Tennis

Cricket: Entertainment Sports & Direct acquired the theatrical rights for the Indian Premier League in a 10-year deal from 2010 to 2019, paying Rs3.3 bn ($70m)

Baseball: Chinese broadcasters Shenzhen TV, Jiangsu TV and Beijing TV acquired packages of rights for Major League Baseball matches in 2009 and 2010 in deals with Major League Baseball International,…

Boxing: German public service broadcaster ARD extended its television rights deal with boxing promoter Sauerland for one more year, taking it to the end of 2012, paying about €14m ($21m).

The pay-television ambitions of Orange appear to have suffered a major blow after the country’s competition authority advised that its present distribution strategy could not be justified.

Orange is to target French Open tennis rights as it returns to the sports acquisition trail, having put rights-buying on hold in recent months because of a continuing legal row over the distribution of its Orange Sport channel.

Athletics: US free-to-air broadcaster NBC extended its deal with the New York City Road Runners for the television rights for the New York City marathon for three years from 2009 to 2011

The Sportfive agency has won the distribution rights in Asia for the French Open in a four-year deal with the French Tennis Federation, replacing the federation’s long-term agency partner IMG.

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.

Olympics: The Sportfive agency acquired the rights in 40 European countries for the 2014 Winter Games at Sochi and the 2016 Summer Games in a deal worth €250m ($315m) with the International Olympic Committee.

The IAAF has begun a second round of talks for its European television rights after a cut-price opening offer from its incumbent partner, the EBU.

The lack of government legislation in India over news access to sports events is provoking further tension between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Nimbus Communications agency.

In a major year of sporting action, Uefa events accounted for the biggest audiences for the BBC, ITV1, Five and BSkyB.

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.

The centralisation of media rights for the new ATP 500 series is set to generate significant increases in exposure and television rights income.

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