Oceania

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.

Football: Pan-Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group acquired the rights in Denmark, Sweden and Norway for the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Super Cup in a three-year deal from 2009-10 to 2011-12

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.

Cricket: UK pay-broadcaster BSkyB extended its deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board for a further four years, from 2010 to 2013, paying about £260m (€330m). 

Olympics: The Asia-Pacific Broad-casting Union acquired the free-to-air terrestrial and radio rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics for $10m (£5.1m/€6.4m) in a deal with the International Olympic Committee. 

Asian TV gears up for World Cup war with agencies

The rugby World Cup and the cricket World Cup account for 11 of the Top 20 most popular televised sports events on Australian television in 2003

Rights are top sports property in SE Asia, and crucial to ESS carriage deals

A show of sporting solidarity by world's top squash players saved this year's event, after prize money fell to half last year's level

Not enough free-to-air coverage could result in delisting pushed for by Foxtel

A rematch between boxers Oscar de la Hoya and Shane Mosley for the WBC and WBA super welterweight world titles is set to go ahead after US pay-television network HBO offered Mosley a greater share of pay-per-view…

The performance of Australia’s national football team will be a key factor in determining whether the resurgence of Soccer Australia.

David Ciclitira, former Chairman of World Sport Group, talked this week about how the financially-troubled agency split into two.

Fifty broadcasters around the world will show the tennis’s Masters series this year.