United Kingdom

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

No one anticipated the huge excitement and success of the Ashes cricket series between England and Australia

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

Cricket’s much-anticipated first Ashes Test between England and Australia drew one of the biggest sports audiences in recent years for UK commercial broadcaster Channel Four

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.

Average live English Premier League audience lowest since 2001-02

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

Top UK sports rights executive Trevor East will take on a number of roles – as well as becoming director of sports at Irish-based pay-broadcaster Setanta.

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…

Football: Pay-operator Premiere acquired the Austrian pay-television rights for the top two domestic leagues, the Bundesliga and the Zac Erste division, in a three-year deal from 2007-08 to 2009-10

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.

The Premier League’s £171.6 million deal with the BBC takes the league’s audiovisual-rights income to more than £680 million.

Pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting is considering launching a Sky Sports channel on the digital-terrestrial service Freeview.

Rugby union: UK pay-broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting acquired the exclusive live rights to European club rugby’s Heineken Cup competition in the UK and Ireland in a four-year deal, from 2006-07 to 2…

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