The NFL has signed a new four-year deal with Verizon Wireless, putting an end to a roughly five-year partnership with Sprint (NYSE: S).
The deal is valued at $720 million, including a rights fee and advertising spending, according to the WSJ, which quotes people familiar with the negotiations. NFL fans on the Verizon Wireless network will have access to the popular NFL RedZone channel from the NFL Network, including access to live streaming games on Sunday and Thursday. Verizon will kick off things next month with coverage of the 2010 NFL Draft on April 22. Release.
Full story...Challenges remained in Thomson Reuters’ markets division in Q2, as the unit’s revenue was down 4 percent while its profits dropped 25 percent (though the company pointed out that excluding currency changes, the decline was more like 15 percent).
Revenue at McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), the major newspaper publisher, keeps shrinking—but at a slower rate—as the ad market gets stronger.
While the magazine industry finally experienced a boost in Q2 in terms of largely positive ad pages, the comeback remains fairly weak, forcing publishers to try to figure out ways of using their brands to expand their marketing muscle.
UK cable operator Virgin Media’s new web and mobile VOD service will offer premium archive material, rather than the latest catch-up shows, because broadcasters already offer own-brand catch-up services, Virgin Media’s TV and online executive director Alex Green tells paidContent:UK.
UK national and regional news publisher Trinity Mirror’s digital income for the first half of this year is down by £300,000 to £18.
Zynga is confirming this evening that it has indeed raised $150 million in funding from Japanese internet and telecom firm Softbank.
Facing steep competition from Apple’s iPad, which can do just about everything a computer can in addition to displaying books, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has decided to evolve the latest Kindle into an even better single-purpose device for less than the cost of an iPod.
Health Grades, the publicly-traded owner of popular doctor ratings site HealthGrades.com, is being taken private by PE firm Vestar Capital Partners in a $294 million deal.
Will Facebook backer Digital Sky Technologies go public before Facebook? The Russian internet investment group, which has accumulated a five percent stake in the social network, has hired Goldman Sachs, along with two other investment firms, to explore an IPO next year, according to a report in the WSJ.
IGN, the News Corp.-owned video game site, is launching a gamer-focused social network called My IGN.