Women's cricket "received a boost" after Channel 5 agreed to a deal with the England & Wales Cricket Board to broadcast highlights of England matches until the end of the '19 season. The agreement means that women's cricket will be shown on terrestrial TV for the first time since the 1993 World Cup final. From '20, the BBC has the rights to show "highlights and some live women's matches" (LONDON TIMES, 8/10).
WWE and PPTV announced WWE Network will be available in China for the first time beginning on Aug. 18, launching exclusively on PPTV as a subscription on-demand service featuring all WWE live pay-per-view events. PPTV customers can also download the PPTV app and watch WWE Network content via smart TVs, set-top boxes, mobile devices and tablets (WWE).
Eleven Sports secured an agreement with the Drone Champions League to deliver live and exclusive coverage of the remaining five events in the '17 season. Coverage of each event will be shown in Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S. on an exclusive basis and in Luxembourg on a non-exclusive basis. Eleven Sports will also show a 26-minute magazine show linked to each round (Eleven Sports).
German pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland will "launch its OTT service for sports fans in Switzerland" on Aug. 17. All sports for which Sky owns the broadcast rights in Germany and Austria can be streamed in Switzerland through the web and via iOS and Android apps on smartphones and tablets. In the "forthcoming months," an app for smart TV sets and Apple TV will be released (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 8/10).
Bloomberg Media Distribution announced a partnership with Niche Sport Media to distribute its coverage of sporting events including football, boxing, golf, rugby league and cricket. The partnership began Thursday (Bloomberg).
German photographer Rainer W. Schlegelmilch's photo archive of more than 600,000 motorsport images was acquired by Motorsport Network. Schlegelmilch's collection, which dates to '62, will be added to the LAT Images archive which became part of Motorsport Network last year (Motorsport Network).
The Women’s Rugby World Cup match between France and Japan, which France won 72-14, drew an average audience of 673,000 viewers to France 4, translating to a 3% market share. Eurosport 2 also broadcast the match but did not release its audience numbers (L’ÉQUIPE, 8/10).
