Italy
Pay-operators lift subscribers in Q3
Pay-television operators in the UK, Germany and Italy reported growing numbers of subscribers
Vodafone will boost 3G, but will football be key?
English football’s Premier League will be at the heart of the battle for subscribers to third-generation mobile telephony
New TV deals boost Euroleague
The Euroleague has secured much-improved deals in two of its key territories
Rai drags its Euro feet again
The European Broadcasting Union is aiming to put together a bid of
TV RIGHTS CLIPS 1: Football, skiing and more
Football: The Latin American broadcasting union, Organización de Telecomunicaciones Ibero-americanas, acquired the rights for the 2006 World Cup in 15 countries, excluding Brazil, from the Infront Sports & Media agency.
New agency wins deals for final two Serie A clubs
Media Partners and Silva has agreed worldwide deals for the clubs
TV RIGHTS CLIPS 1: Football, rugby union, basketball and more
Football: German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquired the rights for up to 49 matches in football’s 2006 World Cup from Swiss agency Infront Sports & Media.
Basketball calls it a day with Rai
The rocky marriage of Italian club basketball and state broadcaster Rai is to end in divorce.
Sportfive wins top Italian clubs, but must fight for rest
The Sportfive agency looks to be in a strong position to take the international rights of the rest of the Serie A clubs.
Rai Trade quits foreign rights sales
Rai Trade, commercial arm of state broadcaster Rai, is to quit the selling of sports rights on the international market.
New bidder forced Sky Italia to raise fees for top clubs
Sky Italia’s expensive and quickly-negotiated deals with Italy’s top three football clubs were to at least a large extent the result of a rival bid from a newly-formed group of top sports executives and bankers.
Mediaset to bid against Rai for away qualifiers
Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset is set to make another attempt to show the national football team’s matches for the first time.
Serie A’s big three increase TV fees
Sky Italia’s new deals with Italy’s top three clubs cover two seasons, 2005-06 and 2006-07.
Rai puts name to EBU bid – with separate offer
EBU to patch together a “pan-European” bid for the next round of Olympic Games television rights.
Sky Italia’s surprise deals
Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia pay-television company astonished experienced industry observers by signing lucrative rights deals with Italy’s top three clubs.
TV cash is key to election of Lega Calcio president
Italy’s biggest clubs, Juventus and AC Milan, enriched by individually-sold television-rights contracts, have wondered for the last few years how they could get even richer.
New mini-spot ad rules may not appease Brussels
Hope that changes to the rules about the use of mini-spot advertisements during football matches will be enough to appease the European Commission.
TV RIGHTS CLIPS 2: Basketball, wrestling, horseracing and more
Basketball: Spain’s top domestic league, the ACB Liga, failed to agree television deals in time for the start of its season for the second successive year.