- Football: Greek public-service broadcaster ERT acquired the free-to-air rights for all 31 matches of Euro 2008 in a €9.5m (£6.5m) deal with the Sportfive agency. It is the first deal done for the championship. Italian public-service broadcaster Rai is also set to sign a deal for Euro 2008, paying €120m.
- Football: Italian pay-operator Sky Italia acquired the satellite rights to top Serie A club Juventus in a two-year, €157.3m (£108m) deal with commercial broadcaster Mediaset. The deal covers the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. Mediaset had bought all Juventus broadcast rights last month in a deal worth €248m (of which €30m is for an option to extend the deal for another year).
- Football: Dutch commercial channel Talpa acquired the rights to the Dutch national team’s away qualifiers for Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, in a deal with the Dutch football association, the KNVB. Talpa also acquired home and away Under-21 national team competitive matches until 2010. Talpa will pay about €1.3m (£890,000) for each senior qualifier and about €150,000 for each U-21 match.
- Football: SMG Broadband, a subsidiary of the Shanghai Media Group, acquired mobile phone and internet rights to this year’s World Cup in a deal with the Infront Sports & Media agency. SMG will have the rights to four minutes near-live video coverage per match as well as delayed highlights rights. SMG will exploit the internet rights itself and work with others to distribute mobile phone rights.
- Football: Chilean broadcaster Corporacion de Television de la Universidad Catolica (UCTV) acquired the rights to the Chilean national team’s home matches until the 2010 World Cup. UCTV will pay $16.7m (£9.5m/€13.8m) for the rights, rising to $21.4m if the national team qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals. It beat competition from previous rights-holder, public broadcaster Television Nacional de Chile, the Chilevision network, Spanish agency Santa Monica Sports Group and Mexican agency Grupo Pegaso.
- Commonwealth Games: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC acquired highlights rights to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. It will show one hour of highlights each day. CBC had said last year that it would not buy the rights because there was no room in its schedules.
- Tennis: Middle East broadcaster the Dubai Sports Channel acquired to Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Hoffman Cup rights in a four-year deal with the International Tennis Federation, replacing a three-year deal with Arab Radio and Television. ART did not bid for the rights this time around.
- Golf: Pan-Asian broadcaster ESPN Star Sports extended its deal with the Asian Tour through until 2009. ESS will show a minimum of 10 events per year as well as a weekly magazine programme. ESS has covered the tour since mid-2004.
ProSiebenSat.1 ploy helps DOSB New Media land ice hockey rights
Streaming platform operator DOSB New Media formed a joint ticket with its former owner, commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, to secure a wide-ranging package of ice hockey rights in Germany and Austria.
Sony renews Sri Lanka Cricket at reduced fee due to fewer India matches
Sony Pictures Networks renewed its global Sri Lanka Cricket rights for four years, from April 2023 to March 2027, at a lower fee due to a reduction in India matches on the previous deal.
ProSiebenSat.1 keeps hold of DTM with exposure guarantee
ProSiebenSat.1 saw off strong competition from rival commercial broadcaster RTL to renew its rights to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters after its previous deal for the touring car series was annulled.