Analysis
EBU rowing offer gives renewed hope to Olympic sports
The world rowing federation is set to renew its television rights deal with the EBU for a further four years, from 2009 to 2012.
TV Rights Deals 1: Football: Premier League gets £1.78bn, La Liga, Serie A sales
Football: England’s Premier League generated £1.782bn (€2.05bn/$2.62bn) in the sale of its domestic live rights for the three-year period from 2010-11 to 2012-13. The deal is a 4.5-pe
TV Rights Deals 2: Athletics, basketball, cricket, golf, F1, motorsport and rugby
Athletics: The Organización de Telecomunicaciones Iberoamericanas, the Latin American broadcasting union, acquired the rights for the 2009 World Championship for member broadcasters in Argentina (cable …
African boom busted as GTV dream dies in the downturn
The collapse of GTV this week has raised fears that the African sports rights boom of the last two years is destined to be short-lived.
Steady start for Scudamore
The BBC’s deal for free-to-air highlights has got Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore off to a solid start in his latest set of media rights negotiations.
FASTRACK
The lack of government legislation in India over news access to sports events is provoking further tension between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Nimbus Communications agency.
SABC ‘wants cake and icing for free’ in listed-events claim
South Africa’s state broadcaster, SABC, was slammed last week over its request for extensive additions to the country’s list of events of national importance that must be aired on free-to-air television.
Six Nations deal sparks listed-events call
Sky Italia’s acquisition of Six Nations rugby rights has prompted calls for Italy’s matches to be added to the list of sports events protected for free-to-air television.
Mediapro hopes early start will help keep Liga fees high
Talks for the next three-year tranche of international television rights for Spanish football are now in full swing, with the Mediapro agency hopeful of good revenue increases.
ISC wins calendar control in World Rally extension [updated]
ISC won what was effectively a one-horse race for the contract to become global promoter of the World Rally Championship, after agreeing at least one significant change to the contract terms with the FIA.
Omnisport launch to boost third-party rights value
Perform is to launch a new live-streaming sports portal, designed to help rights-holders monetise unsold rights.
Record-Globo rights battle continues
The battle between Brazilian commercial broadcasters continues, with Record following up a deal for the 2011 Pan American Games by acquiring the rights for the 2015 edition.
TV Rights Deals 1: Football: Premier League highlights deal and more
Football: UK public-service broadcaster the BBC extended its deal for Premier League highlights for a further three years, from 2010-11 to 2012-13, paying £173m (€185m/ $237m).
TV Rights Deals 2: Asian Games, athletics, cricket, F1, motorsport and more
Asian Games: Hong Kong pay-broadcaster I-Cable Communications acquired the exclusive television and internet rights for the 2010 Asian Games, in Guangzhou, in a deal worth an estimated $1m (€780,000).
Four-club breakaway threat to Mediapro’s grand design
Four Spanish Liga football clubs are putting pressure on sports rights agency Mediapro to pay them more in television rights fees by offering their domestic and international rights to rival operators.
Uefa tops UK viewing charts
In a major year of sporting action, Uefa events accounted for the biggest audiences for the BBC, ITV1, Five and BSkyB.
FASTRACK
UK pay-broadcaster Setanta’s audiences for Premier League football are up 56 per cent on last season, according to the latest figures.
Telecinco steps into Spain football war
Commercial broadcaster Telecinco entered Spain’s football rights war when it bought the television rights to this week’s domestic Copa del Rey round of 16 match.