Rugby Union

The Premier League is set to stagger its next international rights sales process in a move that will rule out what was always a remote possibility of someone making a worldwide bid for the rights.

Athletics: US broadcaster NBC and its cable and broadband subsidiary Universal Sports acquired the rights for the World Athletics Series, covering Indoor and outdoor World Championships and other events,…

Basketball: Eurosport Deutschland acquired live rights for nine selected playoff matches from Germany’s top league, the Basketball Bundesliga, in a deal with the league and rights-holder Sportdigital.tv.

Ireland’s first Grand Slam victory since 1948 helped rugby union Six Nations broadcasters in Ireland and the UK post record television audiences for the 2009 championship.

A Formula One television rights deal in the Middle East looks set to go down to the wire, with just two weeks left until the season-opener.

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

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.

Sky Italia’s acquisition of Six Nations rugby rights has prompted calls for Italy’s matches to be added to the list of sports events protected for free-to-air television.

Basketball: Brazilian commercial broadcaster Globo is to acquire the rights for the new, top-flight domestic basketball league, Novo Basquete Brasil, for R$1.5m (€474,000/ $633,710) a season.

Italian state broadcaster Rai has become the only real bidder for free-to-air rights to top sport in the country, forcing down the value of rights even for major football competitions like the Uefa Champions League.

European club competition the Heineken Cup last week became the third rugby union rights property in the last month to secure a healthy rise in rights fees from the UK television market.

Uefa has paid out an estimated €5 million ($6.4 million) to broadcasters in compensation for the signal blackouts during the Germany-Turkey semi-final in this summer’s Euro 2008 championship.

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

The launch of Australia’s first-ever free-to-air sports channel, One, is an unprecedented challenge to leading pay sports broadcaster Fox Sports.

UK pay-operator BSkyB’s new five-year deal with the Rugby Football Union was a classic smash-and-grab move that will strengthen its position in the ongoing negotiations for English rugby union’s top-tier domestic league.

Baseball: US sports network ESPN extended a deal with Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media arm for inter-active television and other digital media rights through to 2013.