Canada

Athletics: US broadcaster NBC and its cable and broadband subsidiary Universal Sports acquired the rights for the World Athletics Series, covering Indoor and outdoor World Championships and other events,…

Football: Sports broadcaster ESPN Brasil acquired pay-television rights in Brazil for the 2010 World Cup in a sublicensing deal with commercial broadcaster Globo

US sports channels Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta are motivated at least in part by the fear that rival ESPN is planning a knockout bid of its own for English football’s Premier League.

Football: The Sportsman Media Group, which is distributing the rights for the German Bundesliga in 16 markets across Southern Europe and Asia, has agreed deals in 13 territories

ESPN’s loss of Uefa Champions League rights in Latin America is a major blow for the broadcaster following a massive first-round bid from rival Fox Sports.

Athletics: The IMG agency acquired the international television rights for the newly-created Diamond League in a five-year deal, 2010 to 2014, guaranteeing around $6m (€4.7m) a year.

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

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

Baseball: US sports network ESPN extended a deal with Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media arm for inter-active television and other digital media rights through to 2013.

Scant evidence of the credit crunch affecting the sports rights industry at this week’s Sportel trade fair in Monaco, which attracted record numbers of participants.

Basketball: German commercial broadcaster DSF acquired the live, delayed and highlights rights for the 2009 and 2011 FIBA European Championship and the 2010 FIBA World Championship from the Fédération Internationale de Basketball.

Ice hockey: Canadian cable sports broadcaster TSN extended its television rights deal with the National Hockey League for a further six years, through to 2013-14, in a contract worth at least C$200m (£101m/€127m). 

Football: Gioco Calcio, the fledgling pay-per-view football service launched this season by six small clubs from Italy’s Serie A, is likely to lose one or two of its clubs to pay-operator Sky Italia, a…

The International Olympic Committee has held early talks with five Canadian media groups interested in broadcasting the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held in Vancouver

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

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…