While the Sydney Sevens sold out Allianz Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, the event "was an absolute stinker when it came to TV audiences, finishing a distant last on what was a jam-packed pay-TV sporting schedule." The final one-dayer between Australia and New Zealand "pulled in a national average audience of 183,000 viewers on the Sunday, followed by the Auckland Nines with 159,000, a tournament record." Roughly 114,000 tuned into the women’s Australian Football League match between Melbourne and Brisbane. The Sydney Sevens "averaged 31,000 viewers across the weekend, including 26,000 on Sunday" (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 2/9).
ManU is "ready to cash in on supporters worldwide" by launching a "premium" streaming app of its in-house TV channel. Exec Vice-Chair Ed Woodward "rolled out plans on Thursday, with content available to fans in more than 160 countries when set live later this year." Woodward revealed prices would range from £1.49 ($1.86) to £4.99 ($6.24) per month for "those who shell out on a live feed of MUTV with other additional features" (London DAILY MAIL, 2/9).
German sports channel Sport1 will "broadcast in Full HD quality" on commercial channel platform Freenet TV launching on March 29 via DVB-T2 in Germany. The carriage agreement has been signed between the Munich-based broadcaster and platform operator Media Broadcast. The DTT service "will offer around 20 unencrypted public channels and around 20 mainly encrypted commercial channels" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 2/9).
To celebrate one year until the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Eurosport released a new promotional film that will air across all of its platforms from Feb. 9-25. The 30-second film shows the athlete's preparation in the lead up to the Games with the message that there is now no turning back (Eurosport).
RTÉ will show all of Ireland’s Women’s Rugby World Cup games "plus the WRWC Final across TV, radio and online this August." RTÉ reached an agreement with eir Sport to sub-license all of Ireland’s Women’s Rugby World Cup games as well as the final in Kingspan Stadium, Belfast, on a non-exclusive basis. Meanwhile, eirSport, as the official rights holder, will show every game (IRISH TIMES, 2/9).
Abu Dhabi Sports "acquired the broadcasting rights for the relaunched Arab Club Championship to be held in Egypt this summer." According to the United Arab FA, "Abu Dhabi Sport the Egypt’s On will be the official broadcasters of the Arab Football Championship where 20 teams from across the Arab world will compete" for the chance to win $2.5M (THE NATIONAL, 2/9).
StarTimes Media "acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the Pakistan Super League" for the '17 and '18 seasons, securing the rights for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Star Times will broadcast the league through March 5, "with the number of matches having been increased in the new season from 16 to 18" (STANDARD MEDIA, 2/8).
OneTrace is bringing the technology "golfers experience on TV to life," through the launch of its tracking app, produced by mobile agency Nimbletank, in collaboration with OneFairway Ltd. The app brings ProTracer graphics and feedback on golfers' own shots to users' mobile devices (THE DRUM, 2/9).
