Americas

Football

Champions League too expensive, does not attract good audiences, difficult to schedule
Boxing

German agency Infront Sports agreed a one-year deal for Bundesliga rights with a group comrising EM
Boxing

Satellite pay-television operator BSkyB renewed four important golf deals: (1) exclusive live rights for two Ryder Cups (in 2006 and 2008) with European Tour Productions; (2) live rights for 34 events…
Football

Major League Soccer has signed a second broadcast deal, the first for which is has not had to buy airtime.
Australian Rules Football

A rematch between boxers Oscar de la Hoya and Shane Mosley for the WBC and WBA super welterweight world titles is set to go ahead after US pay-television network HBO offered Mosley a greater share of pay-per-view…
Athletics

The poor economic climate has led to a big increase in sports federations buying airtime to show their top events.
Football

French commercial broadcaster TF1 acquired the free-to-air rights to football’s Champions League in a deal reported to be worth about €33m (£22.6m) a year.  It will have the first choice of live matches each Champions League week.

Audiences for the first round of the Formula 1 World Championship plummeted in three of the top four European markets.
Cricket

This month’s deal between the Pakistan cricket board and broadcasters Ten Sports and ARY Digital is the latest example of cricket boards abandoning traditional sports rights agencies.
Football

American Football

Audiovisual Sport, the football rights-holding company for Spain’s two main pay-television companies, said it valued the rights of all 20 clubs in the Primera Liga at €200m a season, 25 per cent less tha…
Golf

David Ciclitira, former Chairman of World Sport Group, talked this week about how the financially-troubled agency split into two.

Tennis

Fifty broadcasters around the world will show the tennis’s Masters series this year.
Tennis

US network NBC acquired the rights for tennis’s French Open and is close to signing a new deal for the Wimbledon rights.

US network NBC’s plan for a huge increase in its coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was welcomed by the IOC.
Baseball

Spanish Primera Liga football club Atletico Madrid opted out of its collective-selling deal with other clubs to sign a €52m (£34m) deal with Audiovisual Sport, the rights-pooling company for pay-opera-ors So…
Football

Football:  The Japan Consortium, consisting of public-service broadcaster NHK and commercial networks Fuji TV, NTV, TBS, TV Asahi and TV Tokyo, acquired the rights to football’s 2006 World Cup, paying ¥1…
Boxing

US Senate votes to establish boxing commission with power to designate broadcasters as promoters