Perform Group Signs Video Content Deals With L.A. Times, Sporting News

U.K.-based digital sports outfit The Perform Group has signed video content partnerships with the L.A. Times and Sporting News, expanding its profile for its ePlayer product. Perform syndicates official highlights from numerous sports properties, including the NBA, MLB, NASCAR and NHL, and now has distribution deals with more than 1,000 publisher websites in 20 territories around the world. The Times deal gives Perform a strong foothold in the No. 2 U.S. media market, while Sporting News marks a major national outlet to supplement its more local and regional base of media partnerships. Sporting News is owned by American City Business Journals, parent company of THE DAILY and SportsBusiness Journal. "These are big steps toward filling in the puzzle of distribution, and allows us to keep going after ad budgets in a much stronger way," said Perform Americas Managing Dir Juan Delgado. The new deals arrive just as Perform marks one year since the launch of the ePlayer in the U.S. Since then, Perform has signed distribution deals with more than 300 sites, struck an ad sales partnership with Silver Chalice New Media's Season, risen to third among comScore's most-watched online sports video destinations and created an online network of college sports programming called Total College Sports. "We're in line with where we want to be at this point, but there's certainly more programming we want to have available (including the NFL)," Delgado said.