Analysis
Loss of exclusivity hit ITV harder than it expected
ITV said that it had probably underestimated the effect that losing exclusivity would have on its coverage.
Channel Four wants to cut back on Test coverage
UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 wants to cut back its Test match cricket coverage
Rugby league dips after two-year rise
Television audiences for the final stages of English rugby league’s Super League have fallen in the UK for the first time in three years.
TV cash is key to election of Lega Calcio president
Italy’s biggest clubs, Juventus and AC Milan, enriched by individually-sold television-rights contracts, have wondered for the last few years how they could get even richer.
New mini-spot ad rules may not appease Brussels
Hope that changes to the rules about the use of mini-spot advertisements during football matches will be enough to appease the European Commission.
League offers live rights to free-TV
The Polish football association will offer free-to-air broadcasters a special package of live rights for six league matches a season
Canal Plus may be better off with no exclusivity
The general wisdom is that the French football league will bring in a record fee at the end of this year
Uefa: ‘Bid for all Europe and you can bid for world’
The tender is for European rights alone, but it states that companies which submit bids for the whole region may also submit bids for the rest of the world.
China’s key role in ABU’s other pan-Asian bids
The ABU, according to the critics, faces an uncertain future
Why Fifa ‘should take regional bid’ from Asian union
The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) argues that a pan-regional deal for football’s 2010 World Cup has major advantages for Fifa and for the broadcasters.
Malaysia close to low-fee deal
Malaysian commercial broad-caster TV3 is close to signing a deal for the 2006 World Cup
Infront widens French TV talks beyond TF1
The Infront agency is in talks with several broadcasters in France about the 40 matches of the 2006 World Cup
Polish, Hungarian TV resist Infront
Infront, the agency selling the 2006 World Cup rights, is having a hard time getting close to its asking price for the rights in Poland and Hungary
Indian cricket will lose TV millions as courts rule on bids and power
The legal and administrative chaos surrounding the Board of Control for Cricket in India will almost certainly cost it millions of dollars
Scandinavia pays €29m in free-TV World Cup boost
A consortium of Scandinavian free-to-air broadcasters this week acquired the rights for football’s 2006 World Cup
Klitschkos go for TV despite rights ownership doubts
Heavyweight boxing brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are selling the television rights for Vitali’s December WBC world heavyweight title fight
Al Jazeera in free-football row
Turkish channel Cine 5 has ended its exclusive television-rights deal for Spanish football’s Primera Liga because the matches are being beamed into the country, unencrypted and free-of-charge, by the Al Jazeera
Japan and China face major tensions over World Cup bids
Fifa’s approach to the sale of the 2010 World Cup television rights is leading to major tensions among Asian broadcasters