Football

The efforts of sports rights holders to protect the exclusivity of their broadcast deals from ‘pirate’ live transmissions were given a boost last week by the UK’s High Court.

A Latin American deal for the next two football World Cups in 2010 and 2014 may have to be renegotiated, with local broadcasters struggling to meet rights fee payments against the background of global recession.

Olympics: Turkish commercial network Fox Turkey acquired the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games.

Football: The African Union of Broadcasters signed a deal with Fifa for the English, French and Portuguese-language television and radio rights to the 2010 World Cup.

A new strategic cooperation between the African Union of Broadcasters and Fifa, covering the 2010 football World Cup, will give Fifa a direct relationship with broadcasters in the region for the first time.

Greek football’s top-tier Superleague finally approved a new collectively-negotiated television rights deal, albeit without the two clubs presently top of the league table.

The Premier League may offer overseas broadcasters a ready-made Premier League channel in the next three-year rights cycle, as it looks to maintain the steep increase in its international rights revenue in a softening market.

Football: Bulgarian free-to-air broadcaster TV2 acquired the rights for Bulgaria’s domestic top-tier A league in a five-year deal, from 2009-10 to 2013-14, worth a reported €30m (£23m). Fo

The Deutsche Fussball Liga has generated about €30 million (£23.5 million) through last week’s sale of three territory-based packages of international Bundesliga rights.

Globo said that it was in talks with the Team Marketing agency about the possibility of acquiring rights for European football’s Champions League competition from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

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

Forthcoming negotiations for the domestic rights for English rugby union’s Guinness Premiership will act as an interesting barometer of the state of the UK sports rights market, three months before the start of football’s Premier League rights talks.

Football: Pan-Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group acquired the rights in Denmark, Sweden and Norway for the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Super Cup in a three-year deal from 2009-10 to 2011-12

Sky set to become Italy’s biggest broadcaster.

Televisa’s long-term partnership with the Mexican giant is all but over.

English football’s Premier League has blocked its Greek licensee Nova from showing its Saturday 3pm matches.

Eurosport has given the Deutsch Fussball Liga an excellent start to its international rights sales for Germany’s top-tier Bundesliga.

Top sports rights-holders Uefa and Formula One Management have achieved good rights-fee increases in Scandinavia.