Major League Soccer expansion team Atlanta United "landed a major coup" by signing veteran BBC broadcaster Alan Green as its play-by-play commentator. Green will begin his new job "after the Champions League final," starting with the club’s June 17 match at home against Columbus Crew. Green, 64, is a veteran BBC radio broadcaster "who has covered seven World Cups, eight European Championships as well as numerous other finals." He will return to England to continue his BBC duties in late autumn, and "is likely to be free to work for Atlanta next summer after revealing last year that he would boycott the 2018 World Cup in Russia" (London TELEGRAPH, 3/28).
AMC Networks Int'l -- Central Europe signed a three-year contract extension with Pragosport to "broadcast Formula 1 exclusively in the Czech Republic and Slovakia." The agreement, which runs through '20, secures "exclusive live coverage of all races and qualifying sessions" of F1 plus the broadcasts of the support races, Formula 2 and GP3 (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/28).
Live sports streaming portal DAZN "acquired the rights" to show all Major League Baseball games in the next four seasons. The agreement, of which financial details were not disclosed, "covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland." The OTT service "will screen up to four matches per day and a total of more than 600 season games" including the regular season, the all-star game, the postseason and the World Series (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 3/28).
The 2017 Formula 1 season kicked off with record interactions on social media. Over 296,600 fans attended the Albert Park track in Melbourne for the season's opening race. Since Monday, there have been 230 million impressions across all platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which drove nearly 6 million engagements as well as 27 million video views (F1).
Sky extended its sport offering with the new Sky Sport Highlights app. The app offers users highlights, pre and postgame interviews, build up, talking points and reaction (Sky TV).
The ProD2 match between Béziers and Colomiers drew an average audience of 107,000 viewers on Eurosport 2, “a record for a ProD2 match” for the channel. Sunday’s game, which Béziers won 41-27, attracted a peak audience of 148,000 (L’ÉQUIPE, 3/27).
The Open agreed to a media partnership with Man City as part of its ongoing efforts to leverage the "global marketing reach" of Premier League clubs and "tap into the popularity of golf among football fans" ahead of the 146th staging of the championship. The partnership will see both The Open and Man City deliver exclusive content across their digital portfolios ahead of the tournament this July. As part of the collaboration, the Claret Jug tour will stop by Man City’s store within the stadium campus. The trophy will also be on display at the club’s hospitality golf days (THE DRUM, 3/28).
