The German Football League (DFL) and Chinese Internet company Baidu established a comprehensive strategic partnership. The cooperation makes the Bundesliga the first European football league to have an official web presence at Baidu. Baidu's offering includes the largest search engine in China and is one of the country's largest communications platforms. The partners will drive the expansion of digital product offerings for the Bundesliga's fans, placing the emphasis on premium content (DFL).
Discovery Communications created a new exclusive Olympic Games partnership opportunity for mobile operators with the launch of the first "Official Mobile Broadcaster" product. The Official Mobile Broadcaster designation will give mobile providers the exclusive opportunity to co-brand with the Olympic Rings (Discovery).
DirecTV "secured exclusive broadcasting rights" to the World Baseball Classic 2017 for Latin America. DirecTV will cover 30 games of the competition, including the final rounds, through its linear pay-TV channel DirecTV Sports and its online streaming platform. World Baseball Classic programming will be aired from March 6-22 (RAPID TV NEWS, 3/1).
Motor1.com announced the sixth language version of its digital platform. The dedicated Spanish-language edition complements its stable of English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Turkish editions which serve 12 markets. The Spanish-language edition will be managed by President of European Operations Geoff Love, and be supported by Senior VP of Business Development Gustavo Roche (Motor1.com). Motors TV will become Motorsport TV "after its acquisition by Miami-based Motorsport Network." The channel will retain its five feeds: U.K., France, Rest of Europe, North America and Latin America, and it "plans to develop new markets in Europe and the Americas" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/1).
Sunday’s Ligue 1 match between Olympique Marseille and Paris St. Germain delivered Canal+ "a record number of connections to its myCANAL app." At its peak, PSG’s 5-0 "drubbing of the home team reached close to 600,000 simultaneous connections." That represents an "increase of almost 20% compared to the previous record" set by the Champions League semifinal between Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid in May (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/1).
Live streaming from the Int'l Cricket Council Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last month attracted 1.75 million views while clips and highlights from the event attracted 17.8 million views on the ICC’s digital and social media channels. In all, nine matches of the 10-team tournament were live streamed on icc-cricket.com (ICC).
Canal Digital Kabel is "moving a number of Viasat Premium channels into its basic package." It means subscribers to the Norwegian cablenet "will be able to access Champions League and Spanish and Italian football." Around half a million households "will have access to the content" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/1).
ITN Productions has been appointed by the IAAF as host broadcaster for the 2017 IAAF World Relays in Nassau, the Bahamas, "following an extensive two-month tender process involving six companies." The ITN Productions live coverage "will feature 16-18 cameras and will incorporate digital and social media coverage." ITN Productions will provide an integrated live feed for int'l TV and radio rights holders of the opening and closing ceremonies, all races and medal ceremonies (ADVANCED TELEVISION, 3/1).
