American Football

Cycling: Italian public-service broadcaster Rai agreed a four-year deal with the European Broadcasting Union, from 2005 to 2008, for coverage of the Tour de France. 

Ice Hockey: The US National Hockey League signed a two-year deal with the NBC network, with an option to renew for a further two years

American Football:  The National Football League signed new deals with three of its five major US television partners – the CBS and Fox networks and digital satellite platform DirecTV

American Football and the Winter Olympics contested the top television sports viewing in the US, taking nine of the Top 10 positions in the 2002 network chart.

The decision by American Football’s National Football League to turn down strong commercial offers to its NFL Network is a major strategic move to develop the channel.

Football: A consortium of Telecoms company Telenor and Scandinavia’s commercial broadcasters, TV2 in Denmark, TV2 in Norway and TV4 in Sweden, acquired the rights for the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal w…

Cricket: Australian free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network acquired the rights to this month's Champions Trophy and the 2007 World Cup in a deal with News Corporation subsidiary Global Cricket Corporation.

American Football:  UK pay-operator British Sky Broadcasting acquired the UK and Ireland rights for the National Football League in a four-year deal from 2007-08 to 2010-11.

BSkyB exploited the connections of its parent company, News Corp, to keep hold of the UK rights for American football’s National Football League.

Football: Spanish agency Mediapro made a seven-year offer worth €1.19bn (£815m), or €170m a season, for the television rights to Spanish Primera Liga club Real Madrid covering the seasons from 2008-09 to 2014-15.

Television audiences for America football’s Super Bowl last weekend increased significantly on both sides of the Atlantic.

Athletics: The Dentsu agency signed a 10-year, €180m (£122m) deal with the International Association of Athletics Federations for the worldwide marketing rights and worldwide television rights outside Eu…

Boxing: German public-service broadcaster ARD acquired the rights for a minimum 12 fights a year from Sauerland Promotions in a four-year deal, 2008 to 2011, renewing a previous contract

Basketball: The US National Basketball Association signed deals for this season with 164 broadcasters covering 215 countries.

American Football: Canadian commercial broadcaster CTV and cable sports broadcaster Rogers Sportsnet acquired the Canadian rights to NFL football for the three years from 2008 to 2010, paying a combined…

Snooker: UK public-service broad-caster the BBC renewed its deal with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association for a further five years, from 2007 to 2011, paying about £20m (€29m).  The deal is thought to be a significant cut on the existing deal, worth about £28m over a five-and-a-half year period.