International Sports Coverage

Thought long about this, maybe will develop momentum and become a long standing thread, if not the Asa and the mods might merge it with it, I think as there's specified overspill into NI, Ireland should stay in the main Sport Thread

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ESPN ... has it a future and is it correctly focussed ... from Bloomberg Businessweek

The main SportsCenter studio at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., is a blue-lit box. The ceiling is as high as a cathedral’s, and there’s enough floor space to land a helicopter. Screens are everywhere. “We have about 150 different monitors in here and, of course, miles of LED lighting,” says Aaron LaBerge, the sports network’s chief technology officer, during a recent tour. The hosts’ desk faces a wall of screens that jut out and recede like a giant chest of drawers. To one side, there’s a six-panel touchscreen that can slide apart and come together with the push of a button; a more modest 84-inch touchscreen across the way displays an interactive bracket for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. The show’s producers can also summon virtual screens from the floor so that, say, the shooting stats of Oregon sophomore Tyler Dorsey can appear to viewers to float miraculously in the middle of the room. “It’s probably one of the most technically sophisticated broadcast and content centers in the world,” LaBerge says of the building that houses this studio and four others.


continued here ….. ……..

NEWS on BLOOMBERG.COM
30-Mar-2017 @ 19:58

ESPN are in real trouble .....

Meanwhile PSB ZDF have reportedly lost UEFACL/EL to Pay channels Sky Deutschland and DAZN.

^That doesn't surprise me since the same thing happened here in the UK.

Bringing the ESPN story back to the UK could their current woes be the opportunity for BT to finally dump the ESPN branding. Not sure if the channel is a joint venture or whether BT just licence the name but suspect any value retaining the ESPN branding had initially for BT has now gone now they're established as BT Sport.

The ESPN branding doesn't add anything. Yes, there is a lot of content which is a direct rebroadcast of ESPN, but there are also direct rebroadcasts of other US networks, and they don't just get broadcast on BT Sport ESPN. Likewise there are sports that you wouldn't associate with the ESPN brand going out on BT Sport ESPN. In a similar way that the BT Sport Europe brand caused problems, they would be better off rebranding it as BT Sport 4, and I suspect the only reason they haven't is because they are tied to a seven-year deal that started in 2015.

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/bt/pressreleases/bt-sport-and-espn-deepen-relationship-with-long-term-collaboration-1116647

Interestingly that release says they have the "opportunity" to use the ESPN brand, rather than the obligation.

Major news from France

BeIN and Canal Plus lose UEFA CL&EL rights to SFR

Not sure if this is the right place to put this but Bein sports has been removed from all TV services in the UAE following the dispute between 6 GCC countries and Qatar. Presume it's the same in all 6 countries. All Ajzeera channels have been removed.

Bein hold the sports rights to the football across the Middle East, wonder how the channels availability will effect the rights come the new football season.

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/bein-sports-blocked-in-the-uae-as-diplomatic-row-with-qatar-deepens
http://sport360.com/article/other/arab-world/236260/uae-sports-fans-in-search-of-alternative-after-bein-sports-channels-are-suspended-in-the-emirates/

If, as has been speculated, Qatar pulls the plug on Al Jazeera in order to try and placate it's neighbours, I wonder what will happen to Bein? It's more of a commercial enterprise than it's sister stations so it might survive or be sold off

Is this deal similar to what happened in the UK?
Former sports subscription tv channel losing the rights and going to a Telecom companies pay tv channel?

An almighty mess with the EFL international rights awards for this season, it's already begun and several important markets are still not contracted (Australia being one) or have had their provider switched (US) very late last week.

International fans are less than amused.

Massive night for Discovery / Eurosport as they launch their Bundesliga coverage in Germany. They've become junior rights partners from this season.