Germany

Football

Four agencies are thought likely to bid for Bundesliga television rights
Football

German pay-broadcaster Premiere’s exclusive deal for Champions League pay-television and free-to-air live rights has angered the beaten free-channels, which were taken by surprise, and the clubs, which are worried about losing sponsorship money.
Football

Premiere, the German pay-television operator which is soon to launch a free-to-air channel, will fight hard to bring off a remarkable double this autumn
Football

The big-money strategic bids of German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 for top sports rights are a thing of the past
Football

Uefa and the Team agency may struggle to achieve big increases in rights fees for the Champions League in Germany

RTL Group is understood to be in talks to acquire the Serbian Channel 3,

RTL, the broadcasting arm of German media giant Bertelsmann, is facing challenging times
Football

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.

Football

German broadcasters could be forced to pay much more for the Euro 2008 rights because of strong competition.

Football

German pay-television company Premiere got its last orders from the Bundesliga when it failed to win the league’s rights for public-place viewing.

Football

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
Boxing

Horseracing:  UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 signed a one-year deal to continue its horseracing coverage in 2006 after the horseracing and betting industries agreed to pay the channel £4.95m (€7.4m). 

Pay-television operators in four of the five top European television markets reported growing numbers of subscribers

Football

Football World Cup agency Infront is close to acquiring the Milan-based agency Media Partners in a €130 million cash deal.

European Commission drops claim that public service broadcasters go beyond their remit by buying and broadcasting sport on an exclusive basis
Skiing

Lack of top German competitors has led to a large drop in audiences since last rights sale

Cricket

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

German viewing also falls, Spain and Italy see audiences rise