United Kingdom

Football
Europe

ITV said that it had probably underestimated the effect that losing exclusivity would have on its coverage.
Cricket
Europe

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 wants to cut back its Test match cricket coverage
Rugby League
Europe

Television audiences for the final stages of English rugby league’s Super League have fallen in the UK for the first time in three years.

Basketball
Germany

Basketball:  Spain’s top domestic league, the ACB Liga, failed to agree television deals in time for the start of its season for the second successive year.

Cricket
Czech Republic

Cricket:  The Board of Control for Cricket in India, after extensive legal wrangles, finally signed a deal for the Indian rights to the three tours taking place this year, a four-Test series against Australia, a two-Test series against South Africa and a one-off one-day international against Pakistan, with state broadcaster Doordarshan.

Squash
United Kingdom

Many officials across squash are highly critical of the Professional Squash Association
Football
Europe

Marked differences in the out-comes of the European Commission’s investigations into England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga
Football
Europe

Television viewing of live coverage of English football’s Premier League has fallen heavily this season.

Cricket
India

Cricket: Indian broadcaster Zee Telefilms made a $308m (£174m/ €257m) bid for the worldwide television rights to Indian cricket for four years, from October 2004 to September 2008.
Australia

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

Sports agencies have had a busy fortnight negotiating deals for the opening round of 2006 World Cup
Sailing
Europe

The America’s Cup, sailing’s premier event, is on course for a huge increase in television coverage
Football
Europe

Three, is at last beginning to generate value from its 3G sports rights
Cricket
Australia

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

Football
Australia

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.

Cricket
Europe

The England and Wales Cricket Board is targeting an increase in television rights fees of 70 per cent
Rugby Union
Europe

British Sky Broadcasting acquired the rights for European rugby’s Heineken Cup competition in a three-year deal said to be worth £20m (€28.7m), entering talks at the last moment.  In
Austria

Viewing rises in four out of the top five European television markets