German car and motorsports channel Motorvision TV will "continue to show" U.S. motorsports series NASCAR live and exclusively. The new three-year contract which has now been signed "covers all 37 yearly races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series which the pay-TV channel can show in full length in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein." The agreement runs until the end of the '19 racing season. Motorvision TV "transmits via satellite and IPTV on the Sky Deutschland platform as well as on OTT service Mobile2Morrow" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 11/30).
Global media service provider MX1 has "signed a multi-year contract to support pay-TV broadcaster Sky in taking its first steps into free-to-air TV in Germany and Austria." On Thursday, the broadcaster’s 24-hour sports news channel Sky Sport News HD "will drop its encryption and become available free-to-air on Astra." MX1, a subsidiary of Astra satellite operator SES, was "chosen to deliver the technological services to make this happen, including uplink, signal encoding and transmission of the SD channel via Astra" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 12/1).
The Euroleague Game of the Week between Fenerbahce Istanbul and Real Madrid is poised to set another record in European basketball by attracting an int'l TV audience from 201 countries and territories. That new total is the highest ever for the broadcast of a non-Final Four game in Euroleague history. The mark comes just two weeks after 200 countries saw Madrid defeat Barcelona in another Game of the Week (Euroleague).