An multi-year extension of ESPN’s television rights agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) was announced yesterday, March 31, which will make ESPN America the continued home of MLB games across more than 40 countries and nearly 19 million households across Europe.

The deal also extends to other ESPN networks, such as the company’s ESPN channel in the UK, which will show multiple live games each week throughout the season.

The deal will provide baseball fans with the most extensive season-long coverage of MLB to date, including more than 300 regular season games, the entire MLB Playoffs – including the Division Series’, American League and National League Championship Series’ and the World Series.

This year’s coverage of the new MLB season began yesterday with a triple header as the New York Yankees opened their campaign against the Detroit Tigers, followed by the San Diego Padres at St. Louis Cardinals and capped off with the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants visiting the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

Michael Walters, vice president, programming, ESPN International, said: “Around the world, ESPN and Major League Baseball have worked together to bring the sport of baseball to fans for decades now, and we are delighted to continue that long-standing and successful relationship.  This agreement will allow ESPN’s networks, led by ESPN America, to bring more baseball to fans than ever before.”

Paul Archey, Senior Vice President, International Business Operations, MLB, added: “Renewing our agreement with ESPN allows baseball fans around the world to continue enjoying Major League Baseball from Opening Day through the World Series. We are looking forward to once again working with ESPN to connect with our current fan base and to continue our commitment to develop new fans of the game globally.”

ESPN will also continue to surround its live and as-live coverage of baseball with award-winning programmes, such as Baseball Tonight and This Week in Baseball as well as usage of archive games and instant classics across ESPN’s European networks.

In other news, the broadcaster enjoyed its best first quarter ever, not only averaging more viewers than any previous January-March, but posting its highest rating on record for the quarter, according to Nielsen.  In fact, ESPN set new highs for its 24-hour rating on each of the three months.

ESPN averaged a 0.9 rating in the first quarter, representing an average of 1,076,000 viewers (P2+), up 17 per cent from 2010, the previous record. ESPN averaged 854,000 households in the quarter, up 14 per cent from last year’s previous best.

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a sensation in its first year on ESPN. The title game between Auburn and Oregon is the most-watched program in cable history with an average audience of more than 27 million viewers, and the five BCS games are ESPN’s biggest five audiences (excluding NFL games) in its 31-plus-year history.

The combined 24-hour average audience for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes was a new first-quarter record of 1,236,000 households, up 11 per cent from 2010.

ESPN Classic has struck a content deal with the BBC to screen programming from the terrestrial broadcaster’s sports archive as part of a channel revamp.

The deal covers 80 hours of BBC archive footage including the 1966 World Cup final between England and West Germany as well as content from FA Cup matches, international football, Formula One, Test cricket, international rugby, horseracing and sports documentaries.

The revamp will be accompanied by new on-air graphics and music, with five artists portraying 20 of the most famous sporting stars of all time.

Other new series on the channel include Legends of the Barclays Premier League, focusing on the finest footballers to have played in the top flight, and UEFA Euros: The Official Story.

Ross Hair, the managing director of ESPN Europe, Middle East and Africa, stated: “It reinforces ESPN Classic’s position as a part of the growth and vision of our business in the region and our ongoing strategy to create more continuity between the channels and brands in our portfolio”.

Austria’s free-to-air television rights for the UEFA Champions League have changed hands, with live coverage moving from ORF to Puls4 from the 2012/13 season onwards.

The company, owned by German media conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1, agreed a three-year deal that enables the channel to screen 18 Champions League games per season, including the final.

Additionally, Puls4 are also enabled to broadcast matches from the play-off round, which may involve the competition’s two Austrian Bundesliga entrants should they advance past the third qualifying round stage, as well as the annual UEFA Super Cup match played between the Champions League and Europa League winners.

Markus Breitenecker, managing director of Puls4, said: “Taking on the Champions League was a tactical masterstroke from my management team. We are the fastest growing channel in Austria and this is a unique deal in Austrian TV history.

“We are pleased that we have managed to secure the TV rights to the most important tournament in club football until 2015. Live and exclusive coverage of the Champions League on free television in Austria will now only be on Puls4.”

