Sky Deutschland has agreed to a strategic co-operation with GmbH to expand its market leading HD service with 8 additional channels. Sky will make their HD+ service available to Sky satellite customers starting this summer.

As of this summer, viagra 60mg Sky satellite customers will be able to access the full HD+ line-up, including RTL HD, VOX HD, RTL 2 HD, Sat.1 HD, ProSieben HD, kabel eins HD, Sixx HD and SPORT1 HD.

These new channels will be available to Sky satellite customers with an HD Set Top Box, initially for up to 12 months free of charge, bringing the number of top quality HD channels available to Sky customers to 25.

Dr Holger Enßlin, Chief Officer Legal, Regulatory & Distribution at Sky Deutschland, stated: “With over 1 million customers already able to access the fantastic experience of Sky HD, Sky customers’ excitement for brilliant HDTV image quality is huge. The HD+ agreement allows us to further expand the HD offering for our satellite customers and provides easy access to HD+ with some of the best Free-TV channels. With this, we present a new dimension of HD entertainment on Sky HD receivers. This underlines once more our goal to offer the best services for our customers – as well as our HD market leadership.”

Wilfried Urner, general manager HD Plus GmbH, added: “The agreement with Sky Deutschland enables us to extend our customer potential with a particularly HD-affine target group. This is an important signal for all Free-TV channels that trust in HD+ – and also for the viewers and the entire business. HD+ is already an established offering for high quality TV in Germany. We are glad to be able to provide private free TV channels in best HD quality for the Sky subscribers now.”

English boxer Amir Khan’s management team has withdrawn from Sky Sports plans to screen Khan’s fourth world light-welterweight defence against Paul McCloskey.

According to media reports, viagra the Amir Khan team is now seeking an alternative station to broadcast the fight, just 5 days before the bout is scheduled, this Saturday, April 16. 

A spokesman for Sky Sports said: “The Khans have refused the offer to move from Sky Box Office to Sky Sports 3. It does not mean we will no longer have ties with them.”

Last week Sky downgraded the fight from a pay-per-view event, to Sky Sports 3, after a number of withdrawals from the undercard, making the contest free to regular subscribers.

As a result of the downgrade however, Khan’s fee would have been cut a reported 80 per cent, a loss of nearly £1m (US$1.6m).

Khan’s remaining fee is believed to stand at around £250,000 ($400,000) for facing the European champion McCloskey.

Winn-Dixie, order a subsidiary of Jacksonville, price sale Florida-based Bi-Lo Holdings, announced today it is entering into a new partnership with Talladega Superspeedway to sponsor the “Winn-Dixie 300” NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday, May 2, 2015.

With 68 Winn-Dixie stores spread throughout the state of Alabama, the company is proud to partner with NASCAR’s most competitive track, which opened in Talladega, Alabama, in 1969. Winn-Dixie is proud to partner with Talladega on this race, and the historic weekend, with the goal of making meaningful connections with customers throughout the state by being a part of events they are passionate about.

“A great number of our customers and associates are NASCAR fans. This sponsorship represents Winn-Dixie’s ongoing efforts to find meaningful connections with customers by being a part of events they are passionate about,” said Tim Flavin, Regional Vice President for Bi-Lo Holdings. “We are excited to introduce the Winn-Dixie 300 to the state of Alabama and to kick off one of the best motorsports weekend experiences in the country.”

This isn’t the first time that Winn-Dixie has had its name on races at the world’s fastest speedway. From 1997 through 2001, Winn-Dixie was the entitlement sponsor for the ARCA Racing Series events, and in 2008, had its name on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at TSS.

“We are so proud to welcome Winn-Dixie back to the Talladega Superspeedway family,” said Grant Lynch, Chairman of the 2.66-mile venue. “Like Winn-Dixie, we have had a storied history in the state of Alabama, as well as the Southeast, for many years. So many of our fans are customers of Winn-Dixie, and we can’t wait to showcase the Winn-Dixie 300 to them in 2015.”

