US television Network, viagra Bounce TV has been launched this week to show live college sport specifically targeting the African American audience.

Bounce TV will show regular live sport through multi-year rights agreement with the Urban Sports Entertainment Group, generic which manages the country’s largest African American athletic conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The CIAA basketball tournament is the third largest college basketball tournament in the US.

The network, the first in the US to that preys on the African American audience, will broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will also show films, documentaries and religious programmes.

Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Junior, and Andrew Young, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, are part of Bounce TV’s founding group and board of directors.

“September 26 will be an important milestone as we launch the first-ever independently owned and operated broadcast television network featuring African Americans,” King said.

Young added: “Beginning September 26, our network will deliver free programming for our vastly under-served community and be accessible free, to all homes. We look forward to Bounce TV entertaining African American viewers, and frankly all Americans, for many years to come.”

Takedown Entertainment Inc. an authority specialising in mixed martial arts (MMA), announced it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire worldwide distribution rights to past and future MMA fights with Sport Fight X, plus certain brand and sponsorship rights.

Since its inception in 2009 and its acquisition by Adam Gibbs and Michael Edwards a year later, Sport Fight X has established itself as a true force in mixed martial arts (MMA) in the Southern United States.

Utilizing Gibbs’ history and experience as an announcer for Strikeforce, Sport Fight X has an edge over its competitors. They’ve featured Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) and Bellator Fighting Championships contenders like Douglas Lima and Scott Barrett and even VH1 reality star and WWE Tough Enough alumnus Jeremiah Riggs, solidifying themselves as a springboard for MMA fight careers.

Headquartered in London, UK with offices in Beverly Hills, California, Takedown Entertainment Inc. is a sports entertainment company with subsidiaries in the acquisition, production, distribution and marketing of mixed martial arts (MMA) programming, content and products for North American and International markets.

Adam Gibbs, Sport Fight X owner, said: “We make our shows about the fighters. Other guys just advertise the show and then put it on. We start about 45 days out and do press conferences and do everything like the big guys. I’ve been there and seen it done and that’s how we do it. It’s about the fighters and putting them on the map. This is why Takedown is so vital to us; the way we market our fighters is how Takedown’s strategy and business model will market us and make Sport Fight X a household name.”

Nordic media group Bonnier have sublicensed from arch-rival Modern Times Group (MTG) the rights for two live matches per week from the Danish Superliga, purchase the country’s top-tier football league.

Terms of the deal Bonnier will show at least 50 matches per season on basic-tier channel Canal 9 in the 2012-13 to 2014-15 seasons. The deal is a coup for Bonnier, apoplectic as local industry observers had said that Canal 9 would struggle after it failed to win any rights for the Superliga in the initial auction concluded two weeks ago.

Canal 9 has the rights for two matches per week in the current cycle, 2009-10 to 2011-12, and they are cornerstone programming for the channel, which focuses on male audiences. Bonnier will show the remaining matches – its rights cover 66 per season – on its Canal Plus pay-television channels.

Pay-television channel TV2 Sport – which is 49-per-cent owned by MTG, and 51-per-cent owned by commercial broadcaster TV2 – has also sublicensed one match per week from MTG. TV2 Sport had already acquired the rights for two matches per week in the initial auction.

Earlier this month, MTG acquired the rights to four live matches per week. After its sublicensing deals with Bonnier and TV2 Sport, it retains the exclusive rights for only one, which it will show on basic-tier channel TV3+.

The Asian Amateur Championship confirmed today that more than 150 countries will receive television coverage of the third edition of the region’s leading amateur tournament organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) and supported by the Masters Tournament and The R&A.

From 29 September to 2 October, a 120-player field comprised of players from 35 APGC-affiliated countries and territories will compete in the 72-hole stroke play event on the New Course at The Singapore Island Country Club.

An invitation to play in the 2012 Masters Tournament awaits the winner, along with a spot for both the winner and the runner(s)-up in next year’s International Final Qualifying for The Open Championship.

Coverage of the first and second rounds will include 30-minute highlight programmes each day. The third and fourth rounds will be aired live by most of the event’s broadcasters from 3 – 5 p.m. local time in Singapore (UTC/GMT +8 hours) on Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2, respectively. In addition, a 30-minute highlight show of the entire championship will be telecast following the completion of the final round.

Kwangsoo Hur, President of the APGC, the event’s governing body, said: “Showcasing the championship on a global scale is vital in our continued success. The exposure provided by our broadcasters increase the visibility of the event, its mission and, most importantly, displays the incredible talent and potential that exists in this region of the world.”

Asian Tour Media will produce the world feed that will be distributed in high-definition to ESPN-Star (Asia), ONE HD (Australia), Tokyo Broadcasting System (Japan), ESPN2 (United States), TSN (Canada), ESPN Latin America, Fox Sports (Middle East), Sky Sports (New Zealand), SuperSport (Africa), Sky Sports (UK) and CNBC Europe, with broadcast schedules varying by market.  Bill Macatee, who is part of the Masters Tournament commentator team, and ESPN-Star’s Dom Boulet will act as the on-site, English-speaking announcers, along with Darren Carroll, who will be the on-course commentator during the live telecast.

