North America

there were three reasons for the unexpectedly high bid from the consortium of Bell Globemedia and Rogers

The Bell Globemedia-Rogers bid is a huge rise on what CBC paid

Failure of Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC to hold on to the television and new-media rights for the Olympic Games

Motorsport: German pay-broad-caster Premiere acquired the exclusive live rights for motor racing’s Nascar and Indycar series for the 2006 season.

Nascar will get a big increase in television rights fees

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

Major League Baseball may have left negotiations with the US television networks too late to sell its main rights package for an increased fee.

Cricket: The Nimbus Sport agency acquired the worldwide television rights to cricket in India in a four-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Nimbus will pay $612

SBS6 acquired the exclusive rights for all Professional Darts Corporation events in the Netherlands.

·   Football: African broadcasters acquired the rights for the African Cup of Nations in a series of last-minute deals with the LC2 agency. 

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.

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.

Golf: The US PGA Tour signed new six-year deals with the CBS and NBC networks, from 2007 to 2012.

• Formula One: German free-to-air sports broadcaster DSF acquired a package of Formula One rights for the 2007 season.

Football: French commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 reportedly acquired the rights for football's Euro 2008 in a deal brokered by the Sportfive agency.

Television rights division snapped up by rival IMG