Boxing

Agencies reluctant to take on Uefa sales, and more...

Basketball: US cable sports channel Versus acquired rights for 16 games of the 2009-10 season of the NBA Develop-ment League, the official minor league basketball competition, in a deal with the NBA.

Football dominated sports viewing in Europe’s top markets in 2009, with Uefa club competitions and World Cup qualifiers delivering the strongest audiences in the big five markets.

Primetime launched last week in an attempt to exploit the increasing amount of sport missing out on live television coverage.

Boxing: German public service broadcaster ARD extended its television rights deal with boxing promoter Sauerland for one more year, taking it to the end of 2012, paying about €14m ($21m).

Next week’s bidding deadline for English Premier League rights in most of Asia will kick off a frenzied period of activity for the league, with tenders being issued shortly afterwards in Greater China, Africa, Australasia and Europe.

American Football: The IMG agency agreed a deal to distribute the television rights of the National Football League in certain international territories in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America…

Basketball: Eurosport Deutschland acquired live rights for nine selected playoff matches from Germany’s top league, the Basketball Bundesliga, in a deal with the league and rights-holder Sportdigital.tv.

Basketball: Brazilian commercial broadcaster Globo is to acquire the rights for the new, top-flight domestic basketball league, Novo Basquete Brasil, for R$1.5m (€474,000/ $633,710) a season.

Fox Turkey, the News-owned general entertainment channel that last week won the rights for 2014 and 2016 Olympics, hopes that the acquisition will help it fulfil its ambition of becoming Turkey’s most popular network.

Fast Track is facing tough talks with broadcasters for the 2010 Commonwealth Games rights

UK pay-operator Setanta looks to hit ambitious subscriber targets.

Basketball: Greek pay-operator NetMed acquired the rights for A1 league club PAOK in a three-year deal from 2008-09 to 2010-11

Ice hockey: Canadian cable sports broadcaster TSN extended its television rights deal with the National Hockey League for a further six years, through to 2013-14, in a contract worth at least C$200m (£101m/€127m). 

Increased competition from Polsat for top sports rights could drive competition

First live internet boxing for UK from Ricky Hatton undercard

Most experts put it down to a lack of boxing on network TV in the US

From next month, ESPN will no longer pay promoters $50K Friday Night Fights rights fee