France

Football

Sports agencies have had a busy fortnight negotiating deals for the opening round of 2006 World Cup
Sailing

The America’s Cup, sailing’s premier event, is on course for a huge increase in television coverage
Ice Skating

The International Skating Union could strip France of the right to host the 2006 European ice skating championships
Football

The French football league is expected to decide in the next few weeks to take over the production of at least some of its matches

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

Athletics: UK pay-broadcaster Setanta extended a deal for the Golden League series in 2008 and 2009.  The deal was brokered by the IMG agency.
Football

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…
Handball

Ice hockey: US network NBC agreed a one-year extension to its revenue-sharing deal with the National Hockey League, through to the end of the 2008-09 season
Handball

French telecoms company Orange is to combine its recently-acquired domestic handball rights with Ligue 1 football to launch a strong Saturday evening sports schedule
Basketball

The Deutscher Fussball-Bund, the German football federation, signed a five-year extension, ending 2009, to its television rights deal with German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF

Cricket

IMG set to win one, lose one as football talks close
Air Racing

Olympics: Australian telecoms provider Telstra agreed a A$9m (£4.2m/ €5.3m) deal with Seven Media Group to show exclusive live coverage of the Beijing Olympics on its BigPond mobile service. 
Rugby Union

After a record-breaking 2007, television audiences for the 2008 Six Nations rugby union tournament fell in all four markets of the participating countries

Football

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

Industry asking: 'What does Canal Plus hope to achieve?'
Basketball

Football: African broadcasters acquired the rights for the African Cup of Nations in a series of last-minute deals with the LC2 agency.  In Ghana, state broadcaster GTV acquired the rights for €1m (£686,000).

Cricket

Cricket: The Nimbus Sport agency acquired the worldwide television rights to cricket in India in a four-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Athletics

Motorsport: German pay-broadcaster Premiere extended its deal for live Formula One rights by one year, until the end of the 2007 season.