Spain

Eight of the world’s Top 10 leagues for domestic audiovisual revenue are European and two Latin American, according to a new report comparing rights deals by TV Sports Markets.

Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso attract big audiences in home markets, but German, French and Italian audiences fall

Football: Romanian public-service broadcaster TVR acquired the rights for all 31 matches of the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal with the Sportfive agency.

The opening two matchweeks of football’s Champions League have got good audiences for the competition’s new rights holders.

Spanish Primera Liga football club Sevilla finally agreed a television rights deal this week, five weeks into the start of the season.

Uefa is in talks with clubs, leagues and football associations about a possible overhaul of European club competitions.

Football: Japanese pay-television operator J Sports acquired the rights to Japan’s top-tier J-League in a five-year deal from 2007 to 2011.

Football: The threatened delay to the start of the Serie B season in Italy was averted when Rupert Murdoch’s satellite platform, Sky Italia, signed a last-minute, one-season deal to broadcast all Serie B matches live.

The emergence of Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal is responsible for a fierce three-way battle for the Spanish rights for tennis’s Masters series.

La Sexta’s gamble in acquiring the rights for basketball’s 2006 World Championship proved inspired after the Spanish national team beat Greece in the final.

Football: Portuguese public-service broadcaster RTP acquired the rights to the national team’s Euro 2008 home qualifiers and friendlies in a two-year deal, 2006-07 to 2007-08, with the Olivedesportos agency

The Sportfive agency faces difficult talks in the remaining four big European markets where it has yet to sell the rights for football’s 2008 European Championship.

Spanish agency Mediapro has made a flying start in its international rights sales for Spanish league football.