Asia

Golf: US network NBC signed a six-year extension to its deal with the US Golf Association which gives it the live rights for the US Open, one of golf’s four Majors.

China will for the first time be pushed to pay proper money for the Olympic Games of 2010 and 2012 by IOC option.

Neo TV forced to share rights for India matches with Doordarshan

Indian Supreme Court’s ruling fiercely critical of board’s presidential elections

Zee commits to launch of Zee Sports

The government wants to introduce listed-events legislation

Low offer by state broadcaster

Doordarshan looks set to win the exclusive television rights for Pakistan cricket tour

Motorsport: German pay-broad-caster Premiere acquired the exclusive live rights for motor racing’s Nascar and Indycar series for the 2006 season.

·   Football: The Dentsu and Infront agencies acquired the Rest of Asia rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in a deal with Fifa, football’s world governing body.  De

Public-service broadcaster MediaCorp agreed to pay its share of rights fees for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, two days into the event.

Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN are hoping to make a big move into cricket in a bid to target a worldwide Asian audience.

The IOC will travel to South Korea to start preliminary talks about the broadcast rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games.

The joint venture of Dentsu and Infront will be banking heavily on getting good revenue from China.

Cricket: The Nimbus Sport agency acquired the worldwide television rights to cricket in India in a four-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Nimbus will pay $612

·   Football: Polish public-service broadcaster TVP and commercial broadcaster Polsat agreed a joint-deal for the 2006 World Cup with the Infront agency worth €15m (£10.3m).  TVP

·   Football: African broadcasters acquired the rights for the African Cup of Nations in a series of last-minute deals with the LC2 agency. 

Football: Greek public-service broadcaster ERT acquired the free-to-air rights for all 31 matches of Euro 2008 in a €9.5m (£6.5m) deal with the Sportfive agency. It is the first deal done for the championship.