Canal+ Creating Separate Channel For Premier League Coverage

French television channel Canal+ has announced that it is going to start broadcasting some sporting leagues, including the English Premier League, on separate digital channels.

Another league that will be receiving its own channel is the French rugby union league, Top 14, and subscribers in France will not have to pay any additional cost for these services.

They will become available on the MyCanal streaming service and will be viewable for customers from the 26th of December.

Marketing and Commercial Manager for Canal+, Christophe Pinard-Legry, told French sports paper L’equipe: “Our subscribers were asking to consume sport differently. Canal+ channels, with programming that covers cinema, entertainment series and sport, did not allow fans of rugby or English football to find their content.”

“We are therefore changing the way in which we present and broadcast by presenting them by competition on MyCanal,” he added.

LaLigaTV To Launch On Sky Sports In The UK In January

LaLiga and Premier Sports have officially confirmed that LaLigaTV, the UK’s first dedicated channel showing all live content from a top international football league, will be available to Sky subscribers in the UK from Monday 13th January.

In a special introductory offer, LaLigaTV will broadcast free of charge for all 8.5 million Sky TV households, as well as commercial premises across the UK, for two whole matchdays of LaLiga Santander in mid-January.

Therefore Sky subscribers will be able to enjoy enticing matchups such as Real Betis vs. Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona vs. Granada CF on Matchday 20, or Real Valladolid vs. Real Madrid and Sevilla FC vs. Granada CF on Matchday 21. 

Melcior Soler, Audiovisual Director at LaLiga said: “We’re proud to launch LaLigaTV, our own dedicated linear channel in the United Kingdom, together with our broadcast partner Premier Sports. Fans in the UK will soon see why LaLigaTV provides viewers such tremendous value, offering all of LaLiga Santander, all in one place. This includes every available live match, plus expert analysis and world-class programming, with daily studio shows, archive footage, features and documentaries on Spanish football, and much, much more.”

Available as an individual subscription channel via Sky, LaLigaTV will continue to provide round-the-clock coverage of Spain’s top-flight LaLiga Santander, including exclusive broadcast of all live matches in the United Kingdom from January 2020. Following the initial two-week free trial period, the channel will be available to Sky TV subscribers for just £5.99 per month (as a standalone HD channel) or £11.99 per month when purchased in a bundle alongside Premier Sports 1 and Premier Sports 2 HD channels.

Additionally, Sky customers who sign up for either package will also be given a free login for Premier Player, which allows subscribers to stream LaLigaTV and/or Premier Sports content in full HD whether at home or on the go. For full details, please visit:  https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow.html

Richard Sweeney, CEO of Premier Sports said: “We are delighted to announce the 24/7 dedicated LaLigaTV HD channel will launch on Monday 13th January on the Sky TV platform via Premier Sports in the United Kingdom. Football fans will be able to enjoy LaLigaTV as a standalone channel for just £5.99 per month, or in combination with all the great content on Premier Sports 1 and 2 on Sky for just £11.99 per month.”

LaLigaTV is a 24/7 English-language channel carrying every live game from Spain’s top-flight LaLiga Santander, alongside hours of expert analysis and daily studio shows including VIVA LaLiga, LaLiga World, LaLiga LIVE and The LaLiga Show. 

Experts familiar to Spanish football fans feature regularly on LaLigaTV, including: Guillem Balagué, Graham Hunter, Terry Gibson, Sid Lowe, Gaizka Mendieta, Gus Poyet, Simon Hanley, Lauren Bisan-Etame, Pete Jenson, Duncan McMath, Semra Hunter, Phil Kitromilides, Albert ‘Chapi’ Ferrer, Kike de Lucas, Andrea Orlandi, Sara Canals and Toni Padilla, among many others.

Following the UK launch of LaLigaTV as a standalone channel on SKY, Premier Sports and LaLiga look forward to announcing further details of the channel’s launch as a standalone offering via Sky in the Republic of Ireland from 29th January, as well as availability on other platforms.

