Football journalist Mark Ogden will join ESPN as a senior football writer in November. In the role, Ogden will write football news, columns, match analysis and features. He will also report from on-site at major football events and utilize his position as a football insider to break news and land exclusive interviews. Ogden, who joins from the London Independent, will also contribute on ESPN's TV programming around the world -- including daily football program ESPN FC and periodic reports for flagship show SportsCenter (ESPN).
QUALIFIER RATINGS: France’s 2018 World Cup qualifying win over the Netherlands “drew 6.6 million viewers on TF1,” with a peak audience of 7.6 million. The numbers translated to a 26% market share. The match “helped the channel top the audience numbers for the night” (L’ÉQUIPE, 10/11).
SPORTS REALITY: Dutch-based Insight TV has commissioned the "first sports reality programme filmed in HDR." The channel is showing The 30//10 Challenge in HDR, an "adventure stunt series that follows action sport athletes Sam Hardy and Nathan Jones on their journey to create and complete ten unique challenges over the course of of thirty days." The 30//10 Challenge is produced by The Go Big Project, a production company based in L.A. which is "currently creating fifty hours of Ultra HD 50P content for Insight TV" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 10/11).
MEDIA BRIEFS ...
Euroleague Basketball and Israel's Sports Channel signed a deal that will keep Euroleague games on the Sports Channel through the end of the '21-22 season, with an option for an additional three seasons. The new agreement will give the Sports Channel more games to show. As part of the new agreement, Sports Channel will also have the rights to the weekly Euroleague highlights show (Euroleague).
TSN announced Tim Hortons as the returning title sponsor for Canada's most-watched daily hockey news and information show, That's Hockey. Along with being a title sponsor, the Tim Hortons brand will continue to be integrated into the show (Tim Hortons).
