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EE customers to get six months of free BT Sport
With Euro 2016 now over and Cristiano Ronaldo's tears dry on his winning face, the focus is now back on domestic campaigns and the start of the most lucrative Premier League season in history. The first matches kick off in just under a month but today BT and EE have announced a new deal that will offer free access to all BT Sport channels for six months.
Sky to offer Premier League matches on its basic TV packages
In its latest bid to stand out from broadcasting rival BT, Sky is launching a new sports channel that will be available to subscribers who don't pay for a Sky Sports bundle. It's called Sky Sports Mix and it'll feature live football, golf and international cricket, as well as more coverage from women's sporting competitions.
Sky will show Premier League highlights on-demand next season
It might have lost the Champions League and Europa League to BT, but Sky still dominates when it comes to the Premier League. Along with live coverage for 126 matches, the broadcaster has announced that it'll be offering "extended highlights" for every game on-demand starting next season. While Sky has offered these condensed replays before, they've been limited to its traditional TV channels. Now, starting with the 2016/17 season, football fans will be able to watch abridged matches whenever they like. Almost whenever they like, that is. Sky will release one full match -- with no edits whatsoever -- at 8pm each Saturday, followed by "extensive highlights" from the remaining fixtures at 10:30pm. Similarly, highlights from weekday fixtures will be available after 10pm.
Deezer gets into live football commentary with TalkSport's help
In recent months, Spotify and Deezer have mixed things up by extending beyond music and into podcasts and video. But what about live content? That's exactly what Deezer hopes will set it apart from rivals after it launched a new partnership with TalkSport, one of the world's biggest sports radio stations. From today, customers in the UK and Germany can access live coverage of Premier League and Bundesliga games respectively. It'll also host match fixtures and results, football-centric music playlists and extra content from Deezer's football editors. Football podcasts will also be available, but only for UK subscribers. If you're a Deezer user and want to see what it's all about, Football on Deezer is prominently displayed on the homepage, as well as in the apps section. It's also available on free and Premium tiers, but non-paying customers will need to sit through ads.
Sky Sports customers can now watch goal replays on their phones
With its live Champions League and Europa League TV rights, BT has proven to be a worthy sports broadcasting rival to Sky. The latter is now playing defence with renewed La Liga rights and a new deal with The Sun for mobile goal highlights. Sky TV customers with a Sky Sports subscription will get free access to Sun Goals, a mobile app that shows every back-of-the-net moment from the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup and Scottish Premiership. Of course, it's not quite the same as watching the full match on your telly, but the app should be a nice extra for sports fans nonetheless.
Premier League club badges come to Twitter ahead of new season
Twitter's hashflags have encouraged colourful conversations around the general election and Wimbledon already this year, and right on time, the social network has issued a new set for fans of the UK's most popular spectator sport. Launched ahead of the start of the Premier League footy season tomorrow, every squad now has its own hashflag that'll add the team's badge to tweets whenever used. So, whether you're cheering on your own 11 or calling out rivals for their highly developed diving skills, you've now got emoji to drive the point home. Let's try and keep the discussions civil though, yeah? After all, it's only a game.
Hurry, your next Uber in NYC could be all about Manchester United
Look, there aren't many things which can truly impress New Yorkers. Yet, somehow, the Mini Countryman pictured above managed to make quite a few heads turn during a drive across Manhattan. Whatever it may have been, it's safe to bet those bright red colors draping the car had something to do with it -- and the not-so-subtle branding didn't hurt its chances to impress, either. Regardless, this Manchester United-themed vehicle is part of a full fleet of 20 vehicles, one for each Premier League team, that NBC Sports and Uber will have cruising around Manhattan through this Sunday. The free rides (up to a 30-minute drive) are obviously being used as a way to promote the start of the EPL season on NBC Sports Network here in the US, which kicks off on Saturday, August 16th. Uber, for its part, isn't new to having bizarre rides hit the streets, like the time-traveling DeLorean and, of course, those beloved Ice Cream trucks. Now we can add this one to the list.
Sky becomes first UK TV network to broadcast live 4K video
Remember how we'd heard that a British broadcaster is trialing 4K TV? We have a hunch as to which company that is: Sky now claims that it's the first UK TV network to have conducted a live 4K broadcast. The firm captured a weekend Premier League match in ultra high resolution using the same infrastructure it normally requires for a live show, with satellites delivering a feed to the company's Isleworth broadcast center. Commercial service remains distant, mind you -- Sky requires both more research and wider adoption of 4K TVs to justify an upgrade. If everything falls into place, though, Sky could have an advantage over rival providers that have yet to venture beyond HD.
BT offering 38 'free' Premier League games to broadband and vision subscribers
BT's plan to match Sky on sporting rights has already seen it spend big to buy ESPN UK, but how does it plan on recouping that cash? By giving away £738 million ($1.1 billion) worth of live Premier League games for "free" to new and existing BT customers. The headline-grabbing move will see 38 games available to BT Vision and BT Broadband customers, while the latter can upgrade their streams to HD for £3 ($4.70) per month. Customers will also be able to watch 69 live Aviva Premiership rugby games, as well as football soccer matches from the Bundesliga, Ligue-1 and Serie A. Of course, while it may sound great, there is a catch -- BT has decided that Tim Lovejoy will host some of the channel's coverage.