Uniquely, all live video coverage will also be streamed on the championship Web site, www.AACgolf.com.

Each member of the APGC can field a maximum of six players. The championship will have a maximum field of 120 players.

The Championship, organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) and supported by the Masters Tournament and The R&A, will determine the region’s top golfer of 2011.

The winners get an invitation to play in the 2012 Masters Tournament. The winner and the the runner(s)-up will also get a berth in next year’s International Final Qualifying for The Open Championship.

Present at the event will be Sir Nick Faldo, a three-time winner at the Masters and the Open, who will speak at a private dinner for players and officials.

The Championship will be held from September 29 to October 2.

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones has begun a partnership with UberMedia, makers of UberSocial, the world’s most popular full-featured Twitter app.

Jones will be featured in a custom MMA-focused theme called UberWarrior, available for UberSocial on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Currently, Jones has over 140,000 Twitter followers and is one of the most interactive professional athletes in the world.

The new Twitter App theme became available on Saturday when Jones defended his title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

UberSocial users will be able to download it and see tweets from all their favorite fighters, enjoy MMA-themed sound effects as they’re composing and sending tweets, enjoy the UberWarrior channel with custom-curated content, and interact with both fighters and fans.

“I am excited for the release of UberWarrior this weekend,” Jones said. “I love to interact with my fans and MMA fans, and UberWarrior will make that interaction with them much easier and more fun.”

Jones’ UberWarrior theme is following successful themes UberMedia has launched with 50 Cent (Uber50), Ashton Kutcher (A.plus) and Russell Simmons (UncleUber), all of whom have the some of the strongest Twitter followings in the world.

Jon Kraft, UberMedia COO, added: “We’re delighted to announce this new partnership with Jon “Bones” Jones, and are looking forward to welcoming MMA fans everywhere to the custom UberWarrior theme for UberSocial. Jon has an engaged and loyal audience that is sure to make UberWarrior a lively forum for the MMA experience.”

WWE and SIC Radical announced a new broadcast agreement that brings WWE SmackDown to two million homes in Portugal. WWE SmackDown can now be seen on Sunday nights at 7:45pm.

WWE SmackDown is one of the biggest sports entertainment programs viewed across the globe with some of WWE’s hottest Superstars and Divas including Randy Orton, pills Christian, online Big Show, Mark Henry, Sheamus, Alicia Fox and many more. Every Sunday night on SIC Radical, the Superstars and Divas of WWE SmackDown will entertain audiences with dramatic storylines and thrilling in-ring action.

Pedro Boucherie Mendes, SIC Radical Channel Director, said: “We are delighted to maintain this long term relationship with the WWE brand and are especially happy to have WWE SmackDown on our channel.”

Dominic Hayes, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, WWE International added, “It is testament to the success of our long term partnership with SIC Radical that we are bringing one of our flagship shows to the channel. WWE will now provide viewers in Portugal with two hours of exciting WWE action on Sunday nights with WWE SmackDown followed by WWE Experience.”

WWE Experience airs Sundays at 8:45pm on SIC Radical and combines highlights from WWE Rawand WWE SmackDown with exclusive features on WWE Superstars outside the ring.

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has been revealed to be in the advanced stages of negotiations for the rights to tennis’s French Open with the MP & Silva agency, patient which is selling the pan-European media rights for the tournament.

Neither the broadcaster nor the agency would comment on the talks but some UK media sources say that a deal could be signed this week or next week.

A move by ITV into tennis would be something of a surprise. In recent years the broadcaster has targeted its resources at guaranteed ratings drivers such as top football and Formula One motor racing. However, tennis draws in an attractive demographic for advertisers and with Scottish player Andy Murray ranked number four in the world, the broadcaster can expect decent audiences.

European Broadcasting Union previously held the European rights to the Grand Slam event, but in June MP & Silva outbid the consortium of European free-to-air broadcasters and other agencies to acquire the rights for five years, 2012 to 2016.

The agency’s strong commitment to free-to-air coverage was crucial in winning over a rights-holder, the Fédération Française de Tennis, that traditionally placed great importance on exposure for the event and its sponsors in Europe.

Michel Grach, director of media and sponsorship at the federation, told TV Sports Markets at the time, said: “MP & Silva’s offer was the best both financially and in terms of the guarantees of free-to-air coverage,” “But this deal also enables us to open up our product to the entire European market. This includes both free-to-air and pay-television broadcasters and broadcasters both inside and outside the European Broadcasting Union.”

ITV is a member of the EBU.

Serie A, Italy’s Premier Soccer league, accepted bids for its live rights for the next three seasons worth €829 million ($1.136 billion) per season.

