Media

Europe?s first ever live online race meeting is to take place this weekend when three races will be beamed live via the web from England.

Bluetorch, the cross-media network for extreme sports, is to produce and take the title sponsorship of the largest surfing event in North America.

goalnetwork.com, the global online soccer network launched in November, has signed a deal to be the exclusive sponsor on 185 soccer matches broadcast on FOX Sports World and 175 soccer matches on FOX Sports World Espanol.

AirTV, the company which plans to launch a live in-flight TV and Internet service by 2002, has appointed Media Content Sports Media Advisors to advise on its sports programming strategy and to manage the acquisition of live sports content.

SSM Freesports, the UK-based specialist lifestyle sports agency, has announced three high- profile signings to its management team : Nick Kennerley joins as SSM's newly appointed Head of Television, Betty Maitland joins as General Manager and Dan O'Toole as Head of Business Development.

The Callaway Golf Company has terminated its multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with golf star John Daly after he violated a contract clause to not drink or gamble.

ESPN and ABC Sports will merge their advertising sales staffs and have named Edward R. Erhardt, most recently vice president and group publisher of Advertising Age magazine to lead the combined entity.

A new, independent study comparing the effect of virtual advertising and conventional arena advertising on viewers of televised sports reveals that TV audiences had better recall and greater brand recognition with virtual ads.

Three of the six major categories at Sportel's Golden Podium Awards, the international sports TV competition held in Monte Carlo last week, were won by French media companies.

British broadcaster Sky has steadfastly refused to let television viewers watch, for free, the first round in the Battle of Britain play-off between England and Scotland for a place in Euro 2000.

Media baron Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Entertainment Group has turned over day-to-day control of the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers to a big league Hollywood executive just two seasons after buying the famous baseball club.

The beleaguered organisers of the Rugby World Cup have criticised ITV's coverage of the event as a "disgrace" according to a report in the UK?s Guardian newspaper.

Irish state broadcaster RTE has said it had failed to resolve a row with a Turkish television company over the rights to broadcast Wednesday's Euro 2000 play-off between Ireland and Turkey in Bursar.

Following press speculation earlier this week that telecommunications firm BT were in the frame for Premier League rights, today's proposed merger of UK media giants, Carlton and United News and Media, adds another twist to the plot of potential bidders.

Pep Boys auto-parts retailer has ended its sponsorship of The Indy Racing League (IRL) in a dispute which is likely to go to federal court.

Greg Norman, the PGA Tour's all-time leading money winner, and Mammothgolf.com, the Internet's leading golf e-tailer, have formed an extensive golf-related commerce and content partnership.