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In France, live coverage was shared between premium channel Canal Plus, which drew 1.1 million viewers, and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions, which drew 4.5 million viewers and a 24.4-per-cent share, according to audience measurement agency Mediametrie.

Eurosport's television coverage of the Australian Open drew 52 million different viewers − its best-ever reach for the event. About 17.3 million different viewers followed the final, with a record average audience of 3.1 million per quarter of an hour.

Teleclub will show three matches a week. The deal was agreed after an earlier deal between MP & Silva and Swiss media agency Heikon fell through.

NBC holds three of the top-five Super Bowl audiences, with 94.1 million viewers in 1996 (3rd) and 91 million in 1993 (5th). Rival network CBS drew the 4th biggest audience in 2007, with 93.2 million viewers.

The group’s television and radio broadcasting division saw a 29-per-cent drop in profits to $655 million, with large decreases reported by the Disney cable channels and sports network ESPN, due to falling advertising revenue and the increase in rights fees paid for NFL football.

The member broadcasters are in Argentina (cable sports broadcaster TyC), Bolivia (commercial channel Red Uno), Chile (commercial channel Canal 13), Mexico (commercial broadcaster TV Azteca), Panama (commercial broadcasters TV Max and Medcom) and Peru (commercial channel ATV).

The deal has taken several months to finalise. For more details see the forthcoming issue of TV Sports Markets.

Pay-television revenue saw the highest year-on-year growth, up 17 per cent to S$398 million, driven by a four-per-cent increase in its subscriber base – now 524,000 – and a S$6 increase in ARPU to S$57 a month.

The service shows live Serie A matches and from 2009-10 will also show Uefa Champions League and Europa League matches. It is understood to have launched a tender looking for a production partner to help it develop its sports channels.

Under the deal, BSkyB has five of the six live rights packages available - the maximum it can acquire under the bidding guidelines - while Setanta has the remaining package.

After the deals were announced, ESPN confirmed it had bid for live rights. It had been widely anticipated to challenge Setanta for live rights.

Each week we will bring you a round-up of the week's headlines as well as preview the forthcoming stories in the TV Sports Markets newsletter. TV Sports Markets is market-leader for information on the business of TV rights. The fortnightly newsletter reports on big deals, major developments affecting the market and the main players as well as analyses of viewing trends for the top events.

It is thought to be paying an amount similar to the £1.314 billion it pays now. The packages, of 23 matches each, include the first-choice match each week.

The network also set a record for advertising revenue for the National Football League championship from pre-game through post-game, with $261 million, said NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker.

Supersport will start showing coverage from this weekend, with its Multichoice platform offering discounted decoders in an attempt to entice GTV’s 100,000-odd subscribers.

GTV was losing $25 million a quarter and was an estimated 250,000 short of the minimum number needed to break even. For more details see the latest TV Sports Markets newsletter.

The broadcaster reported a 31-per-cent rise in second-half operating profits to £385 million, ahead of forecasts, with turnover up six per cent to £2.6 billion. For the three months to end-December, BSkyB added 171,000 net subscribers, compared with 167,000 for the same period in 2007.

The rights are for the three seasons from 2009-10 to 2011-12.