Italy

Disputes over income from digital-terrestrial and other media rights cause tension amongst the clubs.

·   Football: The Dentsu and Infront agencies acquired the Rest of Asia rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in a deal with Fifa, football’s world governing body.  De

AC Milan has sold its 50 per cent stake in the club's television channel

Clubs from Italy’s Serie A are set for crisis talks

The Six Nations championship boosted television audiences in all participating countries except Italy.

Television broadcasters are having difficulty making use of the matching-rights options they negotiated in earlier contracts.

·   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).  TVP

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.

Media Partners & Silva set to take a long-term stranglehold on the international rights of Serie A clubs.

Rai set to acquire rights for Euro 2008 from Sportfive.

Tennis: Pan-European cable and satellite broadcaster Eurosport extended its deal for coverage of the Australian Open for a further four years, from 2008 to 2011. Eurosport will also be the distribution agent for the media rights across Europe. The rights were previously held by the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella group representing the region’s public-service broadcasters.

France, Italy, UK and Nordic region the only European territories covered so far.

Sky Italia to re-launch digital multi-channel coverage this season.

Football: The German Football League awarded the rights for the Bundesliga in several three-year deals covering 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Versatel has jumped into the vanguard of an emerging movement by telecoms companies to seriously challenge broadcasters for live television rights.

Formula One Management to take over host-broadcasting from 2007 season.