The Indian Premier League (IPL) season kicked off last Friday, April 8, though the Australian public will not have caught any of the action and will not do so for the remainder of the season after commercial broadcaster Ten Network pulled the plug on the five-year deal it had originally signed with World Sport Group (WSG).

It has since been revealed that this deal actually went into limbo after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cancelled WSG’s rights.

The IPL media rights that the BCCI recently awarded to the Times Internet-Nimbus consortium excluded India, Australia, South Africa, the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Caribbean from its ambit.

Ten, which reportedly paid between US$10m and $15m for the rights when it signed with WSG in 2008, till last year used to telecast the matches on free-to-air television, followed by repeats on Ten’s high definition digital channel.

Australian channel ORF eins has extended their contract with Formula One to continue its coverage of the leading motorsport event until 2014.

Under the terms, ailment ORF eins will retain the rights to show second practice, pharmacy qualifying and the race itself of each Grand Prix, capsule advert-free in high-definition and in addition the broadcaster can now show live interviews, race repeats and live online coverage on the ORF website.

Sky Sport Germany is available within Austria and broadcasts every practice session, qualifying and race on the Formula One calendar meaning the new agreement with ORF is on a non-exclusive basis.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone stated: “I am delighted that we have reached a new agreement with ORF, and that Formula One coverage on ORF is extended to multiple media.”

In other news, Nigerian sports marketing company DBN has secured the rights to air the 2011 season in the country on the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria – a network that comprises over 40 channels.

Osa Adun, chairman of the DBN Group, commented: “I am sure that you are aware that Formula One is regarded as the world’s most glamorous sporting event and this year’s event will be even bigger as it is set to be beamed for over 16,000 hours in over 187 countries including Nigeria, having the colours and panache of a glamorous sporting event. The 2011 Formula One World Championship is coming for the first time on terrestrial television in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market.”

A new and improved US broadcast deal is predicted to be in place by mid-June by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), according to the body’s chief rights negotiator Richard Carrion.

Having postponed the US rights negotiations for more than a year due to the economic climate, the IOC is now making moves to reach an agreement in its most important market.

The US deal accounts for over half the IOC’s TV rights revenue, the body’s majority revenue stream with incumbent rights holder NBC, along with Fox and ESPN, expected to battle it out.

Carrion stated that he expects “probably three” networks to enter negotiations, revealing that he had held preliminary talks with all interested networks, adding the bidding contract documents are being finalised.

“The process should take six, seven weeks,” the head of the IOC’s finance commission told The Associated Press. “We’ll probably crank it up in May.”

The rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro are on the table, but Carrion has conceded that a mega-money bid for the next four editions is still a possibility.

He added: “Obviously this is about ’14 and ’16, but if a bidder wants to make a longer-term commitment and a longer-term deal, we are willing to look at that. These are always trade-offs that you make. It will be a minimum of two (Games), but it could turn out somebody makes a very compelling bid for four and we take it.”

The 2010-12 US Olympic broadcast contract with NBC is estimated to be worth around US$2bn, while parent company General Electric’s global sponsorship increased that figure by $200m. Stating that he expects those figures to be exceeded, Carrion added: “This is a unique product. This is a unique event. These guys are serious. They’re professionals. They’ll do their numbers. Hopefully, we’ll have a good result that will be good for both sides.”

Meanwhile, Carrion has hailed the new era of improved relations the IOC enjoys with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) amid talks over the thorny issue of a new revenue-sharing agreement.

With the USOC currently receiving 20 per cent of global sponsorship revenues and 12.75 per cent of US broadcast rights deals, talks are underway for a new deal to take effect from 2020 amid international disquiet over the current status quo.

The issue, allied to USOC’s ultimately aborted attempt to establish an Olympic Network, served to strain ties between the two bodies, but Carrion hailed the approach taken by the current USOC administration.

“I was not timid in the past to let know my feelings,” Carrion said. “I think they’re making a great, great effort. I think the relationship is very, very much improved. There’s a desire to get things done.” He added: “There’s a needle that still needs to get threaded. Everybody has their own point of view. But I can tell you the tone of the meetings is 100 per cent better.”