Bellator Fighting Championships has agreed to a five-year deal with FremantleMedia Enterprises to sell its MMA programming around the world.

Bellator has been in business for less than three years, order but its rapid growth underlines MMA’s worldwide appeal. The Chicago-based promotion airs its weekly fight cards on MTV2, and it will replace the UFC on Spike TV in 2013.

UFC President Dana White has famously declared MMA will someday become the world’s most popular sport, and his dominant promotion has filled arenas from Abu Dhabi to Rio de Janeiro to Sydney. Its North American pay-per-view events also air around the world.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney shares White’s belief in MMA’s inevitable worldwide popularity, and he has exhaustively recruited fighters from lesser-known camps on several continents. Fighters from France and Cuba currently hold two of Bellator’s eight title belts, while competitors from South Africa, Russia and Brazil have done well.

“We focused very heavily on domestic distribution over the last three years, building our format,” Rebney said. “But now’s the time we felt to expand the breadth and depth of what we’re doing. We have fighters from around the world, so we’re hoping to take it around the world.”

Bellator’s fight cards, largely contested in U.S. casinos, have aired on several MMA-hungry networks during the promotion’s brief existence, including late-night NBC, Fox Sports Net, Telemundo and ESPN Deportes. Rebney said the promotion already has a broadcast foothold in countries including India and Azerbaijan, but the new international distribution deal with Fremantle  will only lengthen its reach.

With its circular cage and eight-man tournament competition in what Rebney calls “a real-sport format” to earn a title shot, Bellator hopes to offer a distinct alternative to the UFC’s more traditional matchmaking structure, even if it has only a fraction of the UFC’s talent roster, revenue and history.

Bellator — Latin for “warrior” — effectively inherited the mantle as the top North American alternative after the UFC purchased Strikeforce, its closest competitor, last March.

“I’m a UFC fan, but there’s that subjectivity that exists in matchmaking, when a guy behind a desk decides who fights when,” Rebney said. “I believe that’s completely counterintuitive to sports and competition.”

Digital storage and lifestyle peripherals company Amkette has launched an online football prediction game for the FIFA World Cup called ‘Predict the Score’.

Participants can predict the result of each of the remaining matches at this summer’s tournament in South Africa to win prizes including World Cup flash drives, an Amkette Flash TV or a Black Diamond keyboard with in-built mouse.

Amkette is trying to tap into the unexpected Indian craze surrounding the tournament. They have launched a microsite for the game, but people can also play the game through Amkette Arena, their official fanpage on Facebook.

Manager of product development for Amkette, Nikhil Bapna, said: “I am very happy with the overwhelming response to the contest and I believe that a platform of this kind certainly helps in building a long-term relationship with consumers.”

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has secured a deal with ESPN3 to broadcast all of their home games that weren’t previously scheduled to be shown on other networks.

Last season, recipe the VCU men’s basketball team set a school record for televised games with 23 contests being shown nationally or regionally.

With this partnership the Black & Gold will have already lined up a new record with a minimum of 25 of their scheduled 31 games being available for all of Ram Nation to view. 

With more games at the CAA and NCAA Tournaments as possible additions to the TV broadcast, Ram Nation will have plenty of chances to see their team this year.

Major League Lacrosse (MLL) has signed a major broadcast deal with the CBS Sports Network to air 14 nationally televised games in 2012, each shown live on CBS Sports Network.

Founded in 1999 MLL had its inaugural regular season in 2001 and has added two more teams to its current six to come into the league in 2012.

In a statement released by the MLL, Commissioner David Gross said: “We are extremely excited to add CBS Sports Network as a television partner. Having 14 live nationally telecast games on the network is a tremendous step forward for the growth of MLL and for lacrosse in general.

“Our hope is that through this agreement with CBS Sports Network, MLL will expose sports fans to not only the fastest growing sport in the country, but the fastest sport on two-feet. Additionally, our loyal fans have been campaigning for more nationally televised games and we’re happy to announce that our partnership with CBS Sports Network will bring the total number of live, nationally televised games to 20 in 2012.”

