Italy

Spanish public-service broadcaster sees nine-per-cent increase in audiences for MotoGP coverage

Increased fees and coverage in Italy and Spain, but no renewal in UK, and fees and contract lengths fall in France and Germany

Only Serie A clubs voted on the newly-imposed system, Serie B fear creation of a Serie A 'premier league'

Highly prescriptive legislation shows that "government does not trust the foootball authorities to do things properly and transparently"

Legislation requires collective selling of Italian football rights, possibly in breach of EU competition law

Only one agency invited to make presentations to league on how it could increase value of rights

Clubs from Italy’s Serie A last week voted in favour of the principle of a return to the collective selling of television rights abandoned seven years ago.

Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso attract big audiences in home markets, but German, French and Italian audiences fall

Cricket: Australian free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network acquired the rights to this month's Champions Trophy and the 2007 World Cup in a deal with News Corporation subsidiary Global Cricket Corporation.

Football: Romanian public-service broadcaster TVR acquired the rights for all 31 matches of the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal with the Sportfive agency.

The International Olympic Committee’s surprise gatekeeper deal with Italian pay-television operator Sky Italia for the rights to the Olympic Games of 2010 and 2012 could be a blueprint for the IOC’s future rights-sales strategy in Europe

American Football:  UK pay-operator British Sky Broadcasting acquired the UK and Ireland rights for the National Football League in a four-year deal from 2007-08 to 2010-11.

·   Football: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC acquired the rights for all Fifa events for the eight-year period from 2007 to 2014, including the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. 

Italy’s troubled telecoms giant, Telecom Italia, is on a collision course with the government over deals it agreed with five Serie A clubs.

Football: Japanese pay-television operator J Sports acquired the rights to Japan’s top-tier J-League in a five-year deal from 2007 to 2011.

Football: The threatened delay to the start of the Serie B season in Italy was averted when Rupert Murdoch’s satellite platform, Sky Italia, signed a last-minute, one-season deal to broadcast all Serie B matches live.