On Saturday, during Movistar+’s “El club de la Formula 1” (“The Formula 1 club”), the channel “mistakenly aired several seconds of porn.” Viewers “made Movistar+ aware of the issue via social media.” Movistar+ said that the error “was due to a switching problem,” as another channel carrying a porn film overlapped with the F1 program (MUNDO DEPORTIVO, 2/28).
The Ligue 1 match between Olympique de Marseille and Paris St. Germain drew the second-best audience of the season for Canal+. Sunday’s game attracted an average audience of 1.7 million, translating to a 37.1% market share. The match, which PSG won 5-1, drew a peak audience of 2.1 million (L’ÉQUIPE, 2/27).
Formula 1's new owners "signaled a break from the Bernie Ecclestone era on Monday by giving teams and drivers greater freedom to engage with fans on social media from inside the circuit confines." Ecclestone was "famously skeptical about social media and highly controlling of all video content from inside the paddock." Liberty Media made fan engagement a "priority" and is "determined to build the brand through social media and digital channels." Teams were told they could now "shoot short-form video for use on the team's own social channels" from inside the paddock (REUTERS, 2/27).
Willow TV, the "primary broadcaster for cricket in North America," acquired the exclusive media rights in the U.S. for the Indian Premier League 2017 Twenty20 tournament. The IPL is "the world's leading professional cricket tournament, with record-breaking fan attendance and multimedia consumption." Over 1.4 million households watched the Int'l Cricket Council World Twenty20 on Willow in '16. The IPL 2017 starts on April 5 (INDIAN TELEVISION, 2/28).
There is a provision to review the Gaelic Athletic Association's current media rights deal "in light of the new football championship structures adopted at Congress," although this is "unlikely to add significantly to the number of live televised games." Saturday's decision to adopt Motion 4 will add eight extra games to the football championship season as part of the "Super 8" round-robin groups, which also replace the All-Ireland quarterfinal stage (IRISH TIMES, 2/27).
Sunset+Vine, the U.K.-based production house that handles the broadcast of the Pakistan Super League, "has withdrawn its services for the league's final which will be played in Lahore on March 5." Dubai-based Innovative Production Group "will handle production of the Lahore match." Sunset+Vine, which handled the broadcast for the PSL in its inaugural edition last year, informed the Pakistan Cricket Board through an email last week about its "reluctance to travel to Lahore" (ESPN.com, 2/28).
Football media platform Goal.com "launched a new interactive chat show exclusively on Facebook Live featuring a full studio production sponsorship from deodorant brand Sure." The "Studs Up" show will air every Thursday at 8pm, live from London's Gfinity esports arena, and will be hosted by Rory Jennings, "best known for his work on YouTube," alongside Mock the Week's Nathan Caton and CapitalXtra DJ and presenter Emma Conybeare (THE DRUM, 2/28).
Mumbai-based Zee Entertainment Enterprise said that it completed the first phase of a two-phase sale of its sport business, TEN Sports Network, to Sony Pictures and received $330M. The second phase of the transaction is "expected to be concluded" within the "next few months" (PTI, 2/28)
