MUMBAI: The English Premier League has reaffirmed its position as the most popular football league in the world following a record breaking television deal worth ?3.018 billion with pay TV broadcaster Sky Sports and British Telecom for the UK market.

BSkyB, which has built its British sports broadcasting business on the back of Premier League, has secured five of the seven packages totalling 116 matches while British Telecom has secured two packages totalling up to 38 matches for seasons 2013/14 to 2015/16.

The deal represents an increase of ?1.25 billion on the current broadcast settlement, which shares rights between BSkyB and ESPN, which has lost out on the rights this time around despite a strong bid. Sky will fork out ?2.3 billion for the audio-visual rights over the three year period, while BT will pay ?738 million.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League (BPL) on multiple platforms in 18 markets across Asia including: India, Indonesia, East Timor, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, North & South Korea, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and in partnership with Astro for Malaysia & Brunei.

Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore said, "As ever, the security provided by broadcast revenues will enable our clubs to continue to invest in all aspects of their football activities and plan sustainably for the foreseeable future. This deal allows them to keep delivering what fans want; top quality football in some of world?s best club stadia and an increasing focus on and commitment to areas such as Youth Development."

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports, the exclusive Asian rights holder for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) domestic and home international matches, has entered into an agreement with Al Jazeera Sport for the television broadcast rights of the Friends Life Twenty20 2012.

The deal marks a significant landmark for cricket broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa with Al Jazeera Sport televising cricket for the first time ever with live coverage of 25 matches from ECB?s domestic Twenty20 league scheduled to take place from 12 June to 25 August.

Covering terrestrial, cable and satellite television rights, the collaboration between Asian sports content provider and the biggest sport broadcaster in the Pan-Arab & Mena region will bring the exciting action from the Friends Life Twenty20 available to numerous cricket fans in the region.

ESS SVP corporate development & cricket rights Anurag Dahiya said, ?We are very pleased with the strong interest shown by Al Jazeera Sports in cricket. These arrangements promise to extend the popularity and reach of ECB?s events with the aim of raising the profile of the sport in the region, building on from last year?s highly successful ICC Cricket World Cup.?

ESPN Star Sports licenses ECB broadcast rights throughout North Africa and the Middle East along with various other parts of Asia. In addition, ESS? international cricket syndication business includes global distribution of marquee properties such as International Cricket Council events & Champions League T20 as well as Cricket Australia?s events (in Asia and North Africa).

ESS had recently renewed its media rights deal with ECB for Asian market after committing to pay a premium of $200 million for the seven year deal that runs till 2019.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has renewed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rights for seven years.

This will include the multi-platform rights to broadcast its domestic and international matches in England.

The deal, which runs from 2013 to 2019, incorporates rights for television, online, mobile and radio, covering India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among others across Asia. The broadcast arrangement also includes territories in North Africa.

As a part of this agreement, ESS will broadcast more than 300 days of live International cricket action, including 47 Test Matches, 63 One Day Internationals and 15 Twenty20 games.

Key highlights of this new agreement include India?s next two tours to England in 2014 and 2018 as well as three Ashes series in 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Major Test playing nations will be competing in England, including New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.

In addition, ESS will broadcast 60 days of ECB?s domestic cricket every year, including the Friends Life T20 competition, the CB40 tournament, the LV=County Championship, as well as England Lions, England Under 19s and England Women?s cricket. Specifically for the Indian subcontinent, the exciting cricket action will be available during prime time making it a very interesting proposition for fans and advertisers alike.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, "We are delighted to further extend our partnership with ECB with whom we have shared a very strong relationship over the past two decades."

ECB CEO David Collier said, "This new agreement demonstrates the enormous appetite for cricket worldwide and the global pulling power of a successful England team and a vibrant County game.

"In a challenging economic climate with all sports facing tough competition for funding streams, it will also provide an important source of additional revenue for funding the development of our game at all levels.

"TV audiences for cricket are expanding rapidly in Asia and the Middle-East and we look forward to working closely with ESS to give both our international and county teams the widest possible TV exposure over the next seven years."

ESS had earlier renewed its deal with Cricket Australia in December 2011. That was the first time that a broadcast deal with Cricket Australia gave ESS rights to showcase two India series. India is slated to play four Test matches and a tri-series with England as the third team in the 2014-2015 season. This tri-series, featuring India, Australia and England and scheduled right before the ICC World Cup in 2015 is already looked upon as the signature event of the year and is positioned as the ?Clash of the Titans?. India will visit Australia again for7 ODIs and2 Twenty20 matches in the year 2015-2016. More recently Star india had bagged the rights for india cricket. Those rights will be sub licensed to ESS gioving the broadcaster a dominant position in cricket.

ESS over the next 13 months, will have over 400 match days of cricket starting with the ongoing West Indies? tour of England to all the way to ICC Champions Trophy in England in June 2013.

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MUMBAI: Gearing up for the London Olympics, leading Asian sports network ESPN Star Sports will offer extensive broadcast of the Olympic Games with more than 3,800 hours of coverage across 15 channels which includes round-the-clock coverage on ESPN, Star Sports, ESPN HD and ESPNEWS during the Games.

The London Olympics will be held from 27 July to 12 August.

The coverage will also comprise 10 dedicated high-definition ESS channels covering the London 2012 Olympic Games live. In addition, key events will be showcased in 3D for the very first time on ESPN Star Sports? 3D channel.

The broadcaster had secured the exclusive non-standard television rights including cable & satellite television from the International Olympic Committee for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games for 22 countries across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia.

