The San Diego Chargers have agreed to a new three-year deal with ClearChannel to broadcast all of the team’s preseason, cough regular-season and postseason games on radio. The new contract runs through the 2014 season.

Chargers games will continue to be simulcast on KIOZ-Rock 105.3 FM and KLSD-XTRA Sports 1360 AM.

“We are happy to continue our partnership with ClearChannel for the next three years,” said Chargers Executive Vice President-CEO A.G. Spanos. “We’ve had a very good relationship with ClearChannel and the variety of stations they own in the San Diego market allows us to reach Chargers fans through a wide range of platforms and music genres. It’s a winning combination.”

Debbie Wagner, Clear Channel San Diego President and Market Manager, added: “We’ve built a strong partnership with the San Diego Chargers over past seven years and look forward to bringing San Diegans the excitement of NFL football on KIOZ-FM and KLSD-AM for another three seasons. Whether supporting and promoting team rallies, interviewing players or covering pre-season activities, the partnership fostered between the San Diego Chargers and Clear Channel Radio San Diego extends to our entire cluster of stations, including World Class Rock 101.5 (KGB-FM), Channel 93.3 (KHTS-FM), Star 94.1 (KMYI-FM), News & Talk (95.7-FM / AM-600 KOGO).”

In addition to live play-by-play coverage of all Chargers games, both Rock 105.3 and XTRA Sports 1360 air locally produced shows prior to and following each game, while XTRA dedicates programming time year-round with the “Chargers Power Hour” airing weekdays from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

GolTV will broadcast the next ten games of the Gillette Brazil World Tour in the U.S. and Canada, herbal as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification matches involving Kentaro´s partner federations, impotent such as Germany, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Austria and Norway.

The agreement, which runs from 2012 until 2014, also includes friendly matches from Kentaro Federation partnersand games from Kentaro´s club portfolio.

“As all eyes turn to Brazil and excitement builds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, this agreement allows GolTV to showcase premier friendly and qualifier matches, connecting fans and reinforcing that GolTV is the exclusive destination for those who are just as obsessed with soccer as GolTV,“ said Constantino Voulgaris, executive vice president of programming and business development at GolTV.

“We look forward to working with GolTV to grow their business and that of the overall soccer market in North America,” said Jay Berhalter, President of Kentaro North America. “We are committed to providing outstanding content and service to our partners and fans of the sport.”

Olaf Jochmann, Managing Director of Kentaro Germany and Kentaro´s Head ofGlobal Media Sales, added: “We are thrilled to supply the ever-growing fanbase in the U.S. and Canada with a massive number of great games. This package includes some of the biggest names in international soccer.”

Japanese MMA organisation Dream has announced a promotional partnership and fighter exchange program with Stratus Media Group, allergy | Inc. owner and operator of ProElite MMA.

The alliance will foster co-promoted events, unhealthy both in the United States and in Japan with fighter exchanges featured on the cards of both fight promotions, asthma respectively.

“Our partnership with DREAM forms a promotional bond with the most prominent Japanese MMA organization,” said Billy Kelly, President of ProElite and COO of Stratus Media Group Inc. – parent company of ProElite. “DREAM has developed a stable of great fighters on their roster and a strong team behind the scenes. With this exchange, the two organizations are building a cultural and fight-event bridge that our fans are sure to welcome.

The initial fighter exchange debuts this Saturday, January 21, in Hawaii when DREAM star and Japanese fan favorite Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa takes on Kendall “Da Spyder” Grove in the ProElite main event at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

DREAM Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara, said: “I’m really honored to join the partnership with ProElite. It is important for us to exploit Asian or Pan-pacific markets by improving relationships with foreign organizations like ProElite. We would like to make this fighter exchange program a first step to generate synergistic success for both organizations.”

 

DirecTV Sports Networks will produce and televise up to 18 NCAA Big Sky Conference college football games each season under a five-year agreement announced on Tuesday. 

In addition, DirecTV Sports Networks and its Root Sports-branded regional sports networks will be the Big Sky’s official TV partner in basketball, with coverage of up to 12 regular-season conference basketball games as well as Big Sky quarterfinal- and semifinal-round conference men’s basketball tournament games. 

The three Root Sports networks reach more than 8.7 million viewers across 18 states, including Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, Utah and Colorado in the Big Sky footprint.

Big Sky Conference Commissioner, Doug Fullerton, said: “I think it’s a proposition where everybody wins. This is in my mind part of the natural evolution of the Big Sky Conference.

“We’ve long had the best distribution of football at the FCS level, and this is just another step in that process. I think it’s recognition that the Big Sky Conference is becoming a major player in the western United States.”

Patrick Crumb, president of DirecTV Sports Networks, added: “That is certainly a game of high interest for Root Sports, to be totally upfront about it. And frankly we’ll put considerable resources around it as we lead up to it.”

British free-to-air broadcaster ITV has agreed a new two-year deal with The Football Association (FA) for the broadcast rights to the pick of The FA Cup and England internationals, including home qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, from the 2012-13 to 2013-14 seasons.

