Americas

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.

Football: Japanese pay-broadcaster SkyPerfecTV acquired the communication-satellite (CS) rights for all 64 matches of the 2010 World Cup in a deal with the Dentsu agency

Athletics: French pay-television operator Canal Plus will broadcast the new six-meeting Ligue national d’athlétisme after nuclear energy company Aveva stepped in with a new sponsorship deal.

Basketball: Brazilian commercial broadcaster Globo is to acquire the rights for the new, top-flight domestic basketball league, Novo Basquete Brasil, for R$1.5m (€474,000/ $633,710) a season.

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…

Sports rights agency Mediapro is thought to be close to renewing a deal for Spanish football’s top-tier La Liga with pan-regional pay-operator DirecTV Latin America.

Uefa has paid out an estimated €5 million ($6.4 million) to broadcasters in compensation for the signal blackouts during the Germany-Turkey semi-final in this summer’s Euro 2008 championship.

American Football: US cable sports network ESPN acquired the rights for the college football Bowl Championship Series.

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

Analysts are reining in their forecasts of the value of the next English Premier League live rights deal, on the basis that regulatory intervention and the economic downturn will limit competition.

A Latin American deal for the next two football World Cups in 2010 and 2014 may have to be renegotiated, with local broadcasters struggling to meet rights fee payments against the background of global recession.

Olympics: Turkish commercial network Fox Turkey acquired the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games.

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.

The Premier League may offer overseas broadcasters a ready-made Premier League channel in the next three-year rights cycle, as it looks to maintain the steep increase in its international rights revenue in a softening market.

The IOC’s preference for direct relationships in key markets looks set to further loosen the grip of the pan-regional broadcast unions that have traditionally acquired Olympic television rights.