In the lead up to the event the broadcaster will showcase more than 660 hours of comprehensive programming which will showcase stories behind the Olympic milestones, and iconic feats that have left a legacy in the history of sports including historical archive footage chronicling the last two decades, as well as exclusive athlete interviews.

Headlining the list of programmes is ESS? exclusively-produced new documentary series ?Living the Dream? that focuses on the best sporting talents from Asia and their Olympic aspirations, starting 3 June. Hosted by SportsCenter anchor Christy Simson, the extensively researched eight-part programme follows the lives of 24 athletes from Malaysia, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Among the Indian athletes who have been profiled includes Mary Kom, the first female Indian boxer to qualify for the London Olympics, shooter Ronjan Singh Sodhi who is a four-time gold medalist in the World Cup, and boxer Vijender Singh, a bronze medalist at the 2008 Olympics Games.

In addition, ESS will also air Golden Moments which showcase vignettes of the greatest and most inspiring athletes in Olympics history, while Olympic Stars chronicle the biggest and brightest athletes that shined in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

Contemporary features include rivalries that defined the Olympic Games in Champions and Challengers, game-changing Olympic moments in Olympic Peaks, which details the advances in sports and the science of human performance.

Documentaries that take a historic perspective of the Olympic Games include the IOC Official Films and Olympic Sports, which depict the progression of major sports over the years and delves into the advances in strength, technique and artistry that defy limits and set standards.

Sports fans can also take a closer look at iconic images in Olympic history and the personal stories behind them on The Games Through the Lens that includes Bob Beamon?s spectacular leap of the century in the 1968 long jump, while the Story of Women at the Games traces the evolution of women?s participation at the Games.

ESS will also broadcast a weekly current affairs programme on the Games? preparations on Host City London, as well as a documentary about the evolution of the Games on the Olympic Spirit.

The London 2012 Games will feature over 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries around the world covering 302 events in 26 sports.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports, the JV between Walt Disney‘s ESPN and News Corp‘s Star Sports, has snapped up La Liga exclusive broadcast rights for the Singapore market for 2012/13 and 2014/15 seasons.

ESS will provide coverage across all platforms through its broadcast channels and popular online offering ESPN Player, and the well-established mobile brand Mobile ESPN. The deal also includes the option to showcase select games from La Liga in 3-D.

Fans in Singapore can look forward to catching some of the best players in the world with improved kick-off time to suit local audiences when ESS begins its coverage of La Liga, showcasing up to 250 live games across its channels, with matches being scheduled earlier during prime time hours between 6 pm and 12 midnight.

The Spanish La Liga deal bolsters ESPN Ssta Sports? current stellar list of premier sports events which includes the Formula 1, Wimbledon, Australian Open, Golf Majors such as The US Open, The Masters and The Open, Moto GP, and major tournaments from the Asian Football Confederation and the most iconic event of the year London 2012 Olympic Games.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, ?The acquisition of Spanish La Liga underlines our commitment to football fans in Singapore as we continue providing the most compelling content to our viewers. La Liga provides the most entertaining and exciting football action and with the planned broadcast schedules for the new season, fans in Singapore will be able to watch the action in prime time. We have established a strong tradition in building top-class football properties on our networks with the reach of our networks, multiple media platforms, our continued focus towards original, localized football programming and innovative marketing campaigns and we are committed to work towards further strengthening the profile of the league in the market.?

Earlier, ESS had secured live and exclusive rights to broadcast the Spanish La Liga on multiple distribution platforms in 18 countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, the Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and North Korea; as well as China & South Korea in English only.

MUMBAI: With robust interest in motorcycle racing across Asia, ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has boosted its coverage of the sport by introducing a new motorsports racing programme 2 Wheels, targeted at motor-cycle racing enthusiasts.

Launched in conjunction with the current MotoGP season, this latest programme offering from ESS cements its role as the home of motorsports in Asia. The show is scheduled every Thursday at 8 pm on Star Sports in India.

The programme focuses on premier motorcycle racing series - covering MotoGP and SuperBike World Championships - as well as a variety of bike racing genres including as SuperEnduro endurance racing and off road racing such as X-Trial World Championships.

Hosted by Paula Malai Ali, viewers can enjoy 30 minutes of features news updates from around the world, race previews and analysis, and interviews with motorsports biggest names such as Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden and Jorge Lorenzo.

Besides adrenalin-pumping races, the programme injects light-hearted segments such as ‘Inside the Helmet‘ with personality driven interviews with the riders on and off the tracks, and games in ‘Clutch Time‘. It also throws spotlight on motorcycle enthusiasts across Southeast Asia to showcase their customised two wheelers in ‘Me and My Bike‘.

ESS EVP, Programming and Production Craig Dobbs said, "We have witnessed a growth in traction for the moto-racing genre, and the new programme aims to tap into the robust viewership across Asia for premier motorcycle races. While we continue to build on our growing portfolio of motorsports content, we see the need to present shows that appeal to motorcycle racing fans. This firmly demonstrates our continuous effort to serve our sports fans, while offering an excellent promotional platform for potential advertisers."

Last year, ESPN Star Sports continued its partnership with Dorna Sports to broadcast the MotoGP World Championship on multiple distribution platforms across 24 countries in Asia, continuing its coverage of the premier motorcycle road racing Championship to 2016.

In addition, ESS also showcases the SuperBike World Championship, and a host of FIM moto racing World Championships such as FIM Ice Racing World Championship, FIM Trial World Championship, FIM X-Trial World Championship, Maxxis FIM Enduro World Championships and FIM Sidecar World Championship.