Oceania

New domestic deals for two of Europe’s top five football leagues accounted for two of the three biggest television rights contracts signed in 2008.

American Football: US cable sports network ESPN acquired the rights for the college football Bowl Championship Series.

Negotiations for the European rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics were building to a climax this week, as talks intensified between the EBU and the IOC

Olympics: Turkish commercial network Fox Turkey acquired the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games.

The launch of Australia’s first-ever free-to-air sports channel, One, is an unprecedented challenge to leading pay sports broadcaster Fox Sports.

UK pay-operator BSkyB’s new five-year deal with the Rugby Football Union was a classic smash-and-grab move that will strengthen its position in the ongoing negotiations for English rugby union’s top-tier domestic league.

Fast Track is facing tough talks with broadcasters for the 2010 Commonwealth Games rights

Forthcoming negotiations for the domestic rights for English rugby union’s Guinness Premiership will act as an interesting barometer of the state of the UK sports rights market, three months before the start of football’s Premier League rights talks.

The IRB secured a massive increase in television rights fees in Australia as pay broadcaster Fox Sports fought off a major challenge from free-to-air network Ten to win the rights for the 2011 and 2015 rugby union World Cups.

The phenomenal television-ratings success of last month’s Beijing Olympics will add considerable momentum to the International Olympic Committee’s broadcast rights negotiations in Europe and the US for the 2014 and 2016 Games.