Some of the most notable games coming shortly after the Monday 13th January launch on SKY

 

 

Saturday 18th January

  • Real Madrid vs. Sevilla* (delayed on LaLigaTV due to UK blackout restrictions)
  • Eibar vs. Atlético Madrid · 8:00 pm GMT

Sunday 19th January

  • Real Betis vs. Real Sociedad · 1:00 pm GMT
  • Athletic Club vs. Celta · 5:30 pm GMT
  • Barcelona vs. Granada · 8:00 pm GMT

Saturday 25th January

  • Valencia vs. Barcelona* (delayed on LaLigaTV due to UK blackout restrictions)

Sunday 26th January

Valladolid vs. Real Madrid · 8:00 pm GMT

Atrium Sports Acquires Synergy Sports

Atrium Sports, a full-service technology platform for sports and video data content, has announced the acquisition of Synergy Sports Technology, the dominant global provider of data and video analytics tools for the NBA, the MLB and NCAA Division I-II-III basketball and Division I baseball. This acquisition will accelerate Atrium’s expansion strategy and strengthen its end-to-end technology solution offering globally.

The acquisition was completed with a lead investment from Eldridge Industries and additional investment from Elysian Park Ventures, Atrium executives and other Atrium and Synergy Sports shareholders.

Synergy Sports provides teams with the analytics and tools that power scouting, player development and entertainment monetization. Within the past year, Synergy Sports has captured, tagged and analyzed over 60,000 basketball games and 15,000 baseball games. In addition, there are emerging opportunities in hockey and soccer. By integrating Synergy Sports’ content into Atrium’s platform, teams, leagues and federations will gain greater access to comprehensive data and advanced automated video production of live sporting events and more.

This acquisition marks another significant step in Atrium’s growth, following a recent announcement of a landmark partnership with FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, which brings together 213 National Basketball Federations, to launch the FIBA Connected Stadium rollout.

“Synergy Sports is relied on by virtually every elite and semi-elite basketball team worldwide, and we’re delighted for them to join the Atrium Sports family. This, coupled with Synergy Sports impressive impact in baseball over recent years, is testament to the fantastic business Garrick Barr, Mark Silver and the whole team at Synergy Sports have built,” said Nick Maywald, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Atrium Sports Group. “Combining their technology with our autonomous video production creates exciting opportunities to simplify workflow for coaches and analysts and accelerates the development of how AI can benefit sports.”

“Having proven our true value in the basketball industry, we’re now excited to be working closely with other sports, like baseball and hockey, alongside a partner that shares our passion to develop sport through innovation in technology,” said Mark Silver, Chief Executive Officer of Synergy Sports. “The backing of Eldridge Industries and Elysian Park Ventures is ideally placed to continue to accelerate our growth worldwide.”

“Through Nick and Mark’s strong management, we believe Atrium’s analytical capabilities and competitive advantage have the potential to change the delivery of content in the sports industry,” said Todd Boehly, Co-Founder and CEO of Eldridge Industries.

Inner Circle Sports LLC, a boutique investment bank focused on the global sports and media industry, served as financial advisor to Synergy Sports.

DAZN Cuts Price In Half For Their Subscription In Brazil

Streaming service DAZN have decided to virtually chop in half the price of their subscription offering in Brazil, from R$37.90 to R$19.90 per month, in order to get more subscriptions in the country.

DAZN’s Executive Vice President in Brazil, Bruno Rocha, said: “We already have a large number of Brazilians within the platform and have achieved record downloads in just seven months of operation. We are very optimistic about the speed and scale of growth we will gain with the new price of R$19.90 per month.”

Observatório da Televisão, a website in Brazil, has also reported that DAZN are in talks with Globo to share rights to the Copa do Brasil and Copa Sudamericana, so could be on the verge of major expansion for their Brazilian football offering as well.

