A U.K. source revealed that NBC Sports "will use native U.K. announcers" for its coverage of the Premier League from '13-16. NBC execs were in London last week "to present their coverage plans" to the league. NBC Chair Mark Lazarus said to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch: "We will be authentic to the land of the EPL." The Premier League was reportedly "very impressed by NBC's coverage plans" (EPL TALK, 2/11). ... ARD Werbung Sales & Services (AS&S), the marketing arm of German public broadcaster ARD, "has been satisfied with the start of the new year in regard to sports marketing." In addition to the Bundesliga-"Sportschau," the Handball World Championship and winter sports "have also helped to increase revenue." In comparison to the last Handball World Championship, the revenues for this year's tournament "have almost doubled." In additon, the Bundesliga-"Sportschau" has been able "to increase its revenue by 40% in comparison" to Jan. '12 (DWDL, 2/11).
STAY A WHILE: STAR India's new sports website, starsports.com, "has recorded the highest time spent by users on any sports website per visit." Visitors have spent as much as 19 minutes per visit and "viewed 342 years-equivalent of video in the first month" of the site's launch, "unprecedented for a cricket website" (Indian BUSINESS STANDARD, 2/6). ... The Australian Football League has selected video distribution company Rightster to launch live AFLTV, a subscription service providing access to live and on-demand AFL games to fans outside of Australia and New Zealand. AFLTV will be the only int'l service that offers access to every AFL match live and on-demand during the upcoming season (AFL). ... The Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) has announced it will continue its long-term cooperation in Japan with the NHK Global Media Services. Under the latest agreement, NHK Global Media Services will have exclusive rights to broadcast the UCI Road World Championships, the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Japan in '13 and '14 (UCI).