As part of the new agreement with The FA, ITV1 will continue to broadcast the first pick of FA Cup games throughout the season from the First Round to The Final; as well as the third choice game pick in the Fifth and Sixth Rounds and the fourth choice pick in the Third and Fourth Rounds. ITV1 will also have first choice of replays from the Third to Sixth Rounds. In total, ITV will broadcast up to 16 live games across each season in addition to comprehensive highlights from every round.

ITV will also continue to be the free-to-air home of England internationals including all home qualifying games for the FIFA 2014 World Cup and all home and away friendlies during the two year period. Away qualifiers are sold by opposition associations and therefore do not fall under this FA agreement.

The football season’s traditional curtain raiser, The FA Community Shield, will also return to free-to-air television in 2012 and 2013 under the new deal. ITV will also extend its commitment with The FA across the two seasons to encompass live coverage of six games from The FA Youth Cup on ITV4, including the Semi-Finals and Final of the competition.

ITV Director of Television, Peter Fincham said: “The FA Cup and England internationals are events with huge resonance and appeal for our viewers. I’m delighted that we are extending our partnership with The FA and that ITV1 will continue to be the home of live football on free-to-air television.”

Stuart Turner, FA Group Commercial Director added: “We enjoy a great relationship with ITV and this extension to our agreement underlines that. Having The FA Cup and England alongside other ITV content such as the UEFA Champions League and World Cups shows that our football content holds its own in exalted company. It further confirms ITV’s position as the home of free-to-air live football.”

In this season’s Third Round, fans came out in force to demonstrate their love for The Cup. The 32 ties attracted a total attendance of 581,949, giving an average per match of 18,185, which is the highest since the 1980-81 season.

Virgin Media has signed a deal with with Sky to offer the forthcoming Sky Sports Formula One channel to its cable TV subscribers in March.

Sky Sports F1, the satellite broadcaster’s first TV channel dedicated to just one sport, will offer live coverage of all the Grand Prix race events from 2012 to 2018 under Sky’s controversial new joint F1 rights deal with the BBC.

Alongside launching on Sky in March, the new channel will also be offered on Virgin Media’s cable TV platform in the Sky Sports package, alongside Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 4. 

Virgin Media’s subscribers to this package will have the channel added automatically at launch. However, Virgin will not be able to offer the high definition version of Sky Sports F1, as that will stay exclusive to Sky.

Sky Sports F1 will be solely dedicated to covering the world’s premium motorsport, including live coverage of all 20 Grand Prix, practice and qualifying sessions.

The channel will have a new presentation team made up mostly of ex-BBC talent, including Martin Brundle, David Croft, Ted Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham, backed up by the likes of Georgie Thompson, Simon Lazenby and Steve Rider.

Alongside the race coverage, Sky Sports F1 will also offer a range of programme devoted to the history, glamour and technical innovation of Formula One. 

Virgin Media executive director of digital entertainment Cindy Rose said: “We’re delighted to be able to offer this new channel right from the off as it’s certain to be an exciting Formula 1 season with a record number of races and six former or current world champions racing for the title.”

Sky’s director of the commercial group Rob Webster added: “As the new home of the world’s most exciting motorsport series, Formula 1 is going to get the full Sky Sports treatment.

“Extending the distribution of our dedicated channel is great news for all Sky Sports subscribers, enabling millions of pay TV homes to enjoy the benefits of our innovative coverage and investment in must-see content.”

The decision for the BBC to share the Formula One broadcasting rights with Sky from 2012 to 2018 has been criticised by some viewers, as it will result in half of the live races only being available on pay-TV.

The Football Association (FA) has awarded its European broadcast rights for the 2012-18 period to sports marketing agency Pitch International.

The deal grants Pitch the exclusive right to distribute matches from FA Competitions and home England internationals from the beginning of the 2012-13 season throughout Europe. 

The agreement does not include England home qualification matches that take place between 2014-2018, nurse as these will be centrally marketed by UEFA.

The deal sees The Football Association extend its long-running relationship with Pitch International, store The FA’s current partner in selected countries in Europe and Australasia alongside brokering The FA’s relationship with Middle Eastern broadcaster, Al-Jazeera. In addition, Pitch manages The FA’s footage archive and the technical and satellite requirements of The FA’s international broadcast partners.

Stuart Turner, Commercial Director at The FA, said: “The Football Association is delighted to extend its successful partnership with Pitch International. Their expertise in the sports rights market and enthusiasm for our competitions impressed throughout a highly competitive tender process.”

Jon Owen, of Pitch International, added: “England and FA Cup matches remain hugely attractive to sports broadcasters worldwide. This new, long-term contract is a great accolade for Pitch in recognition of its past work with The FA and we very much look forward to helping The FA further enhance its strong position in the overseas market in the years to come.”

Public service broadcaster Rozhlas a Televízia Slovenska (RTVS) have secured Slovakian rights to all 31 matches of Euro 2012, cough UEFA have announced.

