Juve are out but Italian battle for Champions League rights is on
April 18 – Mediaset are on the verge of wrestling the free-to-air rights for the Champions League from Italian state broadcaster RAI in a two-year deal with Sky Italia.
Broadcast
LaLiga renews virtual ad board deal guaranteeing Barca, Real and Atletico
April 15 – LaLiga has extended its virtual perimeter and virtual goal-side advertising deal with the UK’s Interregional Sports Group (ISG). The deal was concluded via LaLiga’s media agency MediaPro.
RFEF goes into battle with La Liga with its own OTT platform offer
By Paul Nicholson
April 16 – The animosity between the Spanish FA (RFEF) and LaLiga has found a new broadcast battleground to play out.
Seifert questions domestic policy on TV rights split between two pay broadcasters
March 27 – Christian Seifert, chief executive of the Bundesliga, has called into question the league’s ‘no single buyer’ broadcasting rule which was introduced ahead of the current cycle that ends in 2021 and is designed to stop a single broadcaster from purchasing domestic rights to show all games from Germany’s top two divisions.
LaLiga launches OTT service with multi-sports content proposition
March 27 – LaLiga has launched its OTT streaming service, LaLigaSportsTV, which offers fans coverage of live LaLiga 1|2|3 content, as well as other Spanish sports.
Twitter secures broadcast deal for topflight Brazilian women’s matches
March 19 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has teamed up with social media platform Twitter in a broadcast deal for the Brazilian women’s top flight, the 2019 Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino.
AFC streaming of ACL reaches 1m in Saudi Arabia but now Saudi 24 channel joins piracy
By Paul Nicholson
March 13 – The streaming of the Asian Champions League match involving Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli Saudi away to Uzbekistan’s Pakhator was watched by close to 1 million people in Saudi Arabia on the AFC’s YouTube and Facebook Live channels.
AFC step in to beIN/beoutQ broadcast row to stream Saudi ACL games on its digital channels
By Paul Nicholson
March 12 – Football fans in Saudi Arabia will be able to watch tonight’s Champions League match involving Al Ahli Saudi FC away to Uzbekistan’s Pakhator FC legally and without having to resort to beoutQ’s piracy of BeIN Sport’s broadcast.
Mycujoo expands streaming services in Brazil and adds key staff
March 6 – Sports streaming specialist mycujoo has expanded its South American footprint with the signing of its 10th Brazilian state federation that will see up to 300 matches streamed over the next two years
ESPN swoops for MLS rights in South American and Caribbean
March 5 – ESPN has replaced Fox Sports as the Major League Soccer Spanish-language rights holder in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a four-year deal until 2022.
Dominican Republic’s FEDOFUTBOL in groundbreaking OTT tie-up with OZ Sports
By David Owen
March 1 – The Football Federation of the Dominican Republic (FEDOFUTBOL), to which a FIFA normalisation committee was appointed last November, has agreed a deal with the production company OZ Sports covering the country’s professional football league.
A$5m name game: Fox and FFA lock horns over new ‘Melbourne-ish’ franchise
February 25 – Australian club Western United’s decision to not incorporate ‘Melbourne’ in its name could cost Football Federation Australia (FFA) A$5 million in annual TV rights as Fox Sports seeks to challenge its obligation to increase future payments for the broadcasting deal.
Concacaf to live stream Champions League on Yahoo Sports platform
February 15 – Concacaf has taken a deeper step in live streaming with the announcement that 2019 Champions League matches will be broadcast in English on Yahoo Sports platforms, a part of the confederation’s multi-platform media-rights deal with Verizon.
PSG left red-faced after 1.4m watch Man Utd game pirated on to its Facebook site
February 14 – Already in the wars over financial fair play, Paris Saint-Germain have been left embarrassed again after part of their Champions League last-16 game against Manchester United was accidentally illegally streamed live to a global audience on social media platform Facebook
Mourinho back on centre-stage with his own TV show on RT
February 12 – Nice work if you can get it. Jose Mourinho may be out of a management job at club level but he is rarely out of the limelight. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United boss has landed a plum mega-million role with English-language Russian broadcaster RT.