France

Formula One: French commercial broadcaster TF1 renewed its deal for Formula One, paying a significant increase.

French commercial broadcaster TF1 renewed its deal for Formula One rights

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

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

The Team agency secured rights-fee increases of an overall 20 per cent or so for the Champions League rights in France

French pay-broadcaster Télévision Par Satellite has decided against taking on pay-rival Canal Plus for France’s top sports rights

Ice hockey: Nordic pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus acquired the live pay-television and pay-per-view rights for the Swedish Elitserien, the country’s top-tier league, from the Svenska Hockeyligan in a four-year deal, 2006-07 to 2009-10

Football: French commercial broad-caster TF1 acquired the free-to-air Champions League rights for a further three-years, from 2006-07 to 2008-09

The French Basketball Federation is in talks with the country’s two pay-television operators

The French contenders for Champions League football asked to submit a second round of bids.

Football: Spanish Primera Liga champions FC Barcelona agreed a long-term deal with the Mediapro agency which guarantees the club at least €1bn (£685m) for its domestic and international television rights for the seven years from 2006-07 to 2012-13.

Strong competition for the Euro 2008 rights in France should lead to a steep increase in rights fees because of the rivalry among the country’s terrestrial broadcasters.

Fifa has agreed or is in the process of agreeing deals for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in the top five European television countries

Football: UK commercial operator ITV and pay-broadcaster Setanta acquired the rights for the FA Cup knock-out competition and England national team matches in a four-year, £425m (€623m) deal with the En…

Tennis: Asian broadcaster Ten Sports sublicensed coverage of the finals of this year’s French Open tournament to rival pay-operator Zee Sports.

Football: Spanish free-to-air broadcaster Cuatro sublicensed the non-exclusive rights to at least seven matches from the upcoming World Cup from rival broadcaster La Sexta in a deal worth €20m (£14m).