November 7 – Netflix might finally have understood what it means to be a football fan. Rather than another sycophantic love-in with one of the world’s big money club, the producer-come-streaming service has invested in the far grittier story of Sunderland’s disastrous fall from grace into the third tier of English football.
October 29 – Former England manager Glenn Hoddle is “responding well” to treatment in hospital after having suffered a heart attack on Saturday.
By David Owen
October 23 – Next month will bring the end of a football broadcasting era, with Francis Tellier set to step down as chief executive of Host Broadcast Services (HBS) after almost two decades.
October 19 – Internet sports broadcaster Eleven Sports says it is reluctantly dropping screening European football matches in the UK on Saturday afternoons.
October 16 – UEFA has diplomatically stepped into the debate over UK football’s traditional Saturday afternoon broadcast blackout being breached by saying it is in talks with the English and Spanish leagues following reports that online streaming service Eleven Sports is defying the rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 15 – UEFA has firmly denied reports that it has banned Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, from televising qualifying games in the disputed occupied territories.
October 10 – Brazil’s top league, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, has agreed a $150 million international streaming deal with sports tech startup Fanfoot which will launch its OTT platform in 2019.
October 8 – Facebook has expanded its live football output picking up rights to South America’s Copa Libertadores matches in a four-year package from 2019-2022 for its Watch platform.
October 3 – OTT streaming service Eleven Sports has challenged the English FA’s ban on the broadcast of live football matches on Saturdays between 2.45pm and 5.15pm by showing live coverage of Barcelona’s match against Athletic Bilbao last weekend.
September 26 – Although the victim of aggressive piracy of live sports rights in Saudi Arabia, beIN Sports has not slowed its commitment to football with the announcement of a new four-season deal through to the end of the 2021/22 season with the English Football League’s (EFL) three divisions and Cup competition.
September 18 – UEFA is poised to take a deeper step into the broadcast business with the launch of its own OTT streaming platform which will air content outside the big money TV deals of its Champions League, Europa League and national team competitions.
August 22 – Saudi Arabian pirate broadcaster beoutQ is showing no signs of easing up on its copyright theft, stealing every match of the round two of the new Premier League season for broadcast into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
August 22 – The English Football League (EFL) is halfway through its first midweek round of EFL fixtures to be streamed in the UK and Ireland. 31 games across the Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One and Sky Bet League Two will have been live-streamed by the end of tonight’s matches.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – The Saudi Arabian competition authority has today released a ruling that bans Qatari-based broadcaster beIN Sport from transmitting into the kingdom. The cancelling of the beIN Sport license means that the only way to view top level international football in Saudi Arabia will be illegally via the pirate channel beoutQ.
November 16 – France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) has written to the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission calling for support in investigating the piracy activities of Saudi-broadcast beoutQ and demanding the copyright theft is stopped.