National League North side FC United of Manchester has been told it "must comply with competition rules" after the club opposed the decision to move its FA Cup tie against Chesterfield for TV coverage. The club, formed in '05 by ManU supporters opposed to American businessman Malcolm Glazer's takeover, "is owned and democratically run by its supporters." The club recently "declined a request from the BBC" to move its FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie against Sporting Khalsa to accommodate a "brand new BBC Mobile Match of the Day Live experience," insisting that "football is not a TV gameshow" (PA, 10/28). ... Le Sports, the Asian Football Confederation and Lagadère Sports announced that Le Sports has been awarded the exclusive media rights in China for the AFC's portfolio of '17-20 events. This deal marks the first time a new media company has been granted such extensive privileges. Le Sports' agreement with the AFC includes all-media broadcasting and signal production rights for over 1,000 matches across 12 events at both the club and national team levels from '17-20 (Lagadère Sports). ... The Int'l Cricket Council announced that tender documents for the provision of non-live programming services for '16-19 are available on application from interested parties. The ICC is seeking proposals from production houses in respect of ICC event programming, including historical documentaries, event preview series and official films (ICC). ... Sport1 acquired platform-neutral, audiovisual broadcasting rights to the NBA for pay-TV channel Sport1 US for the '15-16 and '16-17 seasons from London-based Perform Group as part of a sublicense agreement. The league will be broadcast live for the next two years on Sport1 US in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sport1 US will show up to 120 games per season from the regular season, playoffs and the NBA Finals. As in previous years, the channel will show three games per week live or relive (Sport1).
