Throughout Disney and Comcast's bidding war for most of 21st Century Fox's assets, Comcast "appears to have been on the outside looking in," and a big reason is Comcast Chair & CEO Brian Roberts' "strained relationships" with Fox Exec Chair Rupert Murdoch and Disney Chair & CEO Bob Iger. At one point last fall, Roberts and other top Comcast execs "thought they were near the deal of a lifetime" to buy Fox's assets. Then "everything went quiet," and weeks later, Fox announced a deal with Disney. Roberts "took the outcome personally." A source said, “Rupert loves Bob Iger, though their politics are completely different. He doesn’t want Brian Roberts" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/21).
Eleven Sports will launch a new sports service branded My Sports in Myanmar. The southeast Asian country becomes Eleven Sports' eleventh market. My Sports secured multi-year, global live rights to the Myanmar National Football League (MNL). From '19, it will deliver all 132 matches on a new linear service via satellite and OTT platforms through '27. Currently, only one-third of MNL matches are shown live (Eleven Sports).
The France-Peru World Cup match on Thursday, which France won 1-0, drew an average audience of 10.7 million viewers on TF1 in France. The number translated to a 66% market share and had a peak audience of 13.7 million. Co-broadcaster beIN Sports did not release its viewing numbers. TF1 also broadcast Thursday’s Argentina-Croatia match, which Croatia won 3-0, drawing 5.7 million viewers for a 28.8% market share (L’ÉQUIPE, 6/22).
