Football
Brussels probes Murdoch deals with Serie A clubs
The European Commission has opened an investigation into the television rights deals which Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia signed with Italy’s top three football clubs
League gambles in changing free-pay balance
The Eredivisie, the Netherlands’ top domestic football league, is set to launch a new television-rights tender
Abramovich to Russian TV’s rescue
Russian television has finally started showing this season’s English Premier League
Fifa: We don’t rule out EBU
Fifa, world football’s governing body, does not rule out signing a deal with either the European Broadcasting Union or an agency
Fierce bidding for non-Euro rights
The battle for Euro 2008 rights outside of Europe is set to be fierce
Uefa will find TV bidders only too ready to shout bias
Uefa will plunge into a hypersensitive European marketplace when it calls for bids, probably later this month
Ruling on Serie A ‘burden’ boosts superleague move
Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio accept Bologna complaint that the annual €100 million payment by Serie A clubs to Serie B clubs is 'excessively onerous'
Gioco Calcio wins lifeline, as Sky hits subscriber trouble
Lega Calcio buys €3 million stake in ppv football channel
How Bundesliga will avoid paying Infront €50m
League hopes new rights-selling strategy will earn them a better rights fee, and enough to repay Infront
FA takes tough guarantee line
Octagon CSI loses rights to ESPN Star Sports after failure to provide strong enough guarantee
How English and German leagues got different deals
Marked differences in the out-comes of the European Commission’s investigations into England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga
Israeli TV finally agrees Cup deal
Israeli public-service broadcaster Channel 1 is close to agreeing a deal with the Sportfive agency
French clubs set to sell deferred rights for home games
French Ligue 1 football clubs are set to be given the power to sell the rights to their home matches on a delayed, as-live basis.
De Mol shakes up TV football
John de Mol, pioneer of the Big Brother and Fear Factor reality-television formats, is about to shake up the sports-rights market in the Netherlands
Big falls for BBC and live Sky viewing of Premier League
Television viewing of live coverage of English football’s Premier League has fallen heavily this season.
TV RIGHTS CLIPS 1: Cricket, football, swimming and rugby union
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.
Israel’s Charlton gets ppv approval
The Israeli Cable Council, a government agency, gave approval this week for pay-per-view company Charlton to televise Israeli football’s Premier League and the English Premier League
Favourite RTP loses hold on league TV rights
Portuguese commercial channel TVI acquired the domestic free-to-air television rights for the country’s top football league