Former ManU player Gary Neville "is set to return to his role as a pundit on Sky Sports in time for the start of the new Premier League season." Neville quit Sky last December "to take charge of Valencia but his first stint in management was a disaster as he was sacked after just four months in charge of the Spanish club." Neville "is likely to resume his double act with Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football."
He will work with a different host on next season's show though, with Dave Jones "set to front the broadcast in place of Ed Chamberlin, who is leaving Sky to be the face of ITV's horse racing coverage" (London DAILY MIRROR, 6/15).
Former England and Premier League player Dion Dublin "was reportedly trained for his role as a BBC TV presenter" with £50,000 ($71,000) from a fund that "aimed to boost on-screen ethnic minority representation." Dublin, who "earned tens of thousands of pounds a week in a 20-year career" at clubs including ManU and Aston Villa, "is the biggest single beneficiary of the BBC’s Diversity Creative Talent Fund." The BBC’s fund, launched in '14, provides £2.1M ($3M) a year "to help develop potential talent from ethnic minority groups that are under-represented on TV" (London GUARDIAN, 6/15).
Germany’s multimedia sports platform Sport1 launched a free mobile app with news and live data from the world of esports. The Sport1 esports app offers the latest news, statistics, and background, as well as results, pictures, and videos from all the big esports games, leagues, and tournaments at a glance. The German-language app is available now, free of charge, for Android at Google Play and for iOS at the App Store. Added to this, Sport1, as an official partner of ESL, launched a dedicated online store with selected esports merchandise (Sport1).
German pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland "has added" the ATP to its tennis rights, which currently only consist of Wimbledon. Sky "agreed to a three-year deal with ATP for exclusive live rights in Germany and Austria from '17-19" (SPONSORs, 6/15).