English Premier League to adopt goal-line technology next season, Hawk-Eye to be the provider
Football's ruling body, FIFA, has already decided that goal-line technology will be used at next year's World Cup in Brazil, which, in and of itself, was an indirect nod for other competitions to follow suit. Today, one of the globe's biggest leagues announced it too will implement the recently approved tech in its matches, with the Premier League letting it be known that the 2013-2014 season is set to be the first to adopt the new system. Speaking of which, the Football Association decided to go with Hawk-Eye, a technology currently present in professional sports like tennis and cricket -- one that provides seven fast-frame shooters around the two goals and uses software to quickly analyze if the ball indeed crossed the line. For the football (soccer) faithful, it's been a long time coming, so here's hoping this makes the game less prone to errors. After all, Howard Webb and Mike Dean need all the help they can get. [Image credit, Premier League]
Premier League adopts goal-line tech, puts armchair pundits in tailspin
We all have that one ghost goal that stays buried in our subconscious, be it Frank Lampard in 2011, Luis Garcia in 2005 or, erm, Frank Lampard in 2010. But perhaps such tribulations will end with the news that the Premier League is following in the footsteps of FIFA to institute goal-line technology from the 2013-2014 season. A Prem spokesperson told BBC and Sky News that all 20 clubs have to have the hardware in place for the start of the season. While the governing body hasn't revealed which two providers are bidding for the job, as it's always either GoalRef or Hawkeye, we're likely to see one of them announcing their success at some point during the summer.
BT buys ESPN UK and Ireland, waves goodbye to ESPN Classic
BT's got far more important things to do than fill in the gaps in its fiber broadband coverage, like blowing around £10 million ($15 million) on buying ESPN's UK and Ireland channels from Disney. BT is trying to compete with Sky on sporting rights, and needs a channel to broadcast 38 Premier League games a year for the next three years -- which cost the phone company £738 million ($1.1 billion). At the same time, ESPN is shuttering ESPN Classic, the satellite channel dedicated to showing classic sporting events free of charge. Broadly speaking, BT just knows how to brighten our Mondays.
Football fans score additional content in Sky Sports for iPad update
The app devs over at Sky Sports are having a busy year, and after improving their iPad offering for the F1 season, they're back with a "second screen" update for football (soccer) fans. Just in time for the start of the UK Premier League season, the new Football Match Centre adds a content bar alongside your chosen stream showing team and player info, in-depth stats of the match in progress and a hand-picked Twitter feed for related musings. You might think the devs deserve a break, but sadly there's no time -- next on the agenda is a similar update for the Champions League tournament, then they're bringing the second screen to golf fans before the Ryder Cup starts next month.
Sky 3D channel comes home October 1 with Ryder Cup, EPL, movies and more
The Sky 3D channel has so far been officially available only in 1,500 or so UK pubs, but now its residential launch for all Sky+HD customers is slated for October 1. The 2010 Ryder Cup will serve as a launch event with three days of live coverage from Celtic Manor as the US and European teams do battle; the first ever in 3D, but the third such event it's covered in high definition. Golf fans won't be the only ones catered to, Premier League football will be returning once the season starts and today's announcement coincided with a SkyArts 3D filming arranged by the English National Ballet. Hollywood's major studios have already agreed to provide 3D movies including Bolt, Monsters vs. Aliens, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince and more, while Sky has commissioned its own original 3D flick, Flying Monsters presented by Sir David Attenborough. Not quite ready for the 3D revolution? Feel free to put that on the backburner -- at least until the 2012 London Olympics -- as the network is also adding content from HBO, a large slate of new comedies, Anytime+ VOD, and a Sky Mobile TV iPad app. With an HD channel count of 43 and plans to reach 50 by year-end, there should be a little something there for everyone to enjoy.
Three for 3D: ESPN 3D adds Home Run Derby, Sky 3D launches 4/3, AcTVila makes the jump this summer
Three continents, three more milestone announcements for 3D. First up is Sky TV, which, with or without 15,000 or so flat screens from LG, is officially launching its Sky 3D channel around the Man. U/Chelsea game on April 3. Already have a 3DTV and Sky's "top channels and HD pack?" Call the company with details for activation, while everyone else checks to see if their local pub is among the thousand plus already signed up to receive the six live 3D matches slated for this season (plus the Coca Cola league playoff finals) and demo reel for all non-footy hours of the day. Bringing the focus back home, ESPN 3D has scheduled the first event it will produce and air itself, the MLB Home Run Derby on July 12, a day after launching with the SA/Mexico World Cup game. Other events officially on deck (the plan for the first year is still about 85) include several college basketball tournaments and the ACC Championship football game in December. Last but not least is Japan, already home to at least one 3D network, which will soon have access to even more over the cross-manufacturer AcTVila video on-demand service. Clearly, the only logical thing to do is to keep that "3D will never take off" comment macro keyed up, it will be getting a lot of use over the next few months.
