1-7 June: Your guide to what’s happened this week in the media, entertainment and technology industry.

Amazon to air additional Premier League games for free 
Amazon has revealed viewers who wish to tune in to its additional Premier League games will not need a Prime Video subscription to do so. 

The tech giant has been given broadcast rights to an additional four Premier League games when the season restarts from 17 June as part of the Premier League’s Project Restart, according to BBC Sport. 

The streaming giant, which has already broadcast games in December as part of a rights agreement, has said it will make all four of Amazon Prime Video’s additional fixtures in the 2019-20 season available free of charge. 

Broadcasters have gained rights to additional games with the 92 remaining matches set to be played behind closed doors. In total, 33 of those matches will be free to air in the UK (four on Amazon, four and BBC, and 25 on Sky Sports). 

Qligent appoints ex-Imagine exec as CEO 
Former Imagine Communications CTO Brick Eksten has been appointed the new CEO of Qligent. 

Eksten joins Qligent from Imagine Communications where he most recently served as CTO, Playout and Networking Solutions and oversaw the company’s roadmap for transitioning customers’ broadcast operations to the Cloud. 

He will replace Qligent founder Eugene Shchemelev, who has been president and CEO since 2014. Shchemelev is set to become the company’s executive chairman of the board. 

“As broadcasters and other traditional media enterprises move towards a DTC business and technical model, they need technology partners they can rely on to help them meet increased customer service demands and overcome new operational challenges,” said Eksten. 

Barcelona unveils new streaming service 
Spanish football giant Barcelona has launched its own SVoD service called Barca TV Plus. 

The new streaming service will offer fans over 3,000 videos and around 1,000 hours of content, including live and delayed matches. 

The OTT will sit alongside Barca’s existing linear channel Barca TV, which is carried in Spain by a number of providers, including Movistar Plus, Orange TV and Vodafone. 

The OTT content includes exclusive series and in-house documentaries, which include Ready! Antoine Griezmann’s challenges, in which the footballer puts fellow sportspeople to the test with a series of challenges, and Origins, which looks into players’ careers using interviews and comments from family and friends. 

Dídac Lee, Barcelona board of directors member head of the digital  area, said: “Barça TV+ is the key piece, the jewel in the crown, in the club’s new digital strategy and, without a doubt, the best way to reach all of our fans around the world. This is a unique product that will offer fans a new way to consume Barça content, wherever they want and whenever they want; exclusive, different content that will be available ‘on demand.’” 

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