Germany

The Athens Olympics attracted impressive ratings for Europe’s public-service broadcasters

German pay-television operator Premiere is to make a formal complaint to the European commission about the International Olympic Committee’s tender
Sailing

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

Cricket: Indian public-service broadcaster Doordarshan agreed a deal for the terrestrial rights for select matches from International Cricket Council tournaments up until 2007, including 19 matches from the 2007 World Cup and nine from the Champions Trophy this year and in 2006

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
Football

Swedish TV4 gets best-ever viewing figure for Women's football World Cup final

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE is enjoying a flying start for its coverage of motorcycling’s MotoGP this season, with the rivalry between young Spanish riders Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa

Football

Further questions were prompted this week about the future role of agencies in football
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
Football

Television audiences for this year’s German domestic cup, the DFB Cup, rose nine per cent on the previous season
Football

The German football association, the Deutscher Fussball-Bund, could join the football league in having its television rights arrangements put under the spotlight of the country’s cartel office
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

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. 
Football

Football: UK commercial broadcaster ITV acquired the rights for the first-choice Champions League match on Wednesdays in a three-year deal with the Team Marketing agency
Football

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

Deutsche Fussball Liga may deal directly with Premiere, bypassing Infront
Biathlon

The TV Sports Markets monthly survey of European sports viewing in December shows Champions League second-phase matches topping the tables in six of 19 countries surveyed.