American speciality station,Tennis Channel and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) have extended their TV rights deal though the 2016 season.

The deal,  encompasses at least a dozen Premier-level tournaments annually, as well as the WTA’s year-end championship event, which is currently taking place in Istanbul and will be served in the Turkish city in 2012 and 2013 as well.

The rights extension represents 170-to-190 live or first-run match hours per year on the network. Tennis, which has been televising WTA matches since 2004, also gains “TV Everywhere” rights under the renewal.

The dedicated racquet sport service’s deal — Tennis’ current contract with the women’s tour expires after this season — follows the agreement ESPN reached with the WTA earlier this week, largely for broadband rights for its ESPN3.com service through 2016.

In addition to the year-end championships, the WTA Premiere tournaments that are part of the agreement and slated to air on Tennis Channel in 2012: Brisbane International (Brisbane, Australia) Medibank International (Sydney), Open GDF Suez (Paris), Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), Qatar Ladies Open (Doha, Qatar), Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart, Germany), Internationali BNL d’Italia (Rome), Mutua Madrid Open (Madrid, Spain), Brussels Open (Brussels), AEGON Classic (Eastbourne, England), Toray Pan Pacific Open (Tokyo), China Open (Beijing) and Kremlin Cup (Moscow).

WTA CEO Stacey Allaster in a statement: “Tennis Channel has been a fantastic partner for the WTA. The extensive coverage and promotion that they provide for our WTA events has been a key ingredient in the growth and popularity of women’s tennis in the United States.”

Noted Tennis chairman and CEO Ken Solomon: “Women’s tennis is uniquely valuable in the world of major professional sports, with star power, sponsorships, prize money, ratings and ticket sales that are the envy of so many others. Stacey and the WTA have built the foremost brand in women’s sports today, and a critical component of our on-air schedule. Year-round women’s competition is one of the most important things that set Tennis Channel apart from any other network.”

The WTA pact follows the recent long-term agreements Tennis Channel has made to continue as the primary rights-holder of the French Open through 2022 and for its Wimbledon Prime telecasts through 2023.

The British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) have retained the rights to broadcast Tennis’s Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon, until 2017.

BBC Sport has agreed a three-year extension to its current contract as host broadcaster and UK rights holder, extending its relationship with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to 90 years.

The new deal, which reaffirms the BBC’s long term commitment to delivering the best sporting events to licence fee payers, will continue to give audiences unprecedented access to the tournament across all platforms including TV, radio, online, red button, mobile and tablet.

Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the All England Club, said: “Wimbledon fans have been enjoying the BBC’s broadcast coverage of The Championships since 1927 and we are delighted to be extending this enduring and successful partnership for a further three years.”

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, added: “The BBC’s first-ever live sport broadcast was from Wimbledon and we are proud that our new deal means the longest partnership in sports broadcasting continues.

“We know that Wimbledon fortnight has a very special place in the hearts of the UK public. We are delighted that our new agreement ensures coverage of The Championships remains free to air and available to licence fee payers.”

The has been a turbulent year for the BBC financially who had to reduce their deal over Formula One coverage.

From next year, Sky Sports will screen all practice, qualifying and grands prix live, while the BBC will now show 50 per cent of the races, with the remainder aired via a deferred highlights package.

The BBC made no secret of the fact that the deal was struck to save money on the remaining two seasons of its £40 million ($64.2m) per-year contract with Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management.

 

American-based company Gol TV have extended their deal with DFL Sports Enterprises for rights to Germany’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga, for three more seasons.

The deal gives Gol TV multimedia Bundesliga rights in the U.S. and Canada for the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.

The extension comes as the league’s current contract with the bilingual network, which presents its expansive soccer coverage in both Spanish and English, is set to expire in mid-2012, following the conclusion of the current campaign.

The agreement is for one of Gol’s four cornerstone leagues: the network also presents match and shoulder programming around Spain’s La Liga and top circuits in Brazil and Colombia.

Rodrigo Lombello, COO of Gol TV, said: “This is our third renewal with the Bundesliga. They’ve been with Gol TV almost from the beginning,.”

Lombello notes the Bundesliga’s appeal among its non-Hispanic viewers is also an important component for Gol.

