– Eidos: What price a TV-videogame crossover? The Lara Croft game maker is partnering with BSkyB to release a Sky Sports-branded edition of its very successful and well-loved Championship Manager soccer sim. NMA says it’s an exclusive download from skygame.com – but my Spidey sense says that’s not a BSkyB website. The game – available here for £29.99 – includes enhanced in-game news reports and TV-style manager-of-the-month features. Seems like a good move for the sports broadcaster, which has Premier League football amongst its rights roster
– BSkyB: If it passes Ofcom’s muster, Sky’s Picnic TV service will count the Disney Channel as the first third-party channel to be carried on the platform. The broadcaster today announced the channel would figure in the lineup on top of Sky’s own channels between 6am and 6pm, according to an emailed release. Picnic would piggyback a pay-TV service on top of the Freeview system and is undergoing the regulator’s scrutiny for that reason.
– Pact: Independent TV producers’ umbrella body Pact has struck another online rights framework with the BBC that will seemingly be used as an industry-wide template. Pact struck the TV Terms Of Trade agreement in 2003 to let TV producers retain certain re-use rights over material commissioned by broadcasters for digital distribution. The latest deal grants further rights to interactive producers, NMA says. The BBC has a quota compelling it to commission 25 percent of its online content from independents, for example.