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…

No need to duck out of work early, now you can watch March Madness games live over your iPhone, and for the first time—anywhere over AT&T’s 3G network. The application, which is expected to be available Monday on iTunes, will cost $9.99—twice as much as last year’s version that was…

The data is starting to roll in for the full Vancouver Olympics. NBC hasn’t been to provide some of the stats we’ve asked for—the number of video streams served the night the first USA-CAN hockey match aired on MSNBC against ice dancing, among them. But the numbers we do have…

U.S. hockey fans needed a pay video subscription to watch the USA-CAN women’s gold medal game online but the men’s victory over Switzerland was barrier-free—and paidContent has learned the Friday men’s semi-final with Finland is likely to follow suit. NBC already has promised to broadcast Friday’s game live across the…

As the interest in e-readers is finally starting to emerge, UK mag publisher Haymarket has unveiled an e-paper version of Autosport in a bid to get more overseas subscribers. It will also be available free to all current print subs through its Autosport.com site. The launch of the e-paper version…

It’s half-way through the Vancouver Olympics and NBC Universal’s research head Alan Wurtzel already has some findings to share about the viewing results so far. Anticipating the ire of bloggers who have complained that NBCU has been holding back too much live coverage of the games from online, Wurtzel made…

It’s no secret that Disney (NYSE: DIS) would like to get another crack at the Olympics and plans to bid for rights to the 2014 and 2016 games.The last time ABC had rights to the Olympics was 1988—before e-mail was ubiquitous, broadband was even a possibility and ESPN was a…

While millions of people were tuned into the opening ceremonies and first weekend of the Winter Olympics, the National Basketball Association was racking up some winter sports numbers of its own during NBA All-Star Weekend 2010 in Dallas: an NBA-record 17 million-plus video streams, up 20 percent over the 2009…

It apparently can’t be an Olympics without dueling claims from both Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and NBC on whose Olympics website is tops. The headline of Yahoo’s release today: “Yahoo Sports Dominates Winter Olympics Traffic.” And here’s NBC’s: “NBCOlympics.com On MSN Leads All Competitors Through First Weekend Of Vancouver Games” (The…

Jeff Price is back in the sports media biz—and this time his responsibility stretches across all platforms. Price, who left as president of SI Digital last April during a series of changes at Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX), joins The Sporting News as president and publisher. He’s on his way to…

Through some quirks of scheduling, I got my first taste of Olympics action on a laptop through in-flight wireless—not the big screen in our living room—and watched the winning ski jump late at night on demand using the NBC Olympics iPhone app. The 2010 Winter Olympics may not be the…

Wow…this one is a doozie. Bob Bowman, the outsized CEO of Major League Baseball Advance Media, has filed the required paperwork to explore a race for governor of Michigan. Bowman told paidContent the filing is required any time you spend $500 or more looking at a state-wide race—and he has…

Courtesy Hulu. Lotsa digital this year, including from Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Monster.com, HomeAway, GoDaddy, FloTV (all three), Boost Mobile, Cars.com, MetroPCS, Careerbuilder.com, E*Trade and Vizio Internet Apps.

Brand Affinity Technologies, a sports marketing firm founded by the two Steelberg brothers (who sold dMarc to Google), has done its first acquisition: it has bought La Jolla, CA-based Beelya, the creator of virtual sports collectibles. BAT was launched in 2007, and now says it has 3,300 athletes and celebs…

NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) is bringing back its “total audience measurement index,” or TAMi, for next month’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The company first used the system to track audience viewing data across traditional broadcast and digital a year-and-a-half ago. The audience data initiative, which is headed up by Alan…

Sports fans with satellite subscriptions may finally get access to some regional sports networks that cable programmers—particularly those owned by cable operators—have been able to keep exclusive through the so-called “terrestrial loophole.” The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-1 today that multichannel video providers delivering programming by cable—primarily Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA),…

Google has confirmed yesterday’s reports - YouTube has inked rights from the big-money Indian Premier League’s (IPL) licensing partner Global Cricket Ventures to live-stream all 60 matches of the 45-day tournament, starting March 12. It’s YouTube’s first deal to live-stream a big global sport - no mere domestic competition, IPL…

Is Manchester United the next China? The football club is unilaterally banning its players from maintaining social networking profiles on sites like Twitter and Facebook. The message on the club’s web site couldn’t be clearer: “The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles…

Is the super-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition about to go global in a deal with YouTube? Several reports from Indian media say Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and the Bord of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will on Wednesday announce a live streaming deal. YouTube had already hosted match…