“Naturally, there is some overlap. But, the Bundesliga draws mostly a different audience for us,” he said.

Under the current deal, Gol TV has been airing three matches per weekend, and sublicenses two others to ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com. Lombello. It also airs ancillary fare like Hallo Bundesliga and Goal! The Bundesliga Magazine, which are produced by DFL.

Joerg Daubitzer, managing director of DFL Sports Enterprises, said: “We selected GolTV because of its large and loyal viewership. Our partnership with GolTV ensures that Bundesliga maintains high exposure in these top markets with matches, as well as special programming such as Hallo Bundesliga and Goal! The Bundesliga Magazine.”

Lombello said the Bundesliga ratings have improved substantially this campaign, a combination of increased distribution — Gol TV now counts some 15 million Spanish- and English-language subscribers — and heightened interest in the world’s game in the U.S.

“Our Bundesliga impressions are up 85% this season and La Liga is up 60%. Yes, some of it has do with being in more homes.I think you’ll hear the same thing, though, from ESPN and Fox Soccer, soccer ratings are up,” he said.

British public service TV Network ITV is expected to renew their rights deals for live FA Cup games and home England internationals, according to the Guardian. 

The network’s current deal expires at the end of this season and they appear to be the only credible bidder for the new rights deal, which will last until 2014.

The BBC facing major cuts to its sports budget while both Channel 4 and Channel 5 are reluctant to bid, this means any deal with ITV would likely be around 20% less than the current £65 million ($104m) agreement.

ESPN’s contract will be unaffected and runs until the summer of 2014, from this point competitive England internationals will be sold centrally through UEFA.

Australian pay-television broadcaster Setanta Sports has secured the exclusive rights to the UEFA Euro 2012 for Australia.

Setanta will broadcast all 31 matches of the tournament, abortion which takes place in Poland and Ukraine in June and July next year. The channel will also show a daily highlights package and replays.

Roger Hall, sale managing director of Setanta Sports International, allergy said: “We’re delighted to be the leading broadcast partner with UEFA once again. UEFA Euro 2012 is the second biggest global sporting event of 2012 after the Olympics.”

Setanta Sports also had the rights to the Euro 2008 tournament, with public-service broadcaster SBS broadcasting live coverage of eight matches including the opening game and the final. Setanta is available on the platforms: Foxtel, Austar, Fetch TV, UBI World TV and TransACT, as well as via Setanta-I on broadband.

Setanta Sport’s will have exclusive live coverage of the crucial group stage of UEFA Euro 2012, with 16 national teams involved including current World Cup and European champions Spain, England, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece and France. On 3rd December Setanta Sports will broadcast the UEFA Euro 2012 final draw live from Kiev in the Ukraine.

ESPN Inc. has announced today that it has signed a six-year agreement with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to carry live coverage of its events across ESPN’s multiple platforms.

The deal solidifies ESPN3, ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, as the premier destination for every major global tennis event on the men’s and women’s circuit in the US.

Jason Bernstein, senior director of programming and acquisitions, ESPN, said: “This new agreement with the WTA says a lot about the power of ESPN’s multi-platform scale and its ability to serve passionate tennis fans. We have a long history with professional tennis in our 32 years, and now we are slated to carry all the top-tier tennis events from around the world across our networks.

“With simultaneous matches and global events held year round, ESPN3 is an ideal platform for tennis,” said Damon Phillips, vice president, ESPN3.  “Fans have come to know the network as a leading destination for live tennis, including outer court and exclusive coverage.  Now with the WTA through 2016, ESPN3 is the year-round destination for tennis fans in the US.”

”ESPN has long served tennis fans in the US, and we are pleased to continue to partner with them to deliver enhanced coverage of world class women’s tennis across ESPN’s multiple platforms,” said Stacey Allaster, CEO of the WTA.

The deal includes rights to season-long WTA matches as well as the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships: Championships singles final from Istanbul on ESPN2 and ESPN3, with round robin and semifinals coverage on ESPN3. It also includes WTA Premier Events: Live coverage of more than 70 matches from 11 events on ESPN3, including early round matches and select quarterfinals between January-October annually.

Coverage begins today with the TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships live from Istanbul.  ESPN3’s live coverage will feature select round robin matches, both semifinals and the final on Sunday.

