Eastern Europe

The Turin Winter Olympics attracted impressive audiences to European public-service broadcasters.

Football: French mobile operator Orange acquired the mobile phone rights to France’s Ligue 1 in a two-year deal, covering the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.

Football: Italian broadcaster Mediaset acquired the broadcast rights across any medium to top Serie A club Inter Milan in a two-year deal worth €200m (£137m), covering the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

The Czech Republic’s victory in the final of last year’s ice hockey World Championship attracted the country’s top sports television audience in 2005.

Polish public-service broadcaster TVP acquired the television rights for the national football team and will launch a dedicated sports channel.

Cricket: Pan-Asian broadcaster ESPN Star Sports acquired the worldwide rights for International Cricket Council events from September 2007 through to 2015.

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