In London, Alex Martin notes The Masters will "remain free-to-air" in the U.K. after the BBC "announced a new multi-year deal to broadcast" the event. Although coverage of the first and second round "remains the reserve of Sky Sports, the BBC have kept their rights to show the third and final round live and will also have extensive highlights of Thursday and Friday." The news "brings an end to speculation that the BBC were ready to end their 50-year association with the tournament as they come under pressure from the government to cut back on spending" (DAILYMAIL.co.uk, 3/14).
LAX ON TV: Xumo, an ad-based OTT aggregation service for smart TVs and mobile devices, is "expanding its content slate after striking a deal" with the NLL. Xumo will "provide live and on-demand access to games and highlights from the North America men’s pro indoor lacrosse league and from its recently launched NLLTV subscription-based digital network." The partnership "extends access to non-subscribers to NLLTV, offering games and highlights after they’ve run on the digital network" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 3/14).
WORLD PREMIERE: FuboTV, which launched in '15, is "pushing toward a commercial launch of a flagship 'Premiere' package." FuboTV co-Founder & CEO David Gandler said that FuboTV’s "focus on a sports-laden basic package, with a heavy emphasis on soccer and the inclusion of regional sports networks from NBC Sports Group and Fox Sports, is already a differentiator." FuboTV has not released any recent subscriber figures, but Gandler said that the service "set a record of delivering between 47 million and 48 million minutes of video in February and is on track to double that in March" (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 3/13).
