India

The legal and administrative chaos surrounding the Board of Control for Cricket in India will almost certainly cost it millions of dollars

Cricket:  The Board of Control for Cricket in India, after extensive legal wrangles, finally signed a deal for the Indian rights to the three tours taking place this year, a four-Test series against Australia, a two-Test series against South Africa and a one-off one-day international against Pakistan, with state broadcaster Doordarshan.

Cricket: Indian broadcaster Zee Telefilms made a $308m (£174m/ €257m) bid for the worldwide television rights to Indian cricket for four years, from October 2004 to September 2008.

The sale of Indian cricket television rights for the next four years will be the most valuable cricket deal agreed by a national cricket board

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

Jagmohan Dalmiya, controversial president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, surprised would-be bidders for the television rights to Indian cricket by setting a seven-day deadline to submit offers.

Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, world football’s governing body, said that Fifa may take the selling of television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in-house.

Can television audiences for cricket’s new India Premier League Twenty20 competition be sustained?

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

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

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

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.

Kirch shadow falls on Champions League rights Speculation that German media entrepreneur Leo Kirch may be planning a merger between German rights group EM

The International Cricket Council will be among the first rights-holders to benefit from the increased competition in the Indian television market.

Nimbus Communications, which paid a record fee for worldwide television rights to Indian cricket, is to use the rights to launch its own South Asian sports channel.

The Nimbus Sport agency looks set to make a profit on the international rights for Indian cricket.