Puls4 will broadcast highlights programmes on both Tuesday and Wednesday match-nights and the deal extends to the channel’s website and mobile platforms under the terms of the comprehensive package.

It has been widely reported that the Austrian free-to-air rights for UEFA’s secondary club competition, the Europa League, will move in the opposite direction. Europa League matches are expected to switch from Puls4, who are in the second year of a three-season contract, to public broadcaster ORF come in the same season.

Martin Biedermann, head of communications for ORF, told the Austrian media that the broadcaster has reached a basic agreement with UEFA for Europa League rights, adding: “It’s only a matter of regulating the details. We will probably sign a contract in the coming days.”

Reflecting on ORF’s loss of Champions League rights, Biedermann added: “This decision goes in the direction we took last year. We have a lot of sport on ORF One and it was difficult to evaluate the worth of the Champions League because in recent years we have seen a fall in advertising rates for it. Ergo, ORF offered a sum it deemed worthy but obviously Puls4 made a bid that was significantly higher.

“If we are to show international club football, we would rather show a competition where Austria is represented. The Europa League is better for us simply because it has more relevance in Austria.”

GEICO will serve as the presenting sponsor for the GEICO 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway on Oct.17-19.

“The GEICO 500 is an exciting partnership with NASCAR that directly connects us to a growing legion of passionate race fans that travel from all across the country in cars, clinic trucks, discount RVs and campers to see their favorite drivers,” said Ted Ward, GEICO vice president. “We are proud of the relationship we have built and look forward to a spectacular race.”

The GEICO 500 is the anchor event of the Contender Round in the Chase for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. The field of 12 drivers who currently have a shot at NASCAR’s top prize will be trimmed down to eight after the checkered flag drops on Sunday, Oct. 19.

Broadcasting agreements have been extended by both ARD and ZDF, generic German public-service broadcasters, vcialis 40mg with various domestic sports federations for another two years.

A deal was brokered by SportA, a sports rights agency that works on behalf of ARD and ZDF, negotiating the media partnership with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

The extended agreement sees the events covered by the existing deal continue to be broadcast on German free-to-air television until the end of 2013.

Events covered in the contract, dubbed the “33er Treaty”, include the Rowing World Cup and badminton’s German Open. The contract also includes sports such as speed-skating, weightlifting, bowling and mini golf. 11 of the 33 Olympic sports represented by the DOSB are included in the arrangement.

ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz confirmed that “the presence of many Olympic and non-Olympic sports in our schedule is now secure,” while ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky noted that signing the contract was important “in order for us to continue to represent a wide range of sports.”

Balkausky added: “We were able to show 80 different sports on our channels last year, which was chiefly made possible thanks to the extensive portfolio of sporting events from this contract.”

In addition to television rights, ARD and ZDF also have the ability to broadcast events online and through mobile phones as per the agreement negotiated between SportA and RTV Sport, the agency working on behalf of the DOSB.

The DOSB is made up of 33 Olympic governing bodies and 29 non-Olympic sports associations.

Laola1.tv, viagra order a Vienna-based internet television platform, allergist  has won the rights to broadcast live games and highlights from Italian soccer league Serie A in Austria and Germany.

Laola1 now has the ability to stream action, free of charge, from Serie A online with the deal including two live matches every weekend in a deal brokered by sports marketing company MP & Silva.

Karl Wieseneder, managing director of Laola1, described the deal, commencing in April, as “a milestone in our live content offensive.”

Earlier in the 2010/11 season, MP & Silva agreed Serie A rights deals with two other broadcasters serving Austria and Germany, Sport1 and Sportdigital. Sport1 broadcast highlights plus a weekly live game on the channel’s website, with Sportdigital holding live rights to the league’s two top games played on Saturday and Sunday evenings each weekend.

Previously, Sky Deutschland had held Serie A TV rights in the two countries, before deciding to phase out coverage of Italian soccer from their channels.

Laola1 already holds rights to Spain’s La Liga, with this deal allowing them to stream up to seven games per weekend plus highlights from the league, which were purchased in the 2009/10 season. They also possess rights to selected live matches and highlights from Uefa’s Champions League and Europa League exclusively for their Austrian market.