The WTA is the governing body of the global circuit of women’s professional tennis events (with the exception of the Grand Slams and Fed Cup) and features the top-ranked women’s players in the world.  This year marks the 41st edition of the Championships.  The Championships consists of the top eight singles players and top four doubles teams, competing for $5 million in prize money and the year-end No. 1 rankings.

With today’s deal, ESPN3 adds 150 live hours of women’s tennis each year to its programming.  The network now carries all four Grand Slam tournaments, all ATP World Tour 500 and ATP Masters 1000 events – including Indian Wells and Miami – the WTA Premier events, and the season-ending championships of both tours – the TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships and Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.  In 2011, tennis on ESPN3 accounted for over 2,750 live hours, including more than 2,200 exclusive hours.

ESPN’s 2011 tennis schedule of more than 585 televised hours is highlighted by all four Grand Slam events, something no other U.S. network has ever done.

FIFA has signed lucrative World Cup deals worth an estimated $1.2 billion with US broadcasters FOX and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Media for broadcasting rights.

Fox won the English-language U.S. television rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, outbidding incumbent ESPN and NBC for soccer’s showpiece tournament.

Fox agreed to pay around $425 million for the two-tournament package. It also secured English-language radio rights.

Fox Sports chairman David Hill, said: “We are truly honored for FIFA to award the Fox Sports Media Group these extremely important rights. The FIFA World Cup and Women’s World Cup are two of the world’s biggest competitions. It is our privilege to be entrusted with these rights in the United States from 2015 through 2022.”

Telemundo paid around $600 million for the Spanish-language deal. Telemundo, which is owned by NBC Universal, also defeated a rights holder, Univision, which had paid $325 million for the 2010-2014 package.

Spanish-language radio rights went to Futbol de Primera Radio for more than $100 million.

Fox will own the rights to all FIFA events from 2015 to 2022, including the men’s World Cup in ’18 and ’22; the women’s World Cup in ’15 and ’19; and all Under-20 and Under-17 matches.

Fox adds soccer’s biggest event to a portfolio of rights that already includes the UEFA Champions League, the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.

The network is expected to televise the final and some top matches on its main over-the-air network and the majority on Fox Soccer and other of its cable networks, such FX and Fox Soccer Plus.

FIFA made the decisions after the networks submitted bids at its Swiss headquarters on Wednesday and Thursday.

Spanish-language radio rights went to Futbol de Primera Radio.

FIFA earns about 90 percent of its revenue from broadcasting, sponsorship and marketing deals tied to the World Cup. The world body calculates it earned $2.4 billion in broadcast sales worldwide just for the 2010 tournament.

FIFA announced in March it already sold $1.7 billion worth of 2018-2022 broadcast rights to the Middle East and parts of Asia and Latin America. The deals were 90 percent more valuable than the same regions earned for 2010-2014, FIFA said.

The National Hockey League (NHL) and Modern Times Group (MTG) have announced the signing of a multi-year deal giving the Scandinavian broadcaster the rights to telecast every NHL game live via television, mobile and broadband throughout the Nordic region, including Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.   

MTG has the rights to show live coverage of all 1,230 regular season games as well as every Stanley Cup playoff game each season on its pay-TV channels and Viaplay online multi-screen video streaming service across the Nordic region. Certain games also will be made available on MTG’s free-TV channels. 

Swedish viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on hockey pay-TV channel Viasat Hockey and premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport, with selected games also shown on free-TV channel TV10.

Norwegian viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on hockey channel Viasat Hockey and premium pay-TV channel Viasat Sport HD, with selected games also shown on free-TV channel Viasat 4.

Danish viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on premium pay-TV channel TV2 Sport, which MTG operates together with TV2 Denmark.

Finnish viewers will be able to watch live NHL games on hockey channel Viasat Hockey and the Nelonen Pro sports channel, which are owned by Sanoma Media in strategic cooperation with MTG.

All of the games will be available over the internet on the Viaplay service in each country and, when several games are being played at the same time, Viasat satellite pay-TV customers will be able to choose between coverage on the channels mentioned above and the Viasat Xtra channels. The coverage also will include for the first time a new NHL-produced daily highlights show, which will be begin airing in the coming months.

