Eastern Europe

Sportfive, Kentaro, IMG get plenty of ties against the big five teams; Infront do not fare so well

Bobsleigh/Skeleton: German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquired the rights for the men’s and women’s bobsleigh and skeleton World Cups and World Championships for the three years from 2006-07 to …

Football: The English Premier League signed a number of deals in several territories for its television rights for the the three seasons from 2007-08 to 2009-10

English football’s Premier League began its international audiovisual rights sales in dramatic style with massive first-round awards in three of its most competitive markets.

Football: Polish pay-television operator Canal Plus acquired the main package of Serie A rights for the three years from 2007-08 to 2009-10 in a deal with the Media Partners and Silva agency.

Football: The England Football Association agreed deals for its international rights covering the fouryear period from 2008-09 to 2011-12, bringing in worldwide revenues of over $300m (£144m/€207m) - …

Eight of the world’s Top 10 leagues for domestic audiovisual revenue are European and two Latin American, according to a new report comparing rights deals by TV Sports Markets.

Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso attract big audiences in home markets, but German, French and Italian audiences fall

Football: Romanian public-service broadcaster TVR acquired the rights for all 31 matches of the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal with the Sportfive agency.

Pan-European media giant RTL is to make a surprise return to the sports rights marketing business

Football: Middle-East broadcaster Al Jazeera Sport acquired the rights for European club competitions the Champions League and the Uefa Cup in three-year deals worth a combined $200m (£102m/ €136m). 

Boxing website SecondsOut.com is close to tying up rights deals with top US and European promoters to show fights on internet pay-per-view.

Uefa is in talks with clubs, leagues and football associations about a possible overhaul of European club competitions.

·   Football: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC acquired the rights for all Fifa events for the eight-year period from 2007 to 2014, including the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. 

Boxing: German commercial broadcaster RTL acquired the rights for the next four fights of Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko in a deal with the Sportfive agency worth €10m (£6.8m).

Football: Japanese pay-television operator J Sports acquired the rights to Japan’s top-tier J-League in a five-year deal from 2007 to 2011.