The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed it will broadcast some live 3D coverage to homes across the UK as part of a 3D trial during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The trial coverage will be broadcast via the BBC’s HD Channel and will include the Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony and the Men’s 100m final.

The 3D free-to-air broadcast will be available to anyone who has access to a 3D TV set and to HD channels, regardless of which digital TV provider they use.

Kim Shillinglaw, Head of BBC 3D, said: “We have always said we believe some of 2012 should be captured in 3D, and we’re delighted to confirm our offer to audiences in the UK, providing them with a new way of getting close to some of the key moments from the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

As the UK’s host nation broadcaster for the London 2012 Olympic Games the BBC will have live sport coverage from every venue across BBC One, BBC Three, BBC Sport website, BBC Red Button, BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Mobile.

The schedule for TV and BBC Red Button has yet to be confirmed and will be released nearer to the Games.

by Ismail Uddin

Eurosport, the leading pan-European sports media group, have announced they have renewed their media rights agreement for the majority of FIS World Cup events through to 2015/16.

The five year contract, which includes the on-going 2011/12 season, covers the FIS Alpine Skiing, Ski Jumping, Cross Country, Nordic Combined, Snowboard and Freestyle World Cup races where Infront handles the media rights collectively – almost 200 events per season.

The new agreements with Eurosport include TV and digital LIVE rights covered in Europe on Eurosport and Eurosport 2 as well as in Asia and the Pacific region on Eurosport Asia-Pacific. This includes the popular Tour de Ski in Cross-Country Skiing and stages from the prestigious Vierschanzentournee in Ski Jumping. In Europe only, a total of 600 hours will be dedicated to FIS World Cup races each
season on Eurosport’s channels.

Online, the Eurosport Player, Eurosport’s dedicated web TV service, will broadcast LIVE action from all FIS World Cup events acquired from Infront on six online bonus channels, one per discipline, as well as VOD. Eurosport Player is available on PC in 52 countries across Europe. All World Cup events will also be available across 14 European countries with the Eurosport Player mobile apps for iPad and iPhone.

As the media rights partner of most National Ski Associations that host the FIS World Cup events, Infront is developing the FIS properties as a coherent, high-level television entertainment product. In cooperation with the national TV stations serving as host broadcasters, a top quality world feed is produced to FIS TV Standards – developed to suit each discipline individually. 

This is also in line with the FIS objective of raising audience interest in the races and the continuity of the competition – in particular among a younger audience. All races are offered live and/or delayed and increasingly in full HD production quality. In addition, Infront produces and distributes weekly TV magazine programmes
throughout the winter season including the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Report, the Snowboard FIS World Cup Magazine and the Freestyle FIS World Cup Magazine.

by Ismail Uddin

Ustream Inc., viagra the leader in live, interactive, streaming video, today announced a partnership with Universal Sports Network to broadcast live coverage of the 2012 Alpine Ski World Cup.

The partnership will also include additional sports including coverage of the HSBC Sevens World Series rugby matches with the next match set for March 23-25 in So Kon Po, Hong Kong. Universal Sports Network provides more than 1,200 hours of original programming each year for its world-class Olympic, endurance and adventure programming from around the world.

“Ustream brings a valuable mix of social interaction and strong viewership to the sporting events that will be available on Universal Sports’ channel,” said Bart Leivo, vice president of business development for Universal Sports. “We’re excited to be working with a leader in live, interactive video like Ustream and taking our content to the next level of social engagement.”

In addition to the Alpine Ski World Cup and Rugby Sevens events, the partnership provides Ustream viewers with access to many of Universal Sports Network’s top sporting events including the Swimming Grand Prix, CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying soccer tournament, World Figure Skating Championships, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana, and VISA National Championships (gymnastics), among many others. 

“Ustream’s partnership with Universal Sports has proven to be a successful one,” said Wayne Sieve, vice president of content partnerships for Ustream. “Given the performance of our initial collaboration around the Rugby World Cup, we were thrilled to extend the relationship in distributing their 2012 programming to our network of 51 million unique viewers.”

Ustream’s partnership with Universal Sports kicks off with the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, the premier event for the international circuit of alpine skiing competitions started in 1996. The season is currently underway and will continue throughout March. 

by Ismail Uddin

The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced the addition of two broadcast agreements that will provide live game coverage of the NHL in the Ukraine, order Slovenia, vcialis 40mg Serbia, clinic Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The recently launched Ukrainian “Hockey” TV channel has secured the rights to show up to 15 live NHL games per week in the Ukraine for the next five seasons. The addition of the 24-hour “Hockey” channel featuring live NHL contests has brought the game back to a Ukrainian TV audience for the first time in more than three years.

Arena Sports has secured the rights to show multiple live NHL games per week in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina for the next five seasons.  Through this deal, live NHL games also will be made available in Slovenia through Sport TV.  All games will be broadcast in HD and in the local language.

These additions follow a number of distribution agreements reached this season with international broadcasters throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as the landmark distribution partnership between the NHL and MTG to provide live coverage of all 1,230 regular-season games and every Stanley Cup Playoffs game throughout the Nordic region, including Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

by Ismail Uddin

Satellite broadcaster British Eurosport will continue to screen live coverage of the MotoGP World Championship after extending its rights agreement into the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Fans in the UK and Ireland can look forward to live coverage of the practice and qualifying sessions at every grand prix, with the Moto2 and Moto3 races also being shown live. 

However the main MotoGP race will continue to be shown on a delayed (same-day) basis by British Eurosport. The BBC broadcast’s live MotoGP race coverage in the UK, in a deal that lasts until the end of 2013.

Popular commentary duo Julian Ryder and Toby Moody will remain behind the microphone to give viewers their infectious take on all the action over the next two seasons following Eurosport’s renewal of the deal.

The channel has established a reputation as a massive supporter of motorcycle racing, also providing exclusive live coverage of the MCE British Superbike Championship and highlights of other major motorcycle events.

by Ismail Uddin

Broadcasters in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Asia and the UK have now signed rights deals to televise action from the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) cricket tournament, which began on Thursday (9 February).

Geo TV has become the BPL broadcast partner in Pakistan for three years; while opening season twenty20 (T20) BPL cricket will now be shown by Maharaja TV in Sri Lanka, SuperSport in South Africa, and CricOne in the Middle East and West Asia. In Britain, NTV UK will carry the Bengali feed of the tournament to serve the country’s Bangladeshi expatriate population.

ESPN Star Sports acquired the broadcast rights for the BPL in India and across Asia last week, while Channel 9 will televise all the matches within Bangladesh. In total, 80 countries are now receiving TV coverage of the BPL.

Channel 9 Bangladesh, which owns the international broadcast rights for the tournament, has appointed Delhi-based events licensing company Sporty Solutionz as its global distribution partner.

“We have a three year deal with Channel 9, which is the broadcast rights holder for this league. They have given the licensing rights to us. We have picked the overseas broadcast rights excluding Bangladesh and subsequently we are distributing the event,” said Ashish Chadha, chief executive, Sporty Solutionz.

Modelled on the Indian Premier League (IPL), the BPL comprises six teams – Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi – who will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches.

Big name international cricketers such as Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Herschelle Gibbs and Muttiah Muralitharan are all involved in the action, which takes place in Chittagong and Dhaka until 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

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