Scandinavia

An alliance between Norwegian public-service broadcaster NRK and one of Scandinavia’s largest pay-television operators, Modern Times Group, creates a third major rights-buying superpower

Swedish broadcasters want the Svenska Fotbollförbundet, the Swedish Football Federation, to state how much controversial agent Rune Hauge will be paid to advise

Pan-Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group doubled Formula One’s present television fees in the region

Danish state-owned broadcasters Danmarks Radio and TV2 this week completed an extensive swap of handball rights

Football: Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset acquired Serie A highlights rights in a three-year deal

Denmark’s state-owned commercial broadcaster TV2 is thought likely to launch a dedicated sports channel next year

New sports channel to be launched in Norway next year by commercial broadcaster TV2 and telecoms company Telenor

Ice hockey: Nordic pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus acquired the live pay-television and pay-per-view rights for the Swedish Elitserien, the country’s top-tier league, from the Svenska Hockeyligan in a four-year deal, 2006-07 to 2009-10

The recent trend of Nordic broad-casters paying massively increased fees for sports rights continued

Football: Spanish pay-television broadcaster Sogecable acquired the pay-rights for the Champions League in a three-year deal from the 2006-07 to 2008-09 with the Team agency

Scandinavian football’s Royal League is set to radically increase the knock-out element

Figure Skating: US network NBC acquired the rights for US figure skating in a three-year deal with the US Figure Skating Association, covering the national championships and the international Skate America…

Basketball: Spanish commercial broadcaster La Sexta acquired the rights to this year’s basketball World Championships in a deal with Fiba, the international basketball federation.

The women’s Euro 2005 football tournament last month attracted the biggest football television audiences of the year in Sweden and Norway

Fifa has agreed or is in the process of agreeing deals for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in the top five European television countries

Football:  Norwegian commercial channel TV2 an telecoms company Telenor acquired the rights to all Norwegian football in a record NKr1bn (£85m/€127m) deal (page 1)

Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus won the rights for 15 of the 20 clubs in Italy’s Serie A football league last week

Two agencies have put in pre-emptive bids for the rights for the top Swedish league and the national football team