Romania

Taste of victory soured by league title-sponsorship deal with rival broadcaster Realitatea.

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…

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…

Favourable European time zone means increased fee

Football: Sports agency Sportfive acquired the worldwide international television rights for the German Bundesliga in a two-year deal, from 2004-05 to 2005-06, paying over €15m (£10m) per season.

April’s two Formula 1 races were the most featured events of the month in the TV Sports Markets monthly survey of European viewing.

Telesport hopes that its acquisition of English Premier League football will be the key content it has been striving for since it first tried to launch four years ago.

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.

Olympics: The Japan Consortium, consisting of public-service broadcaster NHK and commercial broadcasters Fuji TV, NTV, TV Asahi, TBS and Tokyo TV, acquired the media rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics…

Romanian broadcaster Pro TV’s successful acquisition of Uefa Cup rights was also the third major defeat in a month for rival commercial channel Realitatea

Football: UK commercial broadcaster ITV acquired the rights for the first-choice Champions League match on Wednesdays in a three-year deal with the Team Marketing agency

The TV Sports Markets monthly survey of European sports viewing in December shows Champions League second-phase matches topping the tables in six of 19 countries surveyed.

Women's World Championships draw good audiences in Norway, Germany, Romania

A determined attack on the football rights market last month by Romanian news channel Realitatea has ended in spectacular failure

Olympics: New Zealand pay-broadcaster Sky Television and its free-to-air arm Prime acquired the rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics in a $10.5m (£5.1m/€7.2m) deal with the International Olympic Committee.

Boom in fees partly explained by steep growth in television advertising rates