MUMBAI: talkSport, the world?s biggest sports radio station and global audio partner of the Premier League, and Adrep China Advertising Services (ADREP), an advertising sales, marketing and business support services company with offices in Beijing and Shanghai, have entered into a long-term collaboration to develop national sports radio marketing services in China.

talkSport and ADREP will collaborate on a range of ventures within China, initially focused on providing live radio coverage of Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and Capital One Cup football.

From the beginning of the 2013/14 football season in August, radio listeners in China will be able to hear live Mandarin commentary of matches between clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool via a network of radio stations in key Chinese provinces. ADREP and talkSport will also collaborate to distribute the commentaries via mobile apps, Chinese social media platforms and digital platforms.

talkSport and ADREP also intend to provide coverage of selected matches before the current football season ends in May as the coveted Premier League and FA Cup trophies are awarded.

talkSport is the world?s biggest sports radio station with 3 million listeners per week. talkSport became the Premier League?s Global Audio Partner in 2012 and also recently renewed its rights agreement for live Premier League coverage in the UK. The station also has rights to broadcast the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup, both in the UK and globally. talkSport is part of UTV Media plc, a leading UK and Ireland multimedia company with interests spanning TV, radio and new media.

talkSport already streams live Mandarin commentary outside China via talksport.com, mobile apps, TuneIn and Twitter as part of its talkSport Live service. talkSport?s Mandarin commentary team made history at the Capital One Cup final in February 2013, with the first ever live commentary in Mandarin from London?s Wembley Stadium.

ADREP was incorporated in February 2008 and successfully established an advertising representation business in China. ADREP is building a national radio advertising sales network under its proprietary brand "MY FM" in major cities throughout China. MY FM has achieved coverage in seven major markets, namely Nanjing, Nanchang, Hefei, Urumqi, Xian, Changchun and Tianjin.

UTV Media Chief Executive John McCann said "The sheer scale of the Chinese market and popularity of Premier League football make China a key focus for talkSport?s global expansion. Through this collaboration with ADREP, talkSport can play a major role in the future development of Chinese sports radio services, providing advertisers with new platforms to connect with Chinese sports fans."

talkSport Chief Executive Scott Taunton said "We look forward to working with ADREP to bring talkSport?s distinctive and passionate brand of live sports coverage to China. Radio is one of the best ways to follow your favourite team and our expert team of football commentators and analysts are sure to bring the drama of the Premier League to life for our Chinese listeners."

ADREP Executive Director Ken Wang said, "Our partnership with talkSport enables us to bring unique and specific content to local Chinese radio stations and communities. Through the network of terrestrial based radio stations and via digital platforms, Chinese audiences will now be able to experience the excitement of the Premier League football like never before. In addition, this collaboration brings with it a ground-breaking opportunity for advertisers to be involved with the broadcasts."

MUMBAI: After exiting the Asian market post its stake sale in sports broadcasting joint venture to Rupert Murdoch?s News Corp, The Walt Disney Company owned sports network ESPN has now shut its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations as it seeks to concentrate on its core market, US, where it has to battle an aggressive Fox Sports Network.

ESPN has closed down ESPN Classic throughout the EMEA region and the non-UK ESPN America TV businesses.

Like in Asia, ESPN will continue to own and operate its existing digital media businesses which include multisport news and information portal ESPN.co.uk, ESPNcricinfo (cricket), ESPNFC (football), ESPNscrum (rugby), ESPNF1 (Formula 1) and broadband streaming service ESPN Player. ESPN Classic has been excluded from the proposed transaction.

The BT Group, which is launching sports channels in UK in summer, has decided to acquire ESPN?s UK and Ireland TV channels business. These primarily comprise the ESPN and ESPN America channels and their live sports rights portfolio, including the FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League, UEFA Europa League, and the German Bundesliga.

ESPN had been mulling for quite some time to exit UK ever since it lost the lucrative English Premier League (EPL) rights to BT last year. The British telecom major had last year bagged EPL rights for ?246 million.

