SportBusiness Staff

The German football league last week launched the sales process for the Bundesliga rights from 2006-07 to 2008-09

The long-awaited merger of the UK’s two cable operators will, according to the companies, create a major challenge to British Sky Broadcasting

Private equity company Permira’s decision to all but pull out of German pay-broadcaster Premiere reflects a fear that the broadcaster may not grow its subscriber base much further

Baseball: US cable broadcaster ESPN renewed its long-term deal for Major League Baseball, paying $2.368bn (£1.3bn/€1.9bn) over eight years, from 2006 to 2013.

Football: UK broadcasters ITV and British Sky Broadcasting acquired the rights to the Champions League for a further three seasons, from 2006-07 to 2008-09

Japan’s five main commercial broadcasters have agreed to pay a bigger share of the country’s television rights fees for the winter Olympics

British Sky Broadcasting is close to a deal for the live rights for cricket’s 2007 World Cup in the West Indies

Sportfive is to sign a four-year deal for the international television rights for rugby union’s Six Nations

The A1 Grand Prix organisers were this week finalising last-minute television deals

acquisition of cable and satellite sports channel Galaxie Sport, the main cable sports channel in the Czech Republic and Slovakia