Football

Four of Italy’s biggest football clubs have joined forces to block the government bill to impose the collective selling of television rights.

Dutch football’s top-tier league, the Eredivisie, is in need of a miracle to avoid a cut in revenue

Lega Calcio, the Italian football league, has told the sports rights agencies and merchant banks bidding to handle the next round of media-rights sales that they must bring in at least €1 billion (£750 million) a year

Turkish media group Doğan will pay at least a 33-per-cent increase on its present deal for the Uefa Champions League

NEWS IN BRIEF

Singapore, Malaysia and the Indian sub-continent and likely to be the next Asian territories to sign television rights deals for football’s World Cup

Al Jazeera Sport’s record-breaking television-rights deal last week for European club competitions marks a new era in the Middle East

Football: Austrian public-service broadcaster ORF acquired the rights for all 31 matches of the Euro 2008 tournament in a deal worth €10m (£7m). 

PT Multimedia to sell premium sports channel Sport TV

Football: France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel agreed new deals for top-tier Ligue 1.

Competitive sport to be mixed with content for families

Rights-seller Pitch International would prefer to see the match go untelevised rather than set a “dangerous precedent” of accepting a poor offer

Agency is close to deals for basketball and motorsport, plans aggressive bids for French and German football

EM.Sport acquisitions cover rights management, production, distribution

European rights fees for Euro 2008 reach same level as those paid for 2006 World Cup

A sublicensing deal between Polish commercial broadcaster Polsat and public-service broadcaster TVP over Euro 2008 rights is in danger of falling through

MP & Silva, Sportfive and Rai Trade agencies estimated to have brought in about €100 million overall for 2007-08 season

Polish football’s top-tier domestic league, the Ekstraklasa, signed the country’s largest-ever sports-rights deal last week