Americas

Rugby Union

Terrestrial channel snatches rights from incumbent Rai for a 300-per-cent rights fee increase
American Football

Football: German sports agency Infront did not take-up its €595m (£412m) option for the Deutsche Fussball Liga rights for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, failing to reach agreement over price. 
Boxing

Football:  German commercial broadcaster RTL acquired the rights for a package of seven or eight Sunday matches from the 2006 World Cup from agency Infront Sports & Media.
Golf

US golf’s PGA Tour says that it expects to win increased fees for its next domestic television rights deal

The newly-owned and rebranded US motor racing series Champ Car made a decent start to the season in its first two races.
American Football

Ice Hockey: The US National Hockey League signed a two-year deal with the NBC network, with an option to renew for a further two years
Basketball

Football: German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquired the rights for up to 49 matches in football’s 2006 World Cup from Swiss agency Infront Sports & Media.

Boxing

US cable broadcaster ESPN has revived its interest in boxing almost a year after it seemed set to quit the sport.
Hockey

The revival of the India-Pakistan hockey test series after an interval of five years has attracted high television interest.

Boxing

There is considerable pressure on UK boxing promoter Frank Warren and his biggest fight asset, Ricky Hatton, to come up with a top-ranking US opponent in the next few months.
Basketball

Horseracing: Two rival dedicated cable and satellite horseracing channels could be launched in the UK within the next month with the country’s racecourses split evenly between the two new ventures. 
Football

The Infront agency has brought in $232 million (£126.6 million/ €182.4 million) from Latin America
Athletics

Football: Fifa, world football’s governing body, rejected a minimum offer of $2.8bn (£1.6bn/€2.3bn)

The Athens Olympics attracted impressive ratings for Europe’s public-service broadcasters
Cricket

Cricket: Asian broadcaster Ten Sports is set to acquire the worldwide rights to international cricket in Sri Lanka in a four-year deal, from 2005 to 2008.

Football

Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, world football’s governing body, said that Fifa may take the selling of television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in-house.
Football

Olympics: The Japan Consortium, consisting of public-service broadcaster NHK and commercial broadcasters Fuji TV, NTV, TV Asahi, TBS and Tokyo TV, acquired the media rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics…
Football

Brazil’s four biggest football clubs have refused to ratify a new television rights deal