Ross Molloy, vice president of CBS Sports Network, added: “We are thrilled to partner with the MLL, adding to our already robust lineup of lacrosse programming. Lacrosse has long been a staple on our Network and we look forward to showcasing the world’s best lacrosse players while further increasing the national visibility of the sport.”

In addition to the 14 games, CBSSN will also air all 18 episodes of “Inside the MLL,” the league’s 30-minute magazine show. The show, produced by the league, provides fans with an inside look at MLL’s teams, players and coaches. Each week the show will feature special guests and provide analysis prior to each game. It will also include behind-the-scenes video.

Announcers for the package of games should be selected by January. Gross indicated that the announcers could come from CBS and/or from talent that the league has worked with before.

The Presidential Board of the German Football Association (DFB) has awarded the media rights for the DFB Cup to public broadcaster ARD (8 matches live) and the pay TV operator Sky (55 matches live), herbal ensuring broad domestic television coverage until 2015/2016.

DFB President, Dr Theo Zwanziger, said: “The new agreements with our TV partners ARD and Sky ensure optimal TV coverage of the DFB Cup. Unlike the level of coverage in any other country – all 63 matches will be transmitted live. This reflects the continual growth in popularity of the competition with the final in Berlin as the ultimate annual highlight.”

Also DFB have renewed their marketing rights agreement with the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media  for the same period.

The new contract with the DFB confirms Infront’s central role, handling all stadium advertising rights for all DFB Cup matches. Since the 2009/2010 season all 63 matches of the competition have been covered live, along with all the rights managed from one central source by Infront.

From the initial introduction of the marketing platform, for the first time, commercial partners of the DFB Cup were provided with product category exclusivity throughout the entire competition. Today, the well established platform now has four major brands involved as TOP partners – Bitburger, Continental, Deutsche Post (German postal services) and Jack Wolfskin, along with seven additional SPOT partners.

Wolfgang Niersbach, General Secretary of the DFB, said:: “Our partnership with Infront has provided a trustworthy working relationship that for many years has implemented and developed the successful marketing rights for the DFB Team matches. This is why we have decided, with absolute confidence, to continue our relationship through to 2016.”

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront, commented: “We are extremely pleased with the prolongation of our agreement. It confirms the success of the approach chosen and the overall high level of services we provide to the DFB. We will continue to work very closely with the DFB on this contract, further developing both the premium event value as well as the exclusivity for commercial partners in the upcoming years.”

Dr Uwe Ploch, Director Summer Sports at Infront, added: “For the 2012/2013 season, as the next major step, we will further reduce the overall amount of DFB Cup partners by 45 per-cents from eleven to only six. This is how we will cement the event’s position as a consistent and highly exclusive all-year communication platform with even higher potential for major brands. Besides all the other benefits, next year for the first time commercial partners will also be entitled to use the DFB Cup logo for their communication activities.” 

Sports network Ten Sports has bagged the broadcasting rights for the FIH Champions Challenge and Champions Trophy in India.

FIH Champions Challenge will be played at Johannesburg from 26th November – 4th December 2011. The Champions Challenge is the second major event on the men’s calendar before the 2012 London Olympics. The Champions Challenge features the eight countries ranked from ninth to 16th in the world. Eight teams competing, order in the tournament are India, allergist | Belgium, ed Poland, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Japan and Malaysia. The tournament will see 24 matches played over six days.

Ten Sports will also be telecasting the FIH Champions Trophy 2011 to be played in Auckland from 3-11 December. Eight of the world’s top men’s teams will be playing in FIH Champions Trophy in Auckland. It is the last major event on the men’s calendar before the 2012 London Olympics. The eight teams competing, in world ranking order are Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain, Korea, New Zealand and Pakistan. The tournament will see 24 matches played over six days.

