Ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final, it was revealed that 5,100 illegal streams "were detected over the internet during the knockout stages of the competition." Irdeto, which researched the data, said that pirates are "using a variety of means to continue their illegal streams," with the web being the main distribution vehicle. A total of 2,121 web-based streams were detected, with a further 2,093 streams detected across social media channels (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 5/23).
Fox Sports Latin America renewed its Champions League and Europa League rights for Latin America (excluding Brazil) and the Caribbean for the next three seasons (Fox Sports).
ESPN Caribbean and the England & Wales Cricket Board announced a five-year agreement for exclusive multimedia rights to to the ECB from '18-22. ESPN will air live coverage in the Caribbean of all int'l and domestic cricket in England and Wales over the next five summers (ESPN).
M7 Group will deliver World Cup matches live in ultra HD to all subscribers of Canal Digitaal following an agreement with satellite operator SES and Dutch public broadcaster NPO/NOS. The World Cup matches will be delivered live in UHD to all of M7 Group’s Canal Digitaal subscribers via a dedicated channel called NPO UHD (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 5/23).
The Rugby Football League and Super League launched a new live streaming service offering live games from the Super League and Challenge Cup direct to "fans around the globe who live in territories not already covered by an exclusive broadcast agreement." Fans in over 100 new countries "are now able to watch the action from the northern hemisphere" (RUNNING RUGBY, 5/21).
