MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has boosted its Spanish La Liga BBVA coverage by featuring the studio presentation from Sky Sports on the Spanish league, beginning with the highly anticipated El Clasico match between Barcelona and Real Madrid on 8 October.

The Sky Sports studio presentations for the leagues‘ matches, featuring match previews and reviews of key matches from current and former managers, as well as professional players.

Familiar names such as ex-Chelsea player Scott Minto will lead the studio presentation, along with Roberto Martinez, Wigan Athletic‘s manager, to provide expert analysis and insights.

For El Clasico, viewers will enjoy match commentaries by Rob Palmer, senior SKY Sports commentator, along with former Tottenham Hotspur and Real Mallorca striker, as well as ESPN Star Sports‘ Spanish football expert, Gerry Armstrong from Camp Nou.

Fans can also look forward to a line-up of guests throughout the season that will include recognisable names such as former Liverpool and Valencia manager Rafa Benitez, ex Liga BBVA stars such as Real Madrid‘s Michel Salgado, Barcelona‘s Albert Ferrer, former Real Madrid manager John Toshack and renowned Spanish Journalist Guillem Balague.

Said ESPN Star Sports MD Peter Hutton said, "We‘re very pleased to announce a long term co-operation with SKY Sports. Their coverage of the Liga BBVA has always been excellent, and to have analysis from experts who really know the Spanish game is ideal for us."

Fans can catch the new and enhanced presentation of El Clasico on STAR Sports on 8 October, 1.30am, just before the match.

MUMBAI: Cricket Australia has renewed its media rights agreement with UK sportscaster Sky Sports by extending the association for a further four years.

The Sky Sports deal includes all broadcast, mobile and internet rights. Excluded from the Sky Sports agreement are audio-only rights in the UK and CA will commence separate negotiations for this rights package in due course.

The new agreement includes all rights for international and Australian domestic cricket, including the coveted Ashes in 2013-14 and every game of the KFC T20 Big Bash League.

Spanning the 2012-13 to 2015-16 seasons, Sky Sports will provide viewers in the UK as well as some European countries with exclusive live coverage of Australia?s international home series featuring: South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies (2012-13), England (2013-14), South Africa, India, England (2014-15), and New Zealand, West Indies, India (2015-16).

In addition, Sky Sports has rights to broadcast matches from Australia?s domestic competitions including the KFC T20 Big Bash League, Ryobi Cup and women?s tournaments.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland welcomed the extension of the long term partnership: "Sky Sports has been a long term and valued partner of Australian cricket for more than 20 years and we are thrilled to extend our association with them," he said.

"Sky Sports depth and breadth of cricket coverage in the UK is unparalleled across multiple platforms. We want fans to have the best possible coverage of Australian cricket content, wherever they live, and we are confident that Sky will deliver with its expertise and knowledge of the game."

Sky Sports MD Barney Francis said, "The Ashes is one of world sport?s greatest events. Sky Sports has never offered greater depth and breadth of coverage and this renewal gives us the strongest line up of live sport for our viewers to watch at home or on the move."

Sutherland said while the commercial details of the agreement would not be disclosed, the value of this new and significant deal reflected the strength of cricket and reinforced the value of one of sport?s most iconic contests, the Ashes.

"England tours Australia twice in the next four year period, including an Ashes series in 2013-14, and no doubt these are jewels in the crown for our renewal with Sky Sports," he said.

CA had last year extended broadcast rights partnership with ESPN Star Sports till 2016.

"Over the past two years CA has renewed agreements in every major cricket territory in the world including New Zealand, Asia, South Africa, the United States and how the United Kingdom and these partnerships have and will put Australian cricket in a strong position both financially and in terms of excellent cricket coverage for fans.

"We have one major media rights agreement to complete the backbone of our broadcast portfolio, and that is in the Australian market. We want to deliver the best results for cricket fans and our members, that?s our objective."

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: Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore has declared that starting 2013 the television rights deal for the popular football league could be pan-European rather than territory-to-territory basis.

The development is a result of an order by European Court of Justice last year which stated that homeowners could purchase decoders showing foreign broadcasts.

The move will have huge implications for News Corps owned British sports broadcaster BSkyB which has made a fortune out of its 20 year long partnership with the Premier League.

?We are still actually deliberating whether we should sell on a territory-by-territory basis, or whether with what?s happened [in the court ruling] with the freedom of movement it?s actually more applicable and you would actually get better protection or a better return if you sold on a pan-European basis," Scudamore told an audience of sports industry professionals.

?There?s not a decision been made yet as to whether we?re going to do a domestic deal or not,? Scudamore said. ?One of the implications of the ECJ decision is that we are still working on whether we now actually sell the rights on a pan European basis.?

The tender documents for the next round of rights bidding will be released between April and June and the league will keep its options open, Scudamore said.

According to a Bloomberg report, the English league?s current three-year U.K. contracts with Sky Sports and ESPN are valued at 1.78 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) and finish at the end of the 2012-13 season. It gets another 1.4 billion pounds from overseas sales, making it the highest grossing domestic soccer league in the world.

?We won?t set ourselves false deadlines,? Scudamore said, adding the league is talking to broadcasters across Europe to understand their ?attitudes and aptitudes for pan-European verses individual territory? sales.

Although Premier League?s financial success can be attributed to the broadcast support provided by Sky Sports, Scudamore said that relationship counts for little as the highest bidder will ultimately get the rights.

?Ultimately whatever umbilical cord there might be as an ongoing working commercial relationship gets severed as the invitation to tender gets issued. Once we?re in the process, there?s nothing they can do other than being the best bidder to win those rights," he averred.

MUMBAI: UK?s leading pay-tv sportscaster, Sky Sports, has renewed partnership with England Cricket Board covering television, mobile and online medium.

The exclusive deal with Sky means that there will no live cricket on free-to-view television.

The new deal begins in 2014 and continues until the end of the summer in 2017.

ECB?s current four-year deal with Sky which began in 2009 and will run through to 2013 is estimated to be in the region of ?280 million.

Sky Sports has been awarded exclusive live coverage of all of England?s Test matches played at home, including series against India (2014), Australia (2015), Pakistan (2016) and South Africa (2017), One-Day Internationals and T20 matches, plus selected fixtures including England Lions and women?s matches.

The broadcaster will also have rights to televise at least 60 days of domestic cricket each summer covering each of the major competitions and including every county.

The new deal will take Sky?s partnership with the ECB into its 12th year and also provides an option for Sky to extend the deal for an additional two years to cover tours by India in 2018 and Australia in 2019.

Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis said: "Cricket is flourishing in England and Wales, with increased participation, record attendances and success for England?s men and women. Through extending our partnership, the ECB can invest on and off the pitch and the game can continue to grow."

ECB Chairman Giles Clarke said, "Noone should be in any doubt that our partnership with Sky has been of immense benefit to the wider game. World-class support structures for our successful England teams, major ground improvements at county level, a flourishing coach education programme and a five per increase in participation at our ?Focus? clubs are all by-products of this relationship."

Sky first showed live coverage of the England cricket team in 1990 with the tour of the Caribbean, the first ever live ball by ball coverage of an overseas series. The broadcaster has shown cricket every month over the last five years and in 2010 celebrated its 150th live England Test match.

The company plans to launch Sky Sports F1TM HD, a brand new dedicated channel providing live coverage of every Grand PrixTM from the 2012 Formula 1TM season, in March.