News

ESPN is the present rights-holder in the US, where it shares rights with Setanta, and Canada, where it shares with TSN and French-language RDS. Commercial broadcaster Rede Record is the rights-holder in Brazil. Bids are due in on March 3.

The deal consolidates Record’s partnership with the event, having six months ago signed the Brazil rights for the 2011 Games. For more details see the latest TV Sports Markets newsletter.

Canal Plus has since sold the Nigerian rights to Daar Communications. Canal Plus subisidiary Canal Horizons, which already had French-language rights, picked up the sub-Saharan English-language rights.

Sportfive said that the matches, against Ivory Coast, Guinea and Burkina Faso, are not “marketable” and that it will not increase its offer.

In August, I-Cable reported a 78 per cent decline in post-tax profit to HK$26 million for the six months to end-June. I-Cable said that “deteriorating economic conditions and intense competition since then continued to make a negative impact on the Group's business, resulting in further revenue and margin erosion.

Baseball

Motorsport: German pay-broad-caster Premiere acquired the exclusive live rights for motor racing’s Nascar and Indycar series for the 2006 season.
Football

·   Football: The Dentsu and Infront agencies acquired the Rest of Asia rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in a deal with Fifa, football’s world governing body.  De
Cricket

Cricket: The Nimbus Sport agency acquired the worldwide television rights to cricket in India in a four-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Nimbus will pay $612
Football

·   Football: Polish public-service broadcaster TVP and commercial broadcaster Polsat agreed a joint-deal for the 2006 World Cup with the Infront agency worth €15m (£10.3m).  TVP
Basketball

·   Football: African broadcasters acquired the rights for the African Cup of Nations in a series of last-minute deals with the LC2 agency.