|
When the television broadcast rights for a single sport season involve billions of dollars in rights fees, you want your lawyers to know the industry. Covington sports media lawyers advise virtually all of the US major leagues on television and new media matters, negotiating with television networks, internet service providers, satellite radio systems and others on behalf of Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the NFL, the USTA, the NBA and other professional leagues and college conferences.
In addition to television and internet deals, our principal sports media transactions team -- led by partners Bruce Wilson, Doug Gibson, and a group of talented partners, counsel, and associates from four of the firm’s six offices -- has extensive experience negotiating sports media rights transactions with satellite operators, wireless services and evolving media platforms. Covington lawyers helped put sports on the internet, on cell phones, and on iPods; we’ve even negotiated on behalf of Kangaroo TV to put Formula One race content on site-specific video devices.
The unsurpassed breadth of our sports media experience means that we understand the dynamics of sports related media rights -- and the challenges that convergent technology presents for content owners developing sports media across emerging entertainment platforms.
Representative Matters
- Representation of the USTA in a groundbreaking six-year television and multi-platform partnership with ESPN and the Tennis Channel creating a summer-long “Open Season” for tennis featuring more than 400 national television hours for the U.S. Open and the Olympus U.S. Open Series commencing in 2009.
- Representation of Major League Baseball in the negotiation of carriage agreements for the distribution of The MLB Network, which will, when launched in 2009, be the first and only network dedicated to providing baseball programming to MLB fans 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a year-round basis. Covington also assisted Major League Baseball in negotiating the joint venture agreement for ownership of The MLB Network, and has assisted the National Hockey League in negotiating the joint venture agreement for ownership of the US version of the NHL Network.
- Television network, digital media and satellite radio rights agreement negotiations for Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the NFL and other professional leagues.
- Representing Kangaroo Media Inc. in its six-year license agreement to provide fans at all Formula One TM events with access to live race video, audio, and data on Kangaroo Media's Kangaroo TV TM hand-held device.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|