Atul Pande, CEO of Ten Sports, said: “We are committed to bringing the best sports action to our viewers, and this new agreement with FIH for telecast of Champions Challenge and Champions Trophy, reaffirms our commitment to grow the sports business and consolidate our position as the leading sports broadcaster.”

Leandro Negre, FIH President, added: “We’re delighted to bring these events to subcontinental audiences via Ten Sports. In particular, Ten Sports’ support has allowed us to fully televise the Champions Challenge in the subcontinent for only the second time in its history.”

The future of relegated Premier League side Portsmouth looks to have finally been secured after creditors voted in favour of a deal which should see the club exit administration this summer.

Creditors of the Championship club are owed a total of US$155 million, but have now accepted a deal which will see them repaid at least 20p in the pound over five years.

The acceptance of a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) was passed with 81.3 per cent of the vote, with the only opposition coming from HM Revenue and Customs who are currently in dispute with club’s adminstrators.

HMRC issued a statement after the meeting, saying: “HMRC notes that the result of today’s vote was to accept the CVA proposals. We will now be carefully considering our position. HMRC stands by the full amountof its claim (US$54 million).

“We will now carefully consider our position following (the administrator’s) decision tor educe the amount of our claim for voting purposes.”

 

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and Pakistan Television (PTV) have acquired the telecast rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) events for the Pakistan territory.

The media groups had jointly bid for these rights which will enable them to broadcast all cricket matches including the ODI World Cup, ed the Twenty20 World Cup and other ICC events for four-years, till 2015.

Atul Pande, Chief Executive Officer, Ten Sports revealed that they had jointly bid for the ICC rights with PTV for the Pakistan territory which were awarded by ESPN Star Sports.

Pande further added that they had jointly bid for the ICC property as part of their deepening relationship with PTV. It is decided that while PTV will have the terrestrial rights, they will keep thecable and satellite rights.

ESPN Star Sports has the global rights for the ICC events from 2007-2015.

Ten Sports has a long relationship with PTV and has been syndicating its properties to PTV for terrestrial telecast.

Zee has a partnership with PTV to build Pakistani cricket. They will be syndicating the rights for Pakistan-Zimbabwe and Pakistan-Sri Lanka cricket series to PTV for terrestrial telecast.

Hockey East, NCAA Men’s Division 1 Ice Hockey League has secured the services of NBC who will broadcast a selection of the league’s games on its soon-to-be-rebranded Versus channel.

Included in the package are three regular-season games, one tournament quarterfinal game, both semifinals and the league championship game. The games are part of the network’s renovation of Versus, which will become NBC Sports Network on Jan. 2.

Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said in a statement: “This agreement will play a major role in our ability to stay in a leadership position in our sport.”

Hockey East’s games are part of a 16-game college hockey package Versus/NBC will broadcast this season. The first game to be broadcast will be a New Year’s Eve tilt in South Bend, Ind., between Boston University and Notre Dame, which joins the league in 2013.

BU will play two games on the network, as will Vermont. Boston College visits Vermont in an NBC game on Friday, Feb. 10.

NBC Sports Group president of programming Jon Miller in a statement: “We are excited to be launching our first-ever college hockey package by building a destination on Friday nights on the NBC Sports Network with many of the preeminent brands in the sport.”

Euroleague Basketball has renewed its deal with American broadcaster NBA TV bringing Europe’s premier league action to North Ameica for the current season.

The new deal means that NBA TV will broadcast one game per week to North American viewers, with a choice between the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Game of the Week or exclusive North American rights to a different game.

Andrea Bassani, Euroleague Basketball’s Chief of Television and New Media Rights Officer, said: “We are pleased that the Turkish Airlines Euroleague will continue to be seen by basketball fans in the United States and Canada through NBA TV. NBA TV is a favorite among basketball fans and television viewers in North America and our continued cooperation with them will help basketball-loving fans in America see the unique nature of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.”