RTVS will ensure extensive live free-to-air coverage of 27 matches and delayed transmission of the four overlapping matches from the group stage on its main channels Jednotka and Dvojka for the tournament taking place in Poland and Ukraine.

RTVS has also acquired the rights to show UEFA EURO 2012 dedicated magazine and daily highlights programmes. In addition, RTVS will deliver comprehensive coverage of the championship via its radio channels, Slovensky Rozhlas, and its internet and mobile platforms.

University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s (UMass) athletic department has selected ZiXi’s cloud-based Video Transport Platform, thumb award-winning provider of solutions and services to televise its sporting events for the 2011-2012 season.

UMass is scheduled to produce and air more than 50 Division 1 games on two New England stations, price buy WBIN-TV and WSHM-TV.

UMass-Amherst has a renowned Division I athletics program, ambulance which includes basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, softball, swimming, tennis, and track and field. In order to better serve its thousands of loyal fans across New England, the athletic department wanted to both improve the image quality of its broadcasts and broaden its athletic team coverage. UMass had begun airing games on television using a homegrown solution during the 2010-11 season. Wanting to upgrade the on-air quality of these broadcasts, UMass originally considered buying satellite time or using fiber transmission, but those options proved to be far too expensive for a University budget. When UMass learned of ZiXi’s groundbreaking video transmission solution that uses the Internet instead of satellite or fiber, they were intrigued.

“As a Division I athletic department, UMass wants its fans to be able to follow their favorite teams even if they can’t make all of the games. So, what they see on TV has to be high quality,” said Josh Maurer, assistant athletic director for Broadcasting at UMass. “ZiXi enabled us to give our fans exactly what they want, more real-time, broadcast-quality programming, all within a University budget.”

Israel Drori, ZiXi’s CEO and founder, added: “New Englanders are huge sports fans, so we are thrilled to help UMass broaden its televised coverage and improve the image quality of its Division 1 games. ZiXi turns the Internet into a better, smarter more affordable way to transport video while maintaining the highest video quality. So, even when televising athletic events, which presents unique challenges due to the amount of movement involved, ZiXi delivers the game in real-time. And, UMass can use ZiXi to extend its viewership to mobile devices and tablets, allowing fans the freedom to watch games anywhere, anytime, and on any device.”

ZiXi’s Video Transport solutions deliver live and video on demand distribution from the field over the Internet at a fraction of the cost of expensive fiber and satellite video distribution solutions. The patented ZiXi Video Transport Platform eliminates the common problems associated with video distribution, including packet loss, jitter and latency. For mobile and Over-the-top providers, ZiXi ensures optimum video quality and scalability for a wide range of devices and screen sizes, delivering an unparalleled viewing experience in vibrant and reliable HD to a large subscriber base.

NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network have partnered with DTS, Inc, a leader in high-definition audio, and Cumulus Media to broadcast all of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs home and away games with DTS Neural Surround technology.

As a result of this partnership, fans will enjoy a fully-immersive and engaging listening experience—marking football’s first surround sound broadcast delivery across radio. This announcement builds upon an existing collaboration between DTS and Cumulus Media, which enabled the integration of DTS technology to deliver surround sound broadcasts of the Atlanta Braves games.

“At Cumulus, we set the standard for the next-generation radio broadcasting enterprise and we are very proud to deliver what we consider the best sounding football broadcast in America,” said Gary Kline, senior vice president of engineering and IT, Cumulus Media. “Working with DTS technology raises our listeners’ experiences by enveloping them with the sounds of the action and stadium, giving them the best seats in the house.”

The DTS Neural Surround gear is built by DTS licensee DaySequerra and integrated both on-site at Arrowhead Stadium and with the Chiefs Radio Network mobile package. The DTS-based set-up allows the audio team to broadcast immersive 5.1 surround sound over a stereo transmission path. Using the stereo format at the highest resolution possible, DTS Neural Surround enables the Chiefs’ broadcast production team to preserve the integrity of the surround mix for a realistic, multi-dimensional audio experience. For football enthusiasts, every play will feature crisp, clear frequencies that transport listeners to the 50-yard line.

“Football is a visceral sport where audio plays an important role in defining the fan experience, especially for remote audiences,” added Jon Kirchner, CEO of DTS, Inc. “The sounds of the game—helmets colliding, quarterback audibles, referee calls, the cheers and chants of the crowd—are what sports fans are hungry for, whether they experience the action in person, on TV or on the radio.”

Joe D’Angelo, senior vice president of broadcast programs and advanced services at iBiquity Digital, stated, “We are very pleased that Cumulus and DTS have expanded their surround sound from the Major League Baseball to the NFL. The combination of the DTS system and HD Radio technology provides the listener with crystal clear digital audio with the enhancement of a surround sound experience.”

The Chiefs Radio Network comprises more than 50 stations and joins DTS’ content partner roster alongside American Public Media, JazzSet and others. More than 1,000 radio stations in the U.S. are now broadcasting in DTS Neural Surround to elevate the audio quality and enhance the entertainment experience for listeners.