Africa

Asian broadcaster Ten Sports secured the rights for international cricket in South Africa despite reducing its initial offer by about $10 million.

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

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 …

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.

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.

New domestic deals for two of Europe’s top five football leagues accounted for two of the three biggest television rights contracts signed in 2008.

A multi-million dollar deal for the Asian rights for international cricket in South Africa looks likely to become another victim of the economic crisis.

Athletics: UK public-service broad-caster the BBC extended its deal for domestic athletics events for a further six years, from 2009 to 2014

Football: The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL), representing the top two tiers of German football, Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2, agreed a number of media rights deals covering the four-year period from 2009-10…

A review of South Africa’s listed-events legislation is generating concern among the country’s broadcasters and rights holders.

Football: The African Union of Broadcasters signed a deal with Fifa for the English, French and Portuguese-language television and radio rights to the 2010 World Cup.

A new strategic cooperation between the African Union of Broadcasters and Fifa, covering the 2010 football World Cup, will give Fifa a direct relationship with broadcasters in the region for the first time.

UK pay-operator BSkyB’s new five-year deal with the Rugby Football Union was a classic smash-and-grab move that will strengthen its position in the ongoing negotiations for English rugby union’s top-tier domestic league.

Globo said that it was in talks with the Team Marketing agency about the possibility of acquiring rights for European football’s Champions League competition from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

Football: Pan-Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group acquired the rights in Denmark, Sweden and Norway for the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Super Cup in a three-year deal from 2009-10 to 2011-12

News in Brief

Football: Spanish pay-television operator Sogecable acquired the television rights for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in a deal with Fifa worth just over €90m (£71m). 

This week’s sale of African rights for French Ligue 1 domestic football provides further evidence of the continent’s booming sports rights market