TV RIGHTS 1: football, motorcycling, Formula One and others

·   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 is paying €10m and will show the bulk of games, including those of the Polish team. Polsat is paying €5m and will show matches on its Polsat Cyfrowy pay-channel.

·   Football: Vietnamese broadcasters Ho Chi Minh Television and Vietnam Television acquired the rights for the 2006 World Cup in a deal worth $3m (£1.7m/€2.6m) with the FPT software company that had acquired the rights from the Infront agency.  They beat off competition from cable broadcaster Vietnam Television Cable.

·   Football: German sports broadcaster DSF signed a three-year deal with pay-platform Premiere for DSF to show 13 Champions League matches a year from the 2006-07 season.

·   Football: Italian joint-venture agency Media Partners & Silva confirmed it had acquired the international television rights to Serie A’s three top clubs, Juventus, AC Milan and Internazionale, for the three-year period from 2007-08 to 2009-10 (TV Sports Markets exclusive story, 10:2).  The joint-venture will pay Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset €40m (£27.4m) a year for the rights, a sum which also covers the rights to Italy’s fourth top club, AS Roma.  The Roma deal is waiting on Mediaset exercising on option on all the club’s broadcast rights. The four clubs presently receive about €36m a year for their international rights.

Media Partners & Silva now represents the rights to 18 Italian clubs from the 2007-08 season, including 10 Serie A clubs, AC Milan, Internazionale, Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina, Roma (pending the Mediaset option), Messina, Cagliari, Treviso and Lecce, seven Serie B clubs, Torino, Catania, Bologna, Cesena, Mantova, Bari and Triestina, and Serie C club Genoa.

·   Football: The Kentaro agency acquired the international rights of the Cypriot, Hungarian, Irish, Norwegian and Swedish football federations.  All the deals cover at least the Euro 2008 qualifying matches. 

·   Football: Spanish commercial broadcaster Telecinco acquired the rights to the Copa del Rey final and the Supercopa in a three-year deal, from 2006 to 2008, with the Santa Monica agency.

·   Motorcycling: Spanish commercial broadcaster Telecinco acquired the rights for the World Superbike Championship in a one-year deal for 2006, replacing Forta, the consortium of regional channels. Telecinco will broadcast live coverage on both its main free-to-air channel and its new digital terrestrial service Telecinco Sport.

·   Football: Maltese cable operator Melita Cable acquired the rights for the Champions League in a deal for the remainder of the 2005-06 season.  The deal covers all matches apart from the one match a week broadcast by free-to-air channel PBS.

·   Formula One: Maltese cable operator Melita Cable acquired exclusive live rights for Formula One in a three-year deal from 2006 to 2008.

·   Rugby Union: Maltese cable operator Melita Cable acquired the rights for the Six Nations tournament in a three-year deal.  All matches will be broadcast live.