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The new offer covers the annual World Championships and the World Cup series and is a relief to FISA, which had feared that its EBU deal might not be renewed after the International Olympic Committee rejected an EBU bid for the 2014 and 2116 Olympic Games.

Supersport’s La Liga deal, agreed with the Mediapro agency, covers pan-African rights. Mediapro is thought to have been the last rights holder to benefit from the competitive presence of sub-Saharan broadcaster GTV, which went into liquidation last month.

Hilinsky will take over at Record in the next few months and will be in charge of rights deals negotiated by Zebini, including the 2010 and 2012 Olympics and the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.

The deal includes the Fed Cup and the Hopmann Cup.

Mediapro has traditionally sold the rights directly only in Japan, with the Sportfive agency usually distributing the rights elsewhere in Asia.

BSkyB picked up five of the six 23-match packages, one more than it has at present, paying £1.623 billion. Setanta picked up one package for £159 million but the viability of its business model is threatened by the fact that it has now lost half its Premier League offering.

The deal is the third consecutive three-year contract signed by Sportfive for these markets. The two agencies have also renewed their cooperation and alliance regarding Mediapro’s representation of Sportfive properties in Spain.

In France, live coverage was shared between premium channel Canal Plus, which drew 1.1 million viewers, and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions, which drew 4.5 million viewers and a 24.4-per-cent share, according to audience measurement agency Mediametrie.

Eurosport's television coverage of the Australian Open drew 52 million different viewers − its best-ever reach for the event. About 17.3 million different viewers followed the final, with a record average audience of 3.1 million per quarter of an hour.

Teleclub will show three matches a week. The deal was agreed after an earlier deal between MP & Silva and Swiss media agency Heikon fell through.