The U.K. government "boosted" Comcast in its battle with 21st Century Fox for control of Sky by signalling it "will not face the same close scrutiny that has delayed the Murdoch takeover." U.K. Culture Secretary Matt Hancock said that he was "minded not to intervene" in Comcast's offer. Hancock has the "power to trigger an investigation of the effect a combination of Comcast and Sky would have on media plurality" (London TELEGRAPH, 5/21).
Argentina’s Federal System of Public Media & Content launched a new OTT platform to livestream the World Cup. The public broadcaster unveiled the platform, called Contar, at the NexTV conference in Buenos Aires. Contar, which is accessible online and via an app for iOS and Android, will provide live streaming on free-TV channels including TV Pública, Paka Paka, DeporTV and Encuentro, as well as video on demand content (SOCCEREX, 5/22).
The World Cup will be shown on Sport 24, the world's first and only live sports channel for the int'l airline industry. Owned and operated by IMG, Sport 24 will show the tournament on over 750 planes across its network of int'l airline partners. All 64 matches of the tournament will be broadcast live across Sport 24 and its additional channel, Sport 24 Extra (IMG).
Eleven Sports will continue its live coverage of the Premier League in Taiwan after agreeing to a new exclusive three-year partnership starting from the '19-20 season. Eleven Sports will have exclusive rights to all 380 games each season and deliver at least six matches live each week in the local language, with exclusive highlights and near live clips for social media (Eleven Sports).
Eurosport launched a new channel for the French Open, with every match from Roland Garros available in UHD for the first time. The channel will be branded Eurosport 4K and available in the U.K. (via Sky Q^ and Virgin TV), France (via Canal), Germany (via HD+), Spain (via Orange) and more markets to be confirmed. It is the first time Eurosport will broadcast a live sporting event in UHD in multiple markets at one time (Eurosport).
A man was sentenced to 10 months in prison for selling illegal TV devices and for re-offending "since being prosecuted and sentenced for the same crime" in Oct. '16. William Marston appeared at Norwich Crown Court on May 4 after pleading guilty to selling unauthorized decoders, in contravention of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 5/22).
