German public broadcaster ZDF "is open for partnerships with commercial competitors" to improve its chances in "bidding races for attractive sports rights" after losing the rights for the UEFA Champions League and the Olympic Games (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 6/23).
The Int'l Cricket Council announced the ICC Women's World Cup will be the first global sports event to launch Twitter emojis for captains as part of an unprecedented level of digital coverage for the women's game. There is also a #WW17 trophy emoji and GIF that has been launched as part of the ICC's ongoing partnership with Twitter (ICC).
Sports streaming service DAZN wants to match the "customer figure" of German pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland after buying the UEFA Champions League rights for Germany and Austria. DAZN CEO James Rushton said, "That's something we have to achieve. In the medium to long term, success means have the same customer level as Sky." Sky currently has 4.9 million subs in Germany and Austria (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 6/25).
The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) is the first national football federation to join the Dugout platform, which launched in '16. The FPF will use Dugout to publish content covering activity across all of its national teams (FPF).