Analysis
World Cup, like the Olympics, excites German TV
All the major German broadcasters are involved in a fierce battle for the television rights for football’s 2006 World Cup in host country Germany.
Grand slams get set for big cuts in TV rights fees
Tennis’s French and Australian Opens are facing the strong possibility of significant cuts in their European television rights fees.
Saban leads German rush for Olympic rights
The IOC prompted all the major media players in Germany, Europe’s largest television market, to join the fray for the country’s television rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.
“A cleaned-up, healthy Germany could be the engine room of the European rights market”
Explosion of competition in Germany for the rights for football’s 2006 World Cup.
Rai puts name to EBU bid – with separate offer
EBU to patch together a “pan-European” bid for the next round of Olympic Games television rights.
Sky Italia’s surprise deals
Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia pay-television company astonished experienced industry observers by signing lucrative rights deals with Italy’s top three clubs.
EBU salvages Olympic bid by bringing in Eurosport cash
The European Broadcasting Union salvaged its chances of winning the pan-European television rights for the Olympic Games of 2010 and 2012.
And finally
Spanish pay-television company Sogecable has yet to decide whether to take up a three-year option to extend its financial backing for European basketball’s Euroleague.
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.