German free-to-air sports channel Sport1 has secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the inaugural European Games -- Baku 2015. Sport1 will show all 17 days of the competition on free-TV. The channel will air a minimum of 45 hours on free-TV, most of it live, including the opening and closing ceremonies (German Olympic Sports Association). ... Portuguese sports network Sport TV will televise live coverage of every round of the '14-15 FIA Formula E Championship. In a deal brokered by int'l media company MP & Silva, Sport TV will air each race live, with all shows featuring comprehensive race coverage together with a round-up of the event’s practice and qualifying sessions, plus news, features and driver interviews. Sport TV, which has an estimated 480,000 subscribers, will also televise a 60-minute Formula E highlights program to review the action from each event (Formula E). ... Research from IMR Publications and social media analyst numKrunch revealed that Barcelona has become the world's first sports club to reach 100 million social media followers. The club now has 75 million Facebook followers with a further 25 million on Twitter, YouTube and Google+. Real Madrid is second with 88 million and ManU third with 67 million (Barcelona). ... Sports broadcast and digital media services firm deltatre announced the opening of its new branch in Geneva, Switzerland (deltatre). ... BT Sport confirmed a four-year commitment to show England
development team matches, beginning with the U21 European
Championship playoff match against Croatia on Friday. BT Sport will also cover one England U17 game and one England U19 game
each season over this four-year period (FA). ... ManU captain Wayne Rooney is the first U.K. sportsperson "to rack up more than 10 million followers" on Twitter. Rooney's Twitter following "would fill out Old Trafford 172 times over," with 74% of his followers based abroad. Rooney is the fifth-most followed footballer on Twitter "and still has some way to go before catching up with his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo," who has more than 30 million followers (London EVENING STANDARD, 10/6).