Rupert Murdoch’s satellite pay-television platform Sky Italia will pay an average of €561 million ($766.6mn) per season while Silvio Berlusconi’s digital-terrestrial pay-television service Mediaset Premium will pay an average of €268 million ($366.3mn) per season.

The fees represent an increase of around five per cent on the value of the same packages in the current deals.

The rights-fee payments will rise across the three seasons, as follows: 2012-13 – Sky €558 million ($762.8mn), Mediaset €259 million($354mn); 2013-14 – Sky €561 million ($766.7mn), Mediaset €268 million ($366.3mn); 2014-15 – Sky €564 million ($770.8mn), Mediaset €277 million ($378.6mn).

Andrea Locatelli, vice president of Infront Sports & Media, the league’s media adviser, said: “We are satisfied. This income will provide stability for Italian football. We wanted to push ahead with the tender process because the television industry needs to plan in advance.”

Sky’s fee represents a reduction of €14 million ($19.1mn) per season on what it paid for the rights in the current two-year deals, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Mediaset, on other hand, is paying over €50 million ($68.3mn) per season more. As in the current deals, Sky’s deal gives it the rights to all 20 Serie A teams, while Mediaset has acquired the rights to 12 teams, with the first choice of 10.

The league had put seven packages of rights up for auction but did not receive bids at the reserve prices for the other five. It will now enter into private negotiations for a second package of live pay-television digital-terrestrial rights, two packages of pay-television highlights rights, one for satellite and one for digital terrestrial, free-to-air highlights rights and radio rights.

With the international rights, the rights to the Coppa Italia and non-exclusive new media and local television rights to be sold later this year, the league is well on course to meet its hopeful target of €1 billion ($1.36bn) per season. The league currently earns about €930 million ($1.27 billion) per season.

Yahoo! and the League Managers Association (LMA) have continued their online media partnership that will see video and print content from some of the biggest names in football management published across Yahoo!’s UK media platforms and social media channels.

The deal accompanies Yahoo!’s Barclays Premier League highlights as Yahoo! aims to become the home of online sport

LMA is the representative association of professional football managers, past and present, in the Barclays Premier League, npower Championship and npower Leagues 1 and 2.

The season-long deal gives Yahoo! the rights to produce, write and broadcast exclusive interviews with members of the LMA, starting with an exclusive interview with Bolton’s Owen Coyle on September 23. Hosted on ‘The Dugout’ microsite, each week a different manager will share their philosophies and approach to the game while also looking ahead to the weekend’s big upcoming fixtures.

Richard Bevan, CEO of the LMA commented: “The LMA is delighted to renew its partnership with Yahoo! and to be working with a brand of such global visibility. We look forward to building the partnership throughout the season and delivering some great content from our members to Yahoo!’s users”

One of the social elements of the partnership is the chance for Yahoo! users to put questions forward for the manager via Yahoo!Eurosport and via Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo!’s popular Q&A site.

The deal is part of a long-term strategy to make Yahoo! the home of online sport in the UK. Currently only behind Sky as the largest commercial sports site in the UK, Yahoo! is now in the second season of its three-year deal with the Premier League for the exclusive rights to show short-form online Barclays Premier League highlights to UK users.

Yahoo’s Premier League coverage now has Regaine as season-long sponsor, is supported by a marketing campaign that features digital outdoor and is driving engagement through the launch of Yahoo! Your Goals – a newsletter delivered direct to the inboxes of registered users on Monday mornings with links to their team’s Barclays Premier League highlights.

Andrew Cocker, Yahoo’s European Director of Consumer Marketing said: “Our partnership with The League Managers Association gives Yahoo! a genuinely differentiated and authoritative voice to accompany our Premier League highlights”

Cocker continued: “As the premier digital media company, Yahoo!’s investment in the LMA is consistent with our desire to deliver original and compelling content to our 27 million UK customers”.

sale helvetica, sans-serif;”>American professional wrestling company WWE have gained a new partner in gaming company UTV Indiagames to deliver its mobile content to India.

UTV Indiagames will develop and publish WWE mobile content including ringtones, wallpapers, video clips, voice tones, premium alert packages and WAP decks.

From 1 October, consumers will be able to access WWE’s mobile content through all major mobile operators in the market, including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, TATA Docomo and Aircel.

Dominic Hayes, WWE International SVP & MD,  “Our new mobile offering in India will give WWE fans access to an exciting array of WWE content on their mobile phones from the company’s two flagship brands, Raw and SmackDown.

“The rapid increase in mobile subscribers in India has created a huge demand for new and innovative content and we are excited to be bringing it to our audience with UTV Indiagames.”

UTV Indiagame COO Samir Bangara said, “WWE has a passionate fan base in India and with 3G now available across the country we will be able to offer HD videos and a host of exclusive mobile content to WWE fans. We are very glad to be building this relationship with such an exciting brand.”

India with more than 800 million mobile phone users out of which 601.4 million are active subscribers presents a huge opportunity for rights owners to distribute their content on mobile.