Italy

The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against the Italian government over the use by the country’s broadcasters of mini-advertisements during the televising of football matches.

MP Web expects to wait up to three years before seeing any significant return on its investment in Italian football’s third-generation mobile phone rights.

Paolo Francia is coming under increasing pressure over his role in the rights negotiations for skiing’s alpine World Cup.

Olympics: CCTV.com, the new-media arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, acquired the new-media rights for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in a deal worth an estimated $7m (£3.5m/ €4.9m

Football: Spanish commercial broadcaster Cuatro and digital satellite operator Digital Plus, both owned by media group Sogecable, acquired the rights for Euro 2008 from Uefa, in a deal brokered by the…

Football: Greek public-service broadcaster ERT acquired the free-to-air rights for all 31 matches of Euro 2008 in a €9.5m (£6.5m) deal with the Sportfive agency.  It is the first deal done for the championship.  Italian public-service broadcaster Rai is also set to sign a deal for Euro 2008, paying €120m.

Football: African broadcasters acquired the rights for the African Cup of Nations in a series of last-minute deals with the LC2 agency.  In Ghana, state broadcaster GTV acquired the rights for €1m (£686,000).

Commercial broadcaster Telecom Italia buys rights to last-16 stage

Football: Polish public-service broadcaster TVP and commercial broadcaster Polsat agreed a joint-deal for the 2006 World Cup with the Infront agency worth €15m (£10.3m).

Two senior competition lawyers said that the legal basis of Sky’s attack on the law, which came into force in January, was “weak” and “inconsistent”.  They ar

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 media-rights sales for three of Europe’s top five leagues have come under fresh regulatory scrutiny

The climax of the football season in Europe attracted big audiences for free-to-air broadcasters across the continent.

Olympics: Italian pay-operator Sky Italia acquired the exclusive media rights for all platforms for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Olympic Games in a deal worth €112m ($168m), with the International O…

The IOC this week warned that its deal with Sky Italia would prevent cable and satellite operator Eurosport from showing the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games in Italy

The Italian antitrust authority cleared Mediaset’s controversial acquisition of SportItalia’s free-to-air television operation.