Spain

The established satellite operators are facing new competition from cable for domestic football rights

Formula 1: Spanish sports agency Mediapro acquired the rights for Formula 1 in a five-year deal, 2009 to 2013, in a deal thought to be worth about €35m (£24m) a year.

Football: Jamaican commercial broadcaster CVM TV sublicensed rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup competitions from Caribbean sports cable operator SportsMax

Agency believed to be committed pay €35m per year, current deal worth €10m per year

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

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.

Football: Spanish Primera Liga champions FC Barcelona agreed a long-term deal with the Mediapro agency which guarantees the club at least €1bn (£685m) for its domestic and international television rights for the seven years from 2006-07 to 2012-13.

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

Horseracing:  UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 signed a one-year deal to continue its horseracing coverage in 2006 after the horseracing and betting industries agreed to pay the channel £4.95m (€7.4m). 

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)

Free-to-air television audiences for live coverage of Spanish football’s La Liga in 2004-05 fell six per cent on the previous season.

Spanish television’s near-black-out of the final of football’s domestic cup competition, the Copa del Rey, last weekend underlined a major flaw in Spanish listed-events legislation

Pay-television operators in four of the five top European television markets reported growing numbers of subscribers

Ice hockey: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC retained the rights for live coverage of the US National Hockey League in a six-year deal that will keep its flagship Hockey Night in Canada programme…

Football: UK commercial operator ITV and pay-broadcaster Setanta acquired the rights for the FA Cup knock-out competition and England national team matches in a four-year, £425m (€623m) deal with the En…

Tennis: Asian broadcaster Ten Sports sublicensed coverage of the finals of this year’s French Open tournament to rival pay-operator Zee Sports.