The transaction is expected to complete on 31 July after which BT will continue to operate at least one ESPN-branded channel which is expected to form part of the BT Sport TV package that will be launched by BT this summer.

Additionally, the deal will allow BT to continue to show a host of US sports currently shown on ESPN America, including NCAA College Basketball, NCAA College Football and NASCAR. The ESPN channels will be broadcast from BT Sport?s new home in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Until completion, the service for current subscribers to the ESPN channels across all television platforms remains unchanged.

The deal will enable BT Sport customers to see live coverage of the FA Cup for the 2013/14 season, the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League until the end of the 2016/17 season and the UEFA Europa League and German Bundesliga through to the end of the 2014/15 season.

These join the broadcast rights that BT Sport has previously announced, including 38 live Barclays Premier League matches - including 18 of the top clashes - in each of the next three seasons (beginning August 2013); 69 live Aviva Premiership Rugby matches for the next four seasons; and up to 800 hours per season of live women?s tennis, including the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships.

BT Retail chief executive of television Marc Watson said, "We are delighted to have reached agreement with ESPN for the acquisition of their UK channels business and that we have been able to add some exciting new sports rights to the ones we already have.

"The FA Cup, Scottish Premier League and Europa League rights will allow us to offer customers of BT Sport even more quality live football, including our first games from the Scottish top flight and our first European competition rights. There will also be the best of US sports available courtesy of this deal, which will further broaden the appeal of BT Sport."

ESPN - Europe, Middle East and Africa MD Ross Hair said, "We could not be more proud of the TV channels built and nurtured by our talented team over the past four years. The value of that hard work is reflected in this deal with BT and the continuation of ESPN on television screens across the UK and Ireland. The same passion, commitment and innovation will be at the heart of how we develop our strong digital media business into the future."

MUMBAI: Pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is busy beefing up its content line-up by acquiring new properties. It has snapped up exclusive broadcast rights for all Football Association (FA) Cup matches, The FA Community Shield and all Senior and Under-21 England Team home matches for the next six years until 2018 for the South Asia Region including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal.

The rights were earlier held by Sony Pix, the English movie channel from Multi Screen Media stable.

The multimedia platform deal, which allows the content to be made available across television, internet and mobile, was made with international media rights company MP & Silva. The FA Cup is recognised as the oldest and most famous domestic knockout competition, which traditionally begins in November and culminates with the Final in May.

Starting from 3 November, ESS will begin broadcast of the first round of matches all the way up to the Final in May next year. Chelsea are currently the holders of the FA Cup but are likely to be challenged for the prestigious title by the other Premier League teams including Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City, among others.

With this acquisition, ESS?s football line-up will include the Barclays Premier League, the Spanish Liga BBVA as well as the Italian Serie A, whose exclusive broadcast rights were recently secured from MP & Silva.

ESS MD Peter Hutton said, "Having a season round offering of football is at the heart of our dominance of the Indian sports market, and the unique stories that the FA Cup creates every year is a very welcome part of our line-up. The FA Cup was seen in India long before the Premier League and the other European leagues, and we?re very proud to be able to continue the tradition."

"We are excited to work with ESPN STAR Sports who will continue to provide excellent exposure for the England Team and The FA Cup on a multi-platform basis in key Asian markets. These markets are important to us and we?re going to be putting together some exciting initiatives in India in particular, including bringing The FA Cup out to the sub-continent," The FA Group Commercial Director Stuart Turner.

Every year, ESS broadcasts up to 2,500 hours of live football content for the South Asian region from the world?s biggest leagues, and is supported by ESS-produced football programmes such as The Verdict, Scorecast, BPL Express, Goals, Full Time Action and Football Extra, Primetime Premier League, Super Sunday, catering to the demands of a varied football audience.

MUMBAI: Setanta Sports, the international sports broadcaster, has agreed a multi-year deal to distribute its exclusive rugby programming on Multi Screen Media?s sports channel Sony Six.

