Eastern Europe

Infront, the agency selling the 2006 World Cup rights, is having a hard time getting close to its asking price for the rights in Poland and Hungary

Cricket:  The Board of Control for Cricket in India, after extensive legal wrangles, finally signed a deal for the Indian rights to the three tours taking place this year, a four-Test series against Australia, a two-Test series against South Africa and a one-off one-day international against Pakistan, with state broadcaster Doordarshan.

Olympics: Indonesia’s six main free-to-air broadcasters will not cover the Athens Olympics despite the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union reducing its initial $1.35m (£730,000/€1.1m) asking price, working out at $225,000 for each broadcaster, to $400,000.

UPC, the pan-European cable company, is to launch a second sports channel in Hungary

Polish commercial broadcaster TVN was this week close to acquiring the highlights rights for the Polish football league

Viewing rises in four out of the top five European television markets

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…

Romanian broadcaster Pro TV’s successful acquisition of Uefa Cup rights was also the third major defeat in a month for rival commercial channel Realitatea

Football: UK commercial broadcaster ITV acquired the rights for the first-choice Champions League match on Wednesdays in a three-year deal with the Team Marketing agency

Infront, and other suitors, did not like the rights guarantees ISPR had committed to

The TV Sports Markets monthly survey of European sports viewing in December shows Champions League second-phase matches topping the tables in six of 19 countries surveyed.

Women's World Championships draw good audiences in Norway, Germany, Romania

A determined attack on the football rights market last month by Romanian news channel Realitatea has ended in spectacular failure

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).

Olympics: New Zealand pay-broadcaster Sky Television and its free-to-air arm Prime acquired the rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics in a $10.5m (£5.1m/€7.2m) deal with the International Olympic Committee.

Boom in fees partly explained by steep growth in television advertising rates