News

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV is paying $100 million in the deal, almost seven times what it paid for the 2006 and 2008 Games, held in Beijing.

CCTV was estimated to have generated $394 million in advertising revenue around its Beijing coverage.

Fox, in which Rupert Murdoch owns a 49-per-cent stake, beat long-term incumbent ESPN for the Latin American rights outside Brazil for the Champions League and Europa League from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

The DFL is close to signing deals in the Americas and the Indian sub-continent, with Taiwan, China and the UK still outstanding.

Premiere acquired Bundesliga 2 rights as part of a wider deal agreed late last year for the top-tier Bundesliga, worth €1 billion over four years.

ESPN bid for Bundesliga 2 rights in the course of the negotiations, losing out to Premiere. ESPN had also considered bidding for the top-tier Bundesliga. It decided against it, but its interest was nonetheless key in forcing the price up.

Telecinco claims that the agency, which sells the rights on behalf of the Spanish football federation, never gave it a chance to exercise matching rights option in its favour before awarding the rights to public-service broadcaster TVE.

For more details see the latest issue of TV Sports Markets.

Sogecable successfully exercised a one-year renewal option in a previous contract to extend its deal with the club for the 2008-09 season after Real Madrid had signed in 2007 a five-year deal, running from 2008-09 to 2012-13, with sports rights agency Mediapro.

Mediapro accepted the option, and moved its deal with Real Madrid back by one year, so that it runs from 2009-10 to 2013-14.

Orange is presently appealing the he decision of Paris’s Tribunal de commerce, which ruled that its strategy of offering its Orange Sport channel only to Orange ADSL subscribers was anti-competitive. If it fails in its appeal, Orange said that it will cease marketing operations for Orange Sport, the channel that carries the matches.

La Liga is a cornerstone property for Al Jazeera Sport and was its first major acquisition when it launched back in 2003. Since then Al Jazeera Sport has grown to become the region’s dominant sports broadcaster, a position it effectively attained when it agreed a $200 million deal early last year for the rights for Uefa’s Champions League and Europa League competitions.

This year is the first in which the region will host two grands prix, with the addition of Abu Dhabi circuit. The Abu Dhabi Sports Channel was favourite to pick up the 2009 rights but walked away from talks after the Bahrain Circuit asked for $16 million for the rights, approximately 10 times what was paid in 2008.

The agency is claiming breach of contract and alleges that right from the start of negotiations the Tour acted in bad faith. It also claims that a matching rights option on the 2009 rights remains valid, despite the Tour arguing otherwise. During a period of exclusive talks last summer, WSG offered to increase its minimum guarantee to $550,000 for 2009.