Sony Six will broadcast live coverage of the RBS Six Nations, Super Rugby and Rugby Championship (formerly Tri Nations) as well as showing Setanta?s flagship rugby programme: The Breakdown.

"We are delighted to work with Sony SIX to bring our exclusive rugby programming to India. Our goal is to achieve the greatest possible exposure of rugby across the whole of Asia," said Setanta Sports International MD Roger Hall.

Setanta Sports has extensive distribution for its channel and programming in Asia with deals in Thailand (with TrueVisions), Hong Kong (with Now TV and Hong Kong Broadband), Malaysia and Brunei (with Astro), Singapore (with StarHub and SingTel mio TV), Taiwan (with Dish HD), the Philippines (with SKYcable) and Sri Lanka (with Dialog TV).

Sony Six has Indian Premier League and Ultimate Fighting Championship as its driving properties in India. It also has FA Cup and NBA to complement its key properties in addition to international football friendlies.

MUMBAI: The Football Association (FA) has agreed a new six season deal with BBC Sport for the radio commentary rights for all men?s and women?s FA Cup & International matches along with the Community Shield.

The deal covers the qualification campaigns for the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, and the 2016 European Championships.

BBC Sport director Barbara Slater said, "We?re delighted to have secured another agreement for the commentary rights on BBC Radio 5 live for the FA Cup and International matches. Both have a strong heritage on BBC radio and are hugely valued by our listeners. It?s really exciting to take it forward for another six seasons."

The agreement covers the 2012/13 season and runs through to the end of the 2017/18 season.

BBC Radio 5 live controller Adrian Van-Klaveren said, "The agreement means we can continue to offer BBC Radio 5 live listeners the best coverage of matches and tournaments which they really care about. We?re delighted that we will continue to capture all the action and drama over the next six seasons."

The FA general secretary Alex Horne commented, "We?re delighted that the BBC will be bringing The FA Cup, England internationals and the Community Shield to large audiences nationwide. It will be an exciting year for England as Roy Hodgson leads us into the World Cup qualifying campaign and some mouth-watering fixtures as part of The FA?s 150th anniversary celebrations. We thank BBC 5 Radio live for their support and look forward to working with them over the next six seasons."

MUMBAI: MP & Silva, the international media rights agency, has further expanded its English football offering with the acquisition of Capital One Cup, formerly known as Carling Cup and Football League rights for the next five seasons until 2017.

The package covers all Asian territories, with the possibility to reach over 110 million households.

With this new package, MP & Silva now owns and manages the Asian broadcast rights for all English football?s Cup competitions. Last month, MP & Silva announced the acquisition of The FA Cup and England National Team matches across the continent. Since 2010-11, MP & Silva has also managed the rights of Premier League in selected territories in Asia.

MP & Silva Group CEO Andrea Radrizzani said, ?Our Capital One Cup and Football League agreement is another demonstration of the significant role MP & Silva is playing to increase the popularity of English football across Asia even further. Given the deal will include so many thrilling live matches and highlights, football fans across Asia will be able to follow all tiers of English football and never miss any of the action.

The Capital One Cup and the nPower Football League Championship rights, together with the Premier League, FA Cup, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Brazilian League and World Cup qualifier matches, ensures MP & Silva is in a very strong position to negotiate with broadcasters and ensure that audience numbers grow in Asia.

The agreement includes 20 live Capital One Cup matches, highlights of each round and 5 minute online match clips. The Cup brings together the 20 Premier League clubs and the 72 Football League clubs to compete for the trophy, with the final taking place at Wembley Stadium in April. With Premier League clubs winning the Cup each year since England?s top division was formed in 1992, the Capital One Cup features the country?s top clubs prominently and in 15 Capital One Cup matches per season on average.

MP & Silva has also acquired the rights to distribute top matches from the nPower Football League Championship, League One and League Two ? the football leagues in England directly below the Premier League ? in Asia. In total, the package will bring up to 90 live matches to fans across Asia, including the Championship play-off matches that decide the final club to win a Premier League place for the next season.