Cricket

Abu Dhabi Sports Channel gave the English Premier League the spectacular start to its international rights sales it was looking for with a staggering deal, beating strong favourite Al Jazeera Sport and incumbent Showtime.

Basketball: Italian pay-broadcaster Sky Italia acquired the exclusive live rights for the top-tier domestic Serie A league in a two-year deal with Lega Basket, paying €5.4m ($7.6m).

The ICC’s World Twenty20 tournament has helped UK pay-broadcaster BSkyB smash its record audiences for any sport outside football.

Athletics: US free-to-air broadcaster NBC extended its deal with the New York City Road Runners for the television rights for the New York City marathon for three years from 2009 to 2011

Asian Games: Chinese state broadcaster CCTV acquired the rights for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangdong, China, in a deal with the Games’ organisers. CCTV will undertake the host broadcasting of the event.

UK pay-broadcaster BSkyB is set to agree a deal for cricket’s upcoming World Twenty20 Championship in England, ending a protracted 18-month long negotiation process with rights-holder ESPN Star Sports.

Sony was this week forced to renegotiate its deal for Twenty20 cricket’s IPL, after losing a court case in which it claimed that the original deal had been illegally terminated.

American Football: US digital satellite platform DirecTV extended its deal for the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in a four-year deal, from 2011 to 2014, with the National Football League

Athletics: The IMG agency acquired the international television rights for the newly-created Diamond League in a five-year deal, 2010 to 2014, guaranteeing around $6m (€4.7m) a year.

Sony is facing a massive loss on its coverage of India’s cricket tour to New Zealand, which started this week.

Asian broadcaster Ten Sports secured the rights for international cricket in South Africa despite reducing its initial offer by about $10 million.

Athletics: The Organización de Telecomunicaciones Iberoamericanas, the Latin American broadcasting union, acquired the rights for the 2009 World Championship for member broadcasters in Argentina (cable …

The lack of government legislation in India over news access to sports events is provoking further tension between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Nimbus Communications agency.

South Africa’s state broadcaster, SABC, was slammed last week over its request for extensive additions to the country’s list of events of national importance that must be aired on free-to-air television.

Asian Games: Hong Kong pay-broadcaster I-Cable Communications acquired the exclusive television and internet rights for the 2010 Asian Games, in Guangzhou, in a deal worth an estimated $1m (€780,000).

UK pay-broadcaster Setanta’s audiences for Premier League football are up 56 per cent on last season, according to the latest figures.