Rambler Allegedly Suing Twitch For £2.1 billion

Russian newspaper Kommersant states that Rambler believes their rights to showing English Premier League fixtures were breached by Twitch 36,000 times during the first three months of this season.

It is now suing the streaming company for £2.1 billion, with Moscow’s City Court ready to listen to the case on the 20th of December.

Rambler’s Mikhail Gershkovich, said in a statement: “Our suit against Twitch is to defend our exclusive rights to broadcast English Premier League matches and we will continue to actively combat pirate broadcasts.”

“We’re currently holding talks with Twitch to sign a settlement agreement. The service has given us tools to combat pirate broadcasts and we are now only talking about compensation for damages between August and November.”

Twitch’s lawyer, Julianna Tabastaeva, said to Kommersant that the company took “all necessary measures to eliminate the violations, despite not receiving any official notification from Rambler,” and “only provides users with access to the platform and is unable to change the content posted by users, or track possible violations”.

 

 

 

Ben Nichols Named First Head of Communications At Right Formula

Ben Nichols will be joining the sports sponsorship and marketing agency Right Formula at the beginning of January, following an 18-month period working as a consultant.

He said on LinkedIn: “After a hugely fulfilling 18 months freelancing as Ben Nichols Communications, I’m delighted to say that I’m soon to join the fast-growing Sports Sponsorship company Right Formula as Head of Communications.

Really looking forward to joining this exciting and dynamic outfit from the start of Jan 2020 as it builds its Comms offering across Sport.”

PGA Tour Reportedly To Gain $300 million In New Broadcast Deals

The PGA Tour could be set to bring in around $700 million from their new nine-year broadcasting deals for the period between 2022-2030, according to Sports Business Journal.

Their current deals are worth in the region of $400 million, so this could be a 75% increase for the tour if these figures are correct, a huge jump and an interesting decision in a time where TV ratings have been on the slide in many areas.

It could, however, be linked to the fact that the PGA tour has now moved the FedEx Cup playoffs and Tour Championship to earlier in the year and before the NFL season begins on Sunday’s when golf events hit their peak in the latter stages, a change that was made for the first time this year.

According to this report, it states that ‘CBS and NBC essentially will keep the same regular-season packages. The big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship, in alternating years.’

 

Bruin Sports Capital Acquires Sports Data And Marketing Agency Two Circles

Bruin Sports Capital (Bruin) today announced a deal with WPP to acquire Two Circles, the award-winning consumer data analytics, sports marketing, and technology practice. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed and subject to regulatory approvals. WPP will continue to hold a minority stake in the company. 

Two Circles’ sophisticated, proprietary data-management platforms aggregate and analyse large volumes of consumer data to inform new business development strategies and state-of-the-art marketing programmes. Every year, Two Circles processes tens of billions of data points on sports fans globally, more than any other sports organisation, influencing how hundreds of millions of sports fans engage with sport.

The NFL, Premier League, UEFA, Formula 1 and Wimbledon are among the leagues, teams, tournaments and federations Two Circles works with globally. 

George Pyne, Founder, and CEO of Bruin Sports Capital said: “As we look to the future of the sports economy, everything we do will trace back to how well we can leverage consumer data intelligence to spur growth. Two Circles has been way ahead of the industry on this and has developed a new breed of agency that serves every business unit of a sports organization.  We are excited to have them formally join Bruin and look forward to working even more closely with their great team.”

Founded in 2011, Two Circles is a two-time Sport Agency of the Year (2014, 2017) and was named by the Sunday Times in 2018 as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The agency has grown to 180 employees in four offices – New York, Los Angeles, London, and Bern – who work with clients on four continents, including the top five sports properties by annual global revenue. 

This year Two Circles played a fundamental role in record attendances for a host of global events, including the ICC Cricket World Cup and Open Championship, sponsorship rights growth, and subscription and consumption records for leading D2C media businesses. 

