterstattung von ARD und ZDF erzielte Das Erste mit den Übertragungen der Staffelrennen: Dabei stießen der Sieg des deutschen Damenquartetts am Samstag (33,4% MA) und der dritte Rang der DSV-Herrenstaffel (33,3% MA) am Tag darauf auf gleich großes Interesse.

„Es ist nicht selbstverständlich, dass eine sechstätige Berichterstattung jeweils von durchgehend einem Drittel des Fernsehpublikums am Bildschirm verfolgt wird”, sagt ARD-Sportkoordinator Axel Balkausky. „Das Publikum konnte die spannenden Rennen und die einmalige Stimmung bei dieser hervorragend organisierten WM dank unserer umfassenden Berichterstattung hautnah am Fernseher miterleben und hat die große Qualität der Übertragungen entsprechend honoriert.”

Auch der Zuspruch für das ARD-Onlineangebot war immens: Auf die WM-Seiten unter www.sportschau.de wurden 5,92 Millionen Zugriffe registriert. Besonders gefragt waren dabei die Livestreams der Rennen. Auch die Möglichkeit zum Chatten mit ARD-Expertin Kati Wilhelm wurde ausgiebig genutzt. 

The Super Fight League has signed a deal with Viacom 18’s channel Colors to telecast its matches. 

The Super Fight League, India’s first professionally organised Mixed Martial Arts event, kicked off on Sunday. 

“We pride ourselves on being able to break this cricket dominated market with a new form of sport and entertainment for the audiences of India. I am happy with the Colors deal. It shows they are interested in this. It is a very, very interesting deal for us. The eyeball and the reach they have make our brand a huge potential for advertisers,” Kundra said. 

“Mixed Martial Arts is currently a craze in the US on television and we are excited to partner with the Super Fight League in India,” Colors chief executive Raj Nayak said in a statement. 

The Super Fight League tournament will happen around the year in different cities, with the first in Mumbai, followed by Chandigarh (April 7) and New Delhi (May 6). 

When asked if the television ratings of SFL could drop because of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that commences on April 4, Kundra, who also owns the IPLteam Rajasthan Royals, said the telecast of the mixed martial art event will be delayed to ensure that the viewers enjoyed both. 

“We want both the tournaments to get good viewership,” he said. 

Kundra also pointed out there were no IPL matches scheduled same day at Chandigarh or New Delhi, so the ticket sales should not be affected.

by Ismail Uddin