Cricket

Cricket: Pan-Asian satellite channel Ten Sports agreed a sub-licensing deal with Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan for highlights of the forthcoming Indian tour of Pakistan

Football: French pay-broadcaster Canal Plus acquired the exclusive live rights and a highlights package for the French football league in a three-year deal

Cricket: The England and Wales Cricket Board agreed a four-year deal with UK pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting, from 2006 to 2009, for exclusive live rights to English cricket

The United Cricket Board, South Africa’s governing body for the sport, is to sign long-term deals with public-service broadcaster SABC and pay-television operator Supersport for international cricket played in the country.

Rugby league’s inaugural Tri-Nations tournament between Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand, though generally regarded as a success, failed to attract UK viewers like rugby league’s previous international series

Football:  German commercial broadcaster RTL acquired the rights for a package of seven or eight Sunday matches from the 2006 World Cup from agency Infront Sports & Media.

Television rights for Asian cricket have traditionally been among the most competed-for in the world.

Handball: Danish public-service broadcaster Danmarks Radio acquired the rights to both men’s and women’s Champions League competitions from the European Handball Federation in a five-year deal, from 2006-07 to 2010-11.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s new-media rights, which it put out to tender last week, could be worth more than £10 million

Pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting, at present locked in talks for the rights to domestic English Test cricket, is mopping up the rights for the England team’s overseas tours

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 wants to cut back its Test match cricket coverage

Cricket:  The Board of Control for Cricket in India, after extensive legal wrangles, finally signed a deal for the Indian rights to the three tours taking place this year, a four-Test series against Australia, a two-Test series against South Africa and a one-off one-day international against Pakistan, with state broadcaster Doordarshan.

The New Zealand cricket board has renewed a television-rights deal with the country’s pay-operator Sky Television for five years, from 2004-05 to 2008-09.

South African cricket faces an uphill struggle next month when it starts talks with public-service broadcaster SABC

Cricket: Indian broadcaster Zee Telefilms made a $308m (£174m/ €257m) bid for the worldwide television rights to Indian cricket for four years, from October 2004 to September 2008.

The sale of Indian cricket television rights for the next four years will be the most valuable cricket deal agreed by a national cricket board