The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) has announced a five-year deal with the NBC Sports Group that will increase national exposure for its basketball and football programs.

“We are extremely excited about this opportunity,” CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said. “I think it’s going to give our programs much-needed recognition.”

CAA is a NCAA Division I college athletic conference whose full-time members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to Georgia.

NBC will televise nationally CAA men’s basketball and football games, and provide regional coverage of men’s and women’s basketball and football through Comcast SportsNet regional networks. The broadcaster also will cover other conference sports through NBCSports.com.

Yeager declined to reveal financial terms of the agreement, except to say that it is a “significantly enhanced position” over its present agreement with ESPN, which will expire at the end of the basketball season.

The CAA is the first college conference to enter into an agreement with the reconfigured NBC Sports Group. The group includes NBC Sports Network, a 24/7 cable channel devoted to sports programming that was formerly the Versus Network. It’s presently in 75 million homes.

Comcast is the parent company of NBC and has been broadcast partners with the CAA for nearly 30 years, dating back to its days as Home Team Sports.

Among the highlights of the deal: a minimum of 12 national telecasts of CAA men’s basketball games, including coverage of the CAA tournament semifinals and final. Currently, only the CAA men’s tournament final is broadcast nationally on ESPN.

Comcast will regionally broadcast 39 additional men’s and women’s basketball games, including the quarterfinals of the CAA men’s tournament and the semifinals and final of the women’s tournament.

NBC will televise nationally at least five CAA football games. Comcast will televise another 13 CAA regular-season football games regionally.

NBCSports.com also creates new digital media opportunities, in the area of live-streaming of games and events.

Yeager said that it’s too soon to say if the new TV deal will impact the men’s basketball tournament schedule. The event is traditionally held at the Richmond Coliseum the first weekend in March, with a Monday night championship game.

He said that conference athletic directors will begin to discuss that, along with TV executives, when everyone meets next month at the tournament.

Though the CAA’s deal with ESPN will conclude, Yeager said the network will still include conference teams in its annual BracketBusters package, as well as occasional early-season tournament appearances.

by Ismail Uddin

IMG Media, part of IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, has joined forces with electronics giant Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic), the world leader in state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment and communication (IFEC) systems, to launch the first-ever live global premium 24-hour sports channel, SPORT 24 for airline passengers from this week.

The ground-breaking service, which is available through Panasonic’s eXTV service, is being broadcast via satellite to specially-equipped Gulf Air planes and feature live coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, The Barclays Premier League, and Bundesliga, The Masters, The Open Championship and the Ryder Cup, Formula 1, Roland Garros and the Australian Open.

The channel will also be available to cruise liners from March 1 with Norwegian Cruise Liners (NCL) being the first operator to broadcast SPORT 24 on selected vessels.

There are ongoing discussions with a number of other airlines interested in taking the service and Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national airline, is initially offering Sport 24 on its ‘Sky Hub’ which is currently available on A330 aircraft that fly long-haul and on some intra-Gulf routes including its destinations to Europe, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jeddah, Manila, Lahore, Islamabad.

Panasonic’s eXTV television network uses the company’s eXConnect in-flight Ku-band communications service, including the same Ku antenna and onboard components, to deliver high-quality, television programming to passengers during their flight. It provides live, uninterrupted content to aircraft flying all over the world, even over oceans.

IMG Media, who already produce a 24-hour Premier League content service for the League’s overseas broadcasters, has acquired the rights to the various sporting events and programming and will be producing the content within its London production facility.

Richard Wise, Senior Vice President, IMG Media, said: “Sport 24 will revolutionise the way passengers watch live sports on Airlines and Cruise Ships. For the first time ever viewers will be able to enjoy the greatest sporting events live while travelling on business or holidaying abroad. Sport fans will no longer have to miss their favourite team, or event on this new dedicated sports channel.”

David Bruner, Vice President, Global Communication Services with Panasonic Avionics Corporation, commented: “The launch of the Sport 24 channel is a momentous occasion not only for Panasonic’s eXTV service but for all of the in-flight market. The Sport 24 channel represents a major advancement in the in-flight experience for passengers all over the world. We are excited to be working with IMG and to have Gulf Air as our launch customer. After all, there’s nothing quite like watching the world’s top sporting events like the Olympics, live, on an aircraft, anywhere in the world.”

Gulf Air Senior Manager of In-Flight Entertainment & Communications, Mr. Mohamad El Assaad, added: “Following the successful launch of our ‘Sky Hub’ we are now bringing our customers, more live channels and more programs; the Sport 24 channel, with an exceptional array of live action is the latest in our offerings. Now our customers onboard can watch their favorite sports stars live at 35000 feet with all exhilaration and enthusiasm.”

by Ismail Uddin

Broadcast rights for the Bangladesh Premier League twenty20 (BPL T20) cricket tournament have been awarded to the Asian sports network ESPN-Star Sports.

The deal will see all the action from the BPL T20, which is based on the popular Indian Premier League, aired across Asia by ESPN-Star Sports for three seasons beginning 2012.

The matches will be shown live on the broadcaster’s Star Cricket or Star Sports channels.

National broadcaster Channel 9 will also show the BPL tournament within Bangladesh.

BPL will see 33 matches as six teams – Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi – fight it out to be crowned champions. All the matches will be played in either Chittagong or Dhaka.

“We are delighted to support the expansion of T20 to Bangladesh by bringing this exciting new tournament to cricket fans in Asia,” said Joyee Biswas, director of programming, ESPN-Star Sports.

