Europe

Formula One Management is in talks with three Russian broadcasters

French commercial broadcaster TF1 renewed its deal for Formula One rights
Football

French commercial broadcaster M6’s acquisition of 31 matches for next year’s football World Cup

An alliance between Norwegian public-service broadcaster NRK and one of Scandinavia’s largest pay-television operators, Modern Times Group, creates a third major rights-buying superpower
Football

The established satellite operators are facing new competition from cable for domestic football rights
Football

Italian commercial broadcasters Mediaset and La7 are taking a big gamble by increasing the prices of pay-per-view football
Football

The German football league last week launched the sales process for the Bundesliga rights from 2006-07 to 2008-09

The long-awaited merger of the UK’s two cable operators will, according to the companies, create a major challenge to British Sky Broadcasting

Private equity company Permira’s decision to all but pull out of German pay-broadcaster Premiere reflects a fear that the broadcaster may not grow its subscriber base much further
American Football

Baseball: US cable broadcaster ESPN renewed its long-term deal for Major League Baseball, paying $2.368bn (£1.3bn/€1.9bn) over eight years, from 2006 to 2013.

Cricket

British Sky Broadcasting is close to a deal for the live rights for cricket’s 2007 World Cup in the West Indies

The A1 Grand Prix organisers were this week finalising last-minute television deals

acquisition of cable and satellite sports channel Galaxie Sport, the main cable sports channel in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Skiing

It was one of the crown jewels of German sport until recently
Football

Television audiences for the live matches shown in the opening six weeks of English football’s Premier League season increased

Football

Football: German pay-broadcaster Premiere acquired exclusive rights for the Champions League in a three-year deal from 2006-07 to 2008-09

Football

Swedish broadcasters want the Svenska Fotbollförbundet, the Swedish Football Federation, to state how much controversial agent Rune Hauge will be paid to advise
Football

Rai, the Italian state broadcaster, suffered its third setback over the football league’s rights