IMG renewed its global media rights contract with Swiss company Chassot Concept to distribute the Tour de Romandie in a multi-year deal across all platforms. The event will be held from April 24-29. Broadcast deals have already been secured through pan-regional partnerships with Discovery/Eurosport, DAZN, OSN, Kwesé Sports, SuperSports, fuboTV, ESPN and TDN (IMG).
Netflix will release globally on Feb. 16 the first three episodes of "First team: Juventus FC," a Netflix original docuseries following the Italian club. The second part will be released later this year. Netflix will follow stories and characters from the club during the '17-18 season, spending time with the players both on and off the field (Netflix).
Free-to-air broadcasters Q2 and Vier will "share rights in the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium" to the Champions League. Incumbent rights holder Q2, which is the sister channel of Flemish-language network VTM, "will continue to cover the tournament for the next three-season cycle, showing Wednesday matches live along with highlights." Vier will "begin its coverage from the beginning of next season, when it will show live games on Tuesday evenings" (SOCCEREX, 1/22).
Police officers from the National Police HQ in Lublin, Poland, arrested three men, who were charged with "illegally distributing both free-to-air and pay-TV digital television signals." The pirate service offered more than 160 TV channels and the police estimated that the men made nearly 3.5M zloty ($1.03M) in profits (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 1/21).
Eurosport will show a live Bundesliga game in Ultra HD for the first time. The match between Cologne and Borussia Dortmund will be transmitted in 4K quality on Feb. 2 "on UHD1 by HD+, the Ultra HD channel offered by German DTH platform HD+ on Astra (19.2° East)" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 1/22).
