BT Sport will broadcast the inaugural running of the Mexico City ePrix live in the U.K. on BT Sport Europe at 9:45pm on March 12. The fifth round of the '15-16 FIA Formula E Championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will also be streamed live online in the U.K. via YouTube, Dailymotion and through the official Formula E App and website. BT Sport already offers fans highlights of all Formula E races throughout the season (Formula E).
IRISH RACERS: At The Races announced that, along with partner SIS, the company has agreed to terms for a new media rights deal with Horse Racing Ireland and the Association of Irish Racecourses that will cover the period from Jan. '14 to Dec. '16. Under the terms of the new agreement "ATR will have exclusive, cross platform, non-LBO media rights worldwide to all Irish fixtures." SIS "retains all domestic and international betting shop rights under the terms of its current contract with HRI." The new agreement "includes significantly improved terms across multiple media rights revenue lines." As part of the new partnership, "ATR has offered HRI/ATR the opportunity to take up a seat on its board" (IRISH HORSE, 3/7).
MEDIA BRIEFS ...
Channel 4’s winter sports reality show The Jump has "escaped censure from the broadcasting regulator despite a string of complaints about serious injuries suffered by stars" including Olympians Beth Tweddle and Rebecca Adlington, and Holby City actor Tina Hobley. Ofcom has been "assessing 17 complaints by viewers about the level of danger to which contestants are subjected, after seven of an initial lineup of 12 celebrities were forced to pull out through injury." The most serious injury was to Tweddle, a gymnast who had "potentially life-changing" surgery to fuse fractured vertebrae following a crash on the ski jump (London GUARDIAN, 3/7).
Romania’s public broadcaster TVR faces the "prospect of insolvency but will not be declared bankrupt." Quoting Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the president of the country’s Senate, Mediafax reports that a package of legislative amendments to the Law on TV "will be prepared" by March 7 so that insolvency proceedings "can be initiated." However, TVR "cannot be declared bankrupt as it is a public institution." Tariceanu "stressed that parliament is not the only body that must act if TVR is to be saved" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/4).
The upcoming Formula 1 season will be broadcast exclusively in Spain by Movistar+, "but with one exception, the Spanish Grand Prix." The race, which will be held on May 15, will be available on the pay-TV platform, and also on both TVE and Catalan broadcaster TV3. Due to the "enormous interest that the race generates, TVE and TV3 agreed to share the rights to the race." The news was announced via Twitter (AS, 3/7).
