Canada

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…

Curling: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC has reportedly agreed a six-year deal with the Canadian Curling Association.

More control over television coverage sought, including ability to ensure greater exposure for Fifa events

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

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

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.

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…

Cricket: Australian sports broad-caster Fox Sports acquired the rights for Australia’s next two tours to India, including the four Test series in October and the seven one-day internationals in 2009, i…

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.  Italian public-service broadcaster Rai is also set to sign a deal for Euro 2008, paying €120m.

Football: A consortium of Telecoms company Telenor and Scandinavia’s commercial broadcasters, TV2 in Denmark, TV2 in Norway and TV4 in Sweden, acquired the rights for the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal w…