Gareth Balch, Two Circles Co-Founder and CEO, said: “The sports industry is moving from a B2B model to a direct-to-consumer model where growth will be centred around a direct relationship between sports and fans. Over the last eight years, we believe we have built proven models that can take sports properties on this journey. With Bruin’s backing, experience, and relationships in global sport, we have the perfect platform to enter the next phase of commercial growth – both for our clients and as an agency.”

Products and services provided by the business include ticketing, premium, sponsorship, stadium redevelopment, and subscriptions.  WPP’s continued investment in Two Circles will allow the agency’s clients to continue to have unrivaled access to WPP, its global network, and its brand clients. 

The news follows Bruin’s recent partnership with CVC Capital Partners and The Jordan Company who committed an initial $600m to Bruin to build high-performing, next-generation sports and entertainment enterprises.  

Two Circles has been affiliated with Bruin, since 2017, serving as the marketing arm for OverTier, a venture created by Bruin to operate NFL Game Pass, the league’s premium subscription service. OverTier initially operated NFL Game Pass throughout Europe, and after two years of record growth, the relationship expanded to 181 countries worldwide, in large part due to the marketing results of Two Circles.

EFL Appoint David Baldwin As Chief Executive

In a press release this afternoon the EFL have announced David Baldwin as their new Chief Executive.

This means that both the EFL and Premier League have appointed new CEO’s within the past week, after the Premier League confirmed that interim CEO Richard Masters would be moving into the role on a permanent basis.

The EFL say: The appointment was made by the EFL Board following a rigorous selection process led by Chairman Rick Parry.

David joins the EFL from Premier League club, Burnley FC, where he has been Chief Executive since 2015. He was previously CEO of Bradford City FC.

Commenting on the appointment, Rick Parry said: “We are pleased to welcome David Baldwin to the EFL. David has a deep and thorough understanding of the game in this country; he joins us with direct experience of running Clubs in the Premier League and the EFL, with an excellent reputation and proven ability to build and grow relationships.

“David was the outstanding candidate in a strong field. With his strong leadership skills and enthusiasm for League football, I have no doubt that we have found the right person to lead the organisation. It is quite clear from talking to David that he is excited to be joining the League and relishing the challenge ahead.

David Baldwin said: “The role of Chief Executive at the EFL is an exciting opportunity that I could not turn down. The EFL continues to play a pivotal role in the success of the football pyramid in this country and I am looking forward working with the Clubs, growing the competitions and ensuring we have a successful and sustainable League in the future.”

David will take up his position at the EFL in June 2020.

David Baldwin biography

David joined Burnley Football Club as Chief Operating Officer in November 2014 from his previous role as Chief Executive at Bradford City Football Club.

He arrived with the initial remit of managing the operational and commercial activities of daily life at Turf Moor.

In May 2015 David was appointed as Chief Executive.

He has since overseen the major off-field transformation of the club, including establishing new community partnerships, while the club secured the Championship title in 2016 to win promotion back to Premier League.

This culminated in David being awarded Premier League CEO of the Year in 2018 by fcbusiness.

Previously, as CEO and Director of Operations at Bradford City, he was in post as the club reached the League Cup Final and gained promotion, via the Play-Offs, to League One.

FIFA Release Statement After Filing Claims Against Sepp Blatter And Michel Platini

FIFA’s statement read: FIFA has today filed claims in the relevant Swiss courts against former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former FIFA Vice-President Michel Platini, seeking restitution of the CHF 2 million unduly paid to Mr Platini back in February 2011.

This follows the unanimous resolution recently adopted by the FIFA Governance Committee in which it emphasised that FIFA was duty-bound to try to recover the funds illicitly paid by one former official to another. Even the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has confirmed that this CHF 2 million gift was to be viewed as an “undue payment”.

If and when successfully recovered, these funds (together with interest) will be fully channelled back into football development, which is where the money should have gone in the first place.