“As the rights holder for some of the globe’s best cricket events including ICC World T20, CL T20, India-Australia test matches, ODI tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka, and England-Australia ODIs, we are pleased to add Bangladesh Premier League to our portfolio of top cricket coverage.”

Enayetur Rahman, managing director, Channel 9, added: “As the first general entertainment channel of Bangladesh with a mix of sports and entertainment, and the producer of BPL T20, we are pleased to partner with ESPN-Star Sports to bring BPL to cricket lovers and look forward to a long term relationship.”

The opening season of the BPL will run from 9-29 February. Most days will feature either one or two matches, with the first beginning at 2pm local time and the second at 6.30 pm.

by Ismail Uddin

After a dramatic African Cup of Nations final, Eurosport has secured the rights to show the 2013 and 2015 African Cup of Nations finals on its television network throughout Europe and online.

The deal includes all the Eurosport Group’s territories except France.

Eurosport has broadcast every African Cup of Nations tournament since 1994, with the following editions – held in South Africa and Morocco respectively – to be the 11th and 12th consecutive finals screened on its channels.

All 32 matches of each tournament will be shown live on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, as well as in high definition on Eurosport HD and Eurosport 2 HD.

Fans will also be able to watch all matches live on PC and mobile using the Eurosport Player – with a complete Video on Demand service giving access to the action at any time.

The 2013 tournament will also be broadcast on Eurosport Asia-Pacific and Eurosport Asia-Pacific HD channels.

Usually held every two years, the African Cup of Nations will switch as of 2013 to being held in odd-numbered years so that it does not clash with the World Cup, European Championship and Olympic Games.

This has led to a single-year gap between the tournament won in dramatic fashion by Zambia on Sunday evening and the next edition.

by Ismail Uddin

David Pullan, the chief marketing officer of English Premier League side Manchester City, has left his role at the club after just 18 months in the role.

Pullan was appointed in March 2009 to help grow the club’s brand around the globe following the takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Manchester City denied to comment on Pullan’s departure but did confirm the club was now looking for a replacement.

Chris Kay is still at the club as head of marketing, and is the leading internal candidate to replace Pullan.

WWE have announced a television distribution deal that will bring WWE’s flagship weekly television program, sickness  WWE Raw, to Lithuania.

Under this new agreement, a one-hour international version of WWE Raw will be available immediately in one million Lithuanian households every Friday at 10:30 p.m. The WWE Raw television franchise is an exciting mix of in-ring action and compelling storylines featuring WWE Superstars like John Cena, CM Punk and The Miz that have become global icons. In the United States, WWE Raw is the longest running weekly episodic program and is consistently among the top five most-watched, regularly scheduled entertainment programs on cable television.

“We are extremely delighted to partner with WWE,” said Liutauras Elkimavicius, CEO of BTV. “Our viewers are very excited to see WWE Raw and we’re proud to say that BTV will be the channel to bring it to them.”

Senior Vice President & Managing Director of WWE International, Dominic Hayes, said: “This new agreement with BTV significantly bolsters WWE’s presence across the Baltic region. WWE Rawairing on a free-to-air network enables WWE to expand our brand and build strong business relationships throughout Lithuania.”

by Ismail Uddin

Formula 1 will return to the screens of spanish fans after a new deal was struck with Antena 3 for the rights to the 2012 and 2013 season.

Rights holder Mediapro terminated existing broadcaster La Sexta’s deal due to non-payment, arthritis it emerged late last month.

But Spanish daily newspapers report this week that Antena 3 has secured the rights for 2012 and 2013.

German pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland has agreed a deal to screen the Formula 1 for the 2012 season.

A new contract has been signed with rights agency FOWC for 2012, Sky announced in Munich. Fincancial Details were not disclosed.

“This is very good news for all Sky customers and the many motor sports fans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland,” said Carsten Schmidt, Sky’s chief officer sports, advertising sales & internet. “Only Sky customers will continue to experience the Formula 1 in genuine HD, from different camera angles and without commercial breaks.”

Sky will show all 20 races live with the Australian Grand Prix to kick off this year’s season on 18 March 2012. On free-to-air television, RTL will screen all races live.

MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies have announced a deal to have games broadcast on radio station 94-FM WIP.

They also will continue to air on the AM dial at their longtime home on WPHT-1210.

The multi-year deal includes live play-by-play coverage of Phils pre-season, regular season and post-season games.

The new agreement begins laster this month with live coverage of the team’s spring training camp from Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“1210 WPHT has a long tradition as the Phillies flagship radio station in Philadelphia. We’re proud to continue the partnership and look forward to many exciting seasons ahead,” said David Buck, Phillies senior vice president marketing and advertising sales. “We’re also thrilled to have an FM station broadcasting our games with the addition of SportsRadio 94WIP.”

The move will mean a lot of summer nights without sports talk on WIP, with the addition of Phillies games.

But WIP Senior Vice President and Market Manager Marc Rayfield sounds excited about the deal.

“It’s a very exciting time for WPHT and WIP, and this partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies only adds to the interest audiences have in these two leading radio stations,” Rayfield said. “We look forward to the future with the most thrilling team in baseball.”

Phillies announcers Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen will continue to provide commentary of the games on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT and now SportsRadio 94WIP.

Both WPHT-AM and WIP-FM/AM are owned and operated by CBS Radio.