Media

All eight stages of Britain's biggest professional cycle race will be live exclusively on ITV4 following a deal by SweetSpot, the organisers and promoters of the Tour of Britain.

Infront Sports & Media has signed a five-year extension to its deal with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) – an agreement that continues the biggest commercial partnership in the history of Chinese sport.

MP & Silva has been selected to distribute all qualifying and main draw tournament games for the 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC), in a deal that enhances the agency’s ties with the sport.

ESPN will broadcast live coverage of the 2012 BDO (British Darts Organisation) Winmau World Masters in the UK for a second consecutive year.

Sky Sports has agreed a three-year deal with the NFL (National Football League) to broadcast live American football in the UK from 2012 to 2014.

IMG has agreed a three-year deal with the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) to market and distribute it outside of Russia.

The ANO Sports Broadcasting consortium of Russian television companies has secured the rights to Sochi’s hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in a deal with the Sportfive agency.

The SPORTFIVE agency announced that the invitation to submit offers for the media rights to the 2014 Olympic winter Games and 2016 summer Games has commenced.

The fledgling NextGen Series has secured a major boost with the announcement of a four-year broadcast deal with Eurosport.

Infront Sports & Media will continue to hold the marketing rights for the International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) World Cup and World Championships events through to 2018.

Major League Baseball (MLB) has struck an eight-year rights extension to its domestic broadcast deal with ESPN, and the new agreement with the cable-television giant is reportedly worth double the current contract.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has extended its Australian broadcast deal with Fox Sports and the Nine Network from 2012 to 2015, with the new agreement set to conclude with Australia’s co-hosting of the Cricket World Cup.

YouTube has furthered its presence in the football market by joining forces with the MP & Silva agency and digital specialist Rightster to launch a new channel dedicated to the best international football content.

English Premier League outfit Everton has signed a two-year deal which sees Dafabet become the club’s international betting and gaming partner.

National Rugby League clubs should be able to become operationally profitable on the back of the bumper new broadcast rights deal for Australia’s top rugby league competition, according to the body that represents the clubs.

The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC), the body that runs the National Rugby League (NRL), has agreed a new five-year domestic broadcast deal worth A$1.025 billion (US$1.076 billion) with Nine and Fox Sports.