Following problems with the Chivas TV broadcast of the Chivas-Monterrey Liga MX game on Saturday, Mexico's PROFECO (Federal Bureau of Consumer Interests) decided to "initiate an official investigation to review the difficulties." The goal of the investigation will be to determine "the responsibility of the provider for the issues that Chivas TV subscribers experienced" (EL UNIVERSAL, 7/27).
WBSC AWARDS RIGHTS: The World Baseball Softball Confederation announced that the host broadcasting rights, as well as the exclusive TV rights in Japan, for the WBSC U15 Baseball World Cup 2016 in Iwaki, Japan, have been awarded to J SPORTS Corp., the Tokyo-based cable and satellite TV network. WBSC also awarded the exclusive broadcast rights covering the Asian continent to six leading national networks. As part of the agreement, J SPORTS will serve as the host broadcaster of the III U15 Baseball World Cup, producing 27 of the 39 world championship games, which will open on Friday. J SPORTS will also hold the exclusive TV rights in Japan for the U15 Baseball World Cup, bringing live, daily action across three of its four channels to its network of 6.5 million subscribers (WBSC).
BIKE CHANNEL WINS RACE: The 2016 Tour of Britain will be shown live on the Bike Channel this September after the broadcaster won the pay-TV rights to the race. The channel, available on Sky, Virgin and Freesat, "will show three hours of live coverage on each of the eight stages," starting in Glasgow on Sept. 4. Over 17 million households in the U.K. "are able to receive the Bike Channel" (CYCLING WEEKLY, 7/27).
BEST MONTH EVER: The BBC’s "Summer of Sport" has led to the "best ever June" on the BBC iPlayer. Events such as the Wimbledon Tennis championships and Euro 2016 led to 290 million requests across TV and radio. This represents an increase of 6% on May and a rise of 39 million requests on June '15. The Home Nations football match between England and Wales at Euro 2016 was the most requested program in June (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 7/27).
BOOSTING ENGAGEMENT: Euroleague Basketball announced its collaboration with digital analytics company baresquare to deliver behavioral insight and evaluate online activity during the '15-16 season, including the Final Four. Initial results prove that the Euroleague's online audience has grown significantly over the last five years (Euroleague).
MEDIA BRIEFS ...
German mobile network operator Telefónica Deutschland "will offer its customers the possibility to watch movies, series and live sports from pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland including Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League games."
Access will be via OTT service Sky Ticket (formerly Sky Online) through which Sky offers its progamming are "without a regular subscription." O2 customers will be able to access the program starting in January (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 7/27).
An agreement has been reached between Portuguese networks NOS and Meo over the sharing of sports rights. It means that NOS subscribers will have access to Porto Canal, while Meo customers will be able to see Benfica TV, where NOS holds the rights. The value of the agreement is not known (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 7/27).
Polish national commercial broadcaster Telewizja Polsat plans to launch a new sports channel on Monday. The service, offered in HD, will be known as Polsat Sport Fight, "commercial-free and on air seven days a week for at least 18 hours daily" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 7/27).
