Oceania

Football: UK commercial broadcaster ITV said that it was interested in acquiring a package of eight live Premier League matches a season from satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting as long as the…

Football: Portuguese state broadcaster RTP completed the sublicensing of 19 of the 31 matches in this year’s football European Championship to rival commercial broadcasters SIC and TVI (TV Sports Markets 7…

Cycling: Italian public-service broadcaster Rai agreed a four-year deal with the European Broadcasting Union, from 2005 to 2008, for coverage of the Tour de France. 

The Australian Football League grand final, the climax to the Aussie Rules season, was the most-watched sports event in Australia this year

American Football:  The National Football League signed new deals with three of its five major US television partners – the CBS and Fox networks and digital satellite platform DirecTV

Football: Fifa, world football’s governing body, rejected a minimum offer of $2.8bn (£1.6bn/€2.3bn)

Tennis’s French and Australian Opens are facing the strong possibility of significant cuts in their European television rights fees.

The New Zealand cricket board has renewed a television-rights deal with the country’s pay-operator Sky Television for five years, from 2004-05 to 2008-09.

The Athens Olympics attracted impressive ratings for Europe’s public-service broadcasters

Cricket: Indian public-service broadcaster Doordarshan agreed a deal for the terrestrial rights for select matches from International Cricket Council tournaments up until 2007, including 19 matches from the 2007 World Cup and nine from the Champions Trophy this year and in 2006

Olympics: Indonesia’s six main free-to-air broadcasters will not cover the Athens Olympics despite the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union reducing its initial $1.35m (£730,000/€1.1m) asking price, working out at $225,000 for each broadcaster, to $400,000.

The Australian government is to review the laws protecting major sports events for free-to-air television

Athletics: UK pay-broadcaster Setanta extended a deal for the Golden League series in 2008 and 2009.  The deal was brokered by the IMG agency.

Can television audiences for cricket’s new India Premier League Twenty20 competition be sustained?

SIC takes Uefa to task over lack of Euro 2008 access

Cricket: Australian sports broad-caster Fox Sports acquired the rights for Australia’s next two tours to India, including the four Test series in October and the seven one-day internationals in 2009, i…