Middle East

Football:  The Japan Consortium, consisting of public-service broadcaster NHK and commercial networks Fuji TV, NTV, TBS, TV Asahi and TV Tokyo, acquired the rights to football’s 2006 World Cup, paying ¥1…

The Octagon agency, favourites to win the English Premier League’s international rights in the Middle East, was thrown into gloom late last month when parent company Interpublic refused to guarantee i…

JCS Sports is challenging Charlton’s $4.5 million deal with Israeli basketball’s Premier League.

A series of legal battles and other bitter disputes between the top players in television sport in Israel is creating uncertainty and confusion for Israeli television,

Cricket: Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan said that it would look to share the rights to Indian cricket if it failed to retain its exclusive contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India

Next question: Can leagues and federations manage without the agencies?

Ice Hockey: The US National Hockey League signed a two-year deal with the NBC network, with an option to renew for a further two years

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.

JCS Sports, which owns Israel’s two sports channels, has acquired the rights for top Israeli football and basketball matches

Horseracing: Two rival dedicated cable and satellite horseracing channels could be launched in the UK within the next month with the country’s racecourses split evenly between the two new ventures. 

The tender for control of Israeli commercial broadcaster Channel 2 was launched last week

Israeli public-service broadcaster Channel 1 is close to agreeing a deal with the Sportfive agency

Israeli pay-per-view company Charlton is set to sign deals with Israeli broadcasters

The Israeli Cable Council, a government agency, gave approval this week for pay-per-view company Charlton to televise Israeli football’s Premier League and the English Premier League

Immense government and public pressure for the team’s other away matches to be covered.

Israeli commercial broadcaster Channel 10 acquired the rights for one Israeli Premier League football match per week in a sublicensing deal with Israeli pay-per-view company and rights agency Charlton TV.

Aviv Giladi, head of a growing Israeli television empire, last week took over JCS Sports, which owns the country’s two sports channels, the cable and satellite Sport 5 and Sport 5 Plus

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).