John Collins, NHL Chief Operating Officer, said: “This is a landmark agreement that will deliver every NHL game to the Nordics for the first time ever. In combination with the local-language NHL.com websites launched at the start of the season, this distribution partnership gives NHL fans in the Nordic countries unprecedented access to our games and our players. It’s a win for NHL hockey and a win for our fans.”

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “The NHL is the most-watched ice hockey league in the world and attracts large TV audiences in the Nordic region, as well as stadium audiences when the games are played here.  This reflects both the popularity of the sport and the fact that a number of Nordic ice hockey stars play in the League. This is a key sports right for us and this is the first time that we have secured the rights exclusively on a multi-platform and multi-country basis.” 

More than 25 percent of NHL players hail from outside of North America, with 10 percent originating from Sweden, Finland, Denmark or Norway alone.

American rights holder NBC Universal Media has renewed its deal with deltatre for the third consecutive Olympic Games to create the most event oriented website in the world for the London 2012 Games on NBCOlympics.com.

Gary Zenkel, viagra pharmacy NBCOlympics president, order said, medical “We are thrilled to have renewed our partnership with deltatre. They continue to be the gold standard in digital sports media platform development.”

The American viewing audience will be able to enjoy the most sophisticated web experience of the Olympic Games ever bundled with NBC’s television coverage of the event.

Deltatre chief, Ciaran Quinn, added, “We’ve had the pleasure of working with the NBC Olympics team since before the Beijing Games with the goal of giving their online viewers a terrific Olympic experience.

“Watching sports via digital devices is not about just streaming video – it’s about giving the fans a complete experience bringing together photos, articles, interactive schedules and detailed, interactive results as well as social aspects and a feeling of community. NBCOlympics.com knows what fans want and will deliver them a fantastic service for the coverage of London 2012.”

This will make NBC’s 13th Games to broadcast to America and the network holds the rights through the 2020 Olympics.

Italian based deltatre provides operational, technology and consulting services for digital media, broadcast, results, TV Graphics and sport business processes.

They have provided websites for FIFA.com, UEFA.com, NBCOlympics.com, CTVOlympics.ca, BBC.co.uk/Olympics, Rugbyworldcup.com, IRB.com, Europeantour.com and many others.

Germany will continue to showcase MotoGP coverage of the World Championship after SPORT1 and Dorna Sports S.L agreed on an extension of the broadcaster’s current package until the 2014 campaign

The deal includes exclusive broadcast rights for SPORT1 across all of its TV, sickness online and mobile platforms and, apoplectic in an exciting new development, viewers in Austria and Switzerland will also be able to benefit from coverage in the future via pay-TV channel SPORT1+.

SPORT1 will cover the practice and qualifying sessions and races from each of the three World Championship categories, building on its already extensive coverage which in 2011 offers over 180 hours of MotoGP action on free-to-air TV. All races are also available on pay-TV channel SPORT1+ and in High Definition as well through SPORT1+ HD.

The popularity of the World Championship continues to go from strength to strength in Germany as fans also enjoy watching multiple World Champion Valentino Rossi, defending title holder Jorge Lorenzo and current Championship leader Casey Stoner amongst others.

Dorna Sports S.L Media Managing Director, Manel Arroyo, said: “The continued growth in popularity of MotoGP in Germany and the success of German riders we have seen this season in the sport makes it highly important that fans in the country keep enjoying high quality coverage of the sport, and thanks to SPORT1 they will do so for the next three seasons. SPORT1 provides in-depth, top-quality coverage and analysis of MotoGP across all three categories, and it is with great pleasure that Dorna maintains a strong working relationship with the broadcaster for the foreseeable future.”

SPORT1 Managing Director, Zeljko Karajica, added: “MotoGP is the Formula 1 of motorcycling and the World Championship has gained a lot of popularity thanks to the fantastic development and success of German talents Stefan Bradl, Sandro Cortese and Jonas Folger. This has become even more noticeable in the increased scope of our broadcasts. This contract extension with Dorna Sports, for a further three years, strengthens our top-class motorsport portfolio and at the same time is a sign of confidence in our editorial competence. SPORT1 remains the number one source for all fans of motorcycling.”