Exclusive: FilmOn Suits Up With Arena Football

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 18:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Over-the-top video provider FilmOn said it has struck a deal with the Arena Football League to stream its games free to FilmOn's 47 million unique users outside the U.S., according to a copy of the announcement obtained by Multichannel News. The deal is expected to be announced today (June 15).

FilmOn will stream all games of the 20-week season, six games per week, leading up to and including the Arena Bowl on Aug. 29.

It is not the first partnership for the pair. FilmOn teamed up with the Arena Football League in 2012 on “AFL Classic”, a channel of archived games.

“Every professional sports league has the goal of becoming a global brand,” said AFL commissioner Scott C. Butera. “Arena Football has a history of playing games overseas and we believe FilmOn will be a strong partner in delivering our content to the world.”

FilmOn Networks CEO Alki David said: “Live Stream Arena Football League games are exactly what FilmOn users want — gritty action and immediate gratification. Our huge international audience has already voiced demand for AFL’s games.”

FilmOn said the games AFL games will also be available 20 million homes via FilmOn’s Sky Channel 237 in the United Kingdom and via Freesat in Europe.

CBS Sports Network and ESPN are the AFL’s U.S. rights holders.

AFL-CIO Backs AT&T/DirecTV

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:45:00 +0000

The AFL/CIO has asked the FCC to approve the AT&T/DirecTV merger, saying it is to the benefit of its 12 million members.

The union says the deal poses few antitrust concerns since the phone and satellite companies are in primarily different markets and because the result will be a stronger competitor to cable operators and putting pressure on prices and service improvement by offering one-stop shopping for bundled broadband and video.

It also helps that AT&T is the largest union employer in the country. DirecTV, by contrast, is non-union. The Communications Workers of America, which represents AT&T workers, supports the merger.

Add in improved economics for high-speed broadband deployment, the union says, and AT&T's "commitment to respecting the rights of its employees," and the union says the deal will be in the best interests of workers and consumers.

AT&T announced in May that it had agreed to acquire satellite operator DirecTV in a $48.5 billion deal creating the second-largest pay-TV operator.

In its public interest statements, AT&T said that the main reason for the meld was that they could achieve together what they could not separately: "A compelling bundle of video and broadband services" that neither company could offer individually.

Latest from Next TV in Afl

Exclusive: FilmOn Suits Up With Arena Football

AFL-CIO Backs AT&T/DirecTV