Tennis

Baseball

Football: French commercial broad-caster TF1 agreed a deal with the Infront agency for the pay-television rights for the 2006 World Cup and sublicensed them to pay-broadcaster Canal Plus and its own cable and satellite channel Eurosport.

Australian Rules Football

Australian Rules: Australian pay-television operator Foxtel acquired pay-television rights for the Australian Football League in a sub-licensing deal worth A$315
Cricket

Cricket: Indian channel Zee Sports acquired the worldwide television, radio and broadband rights to 25 one-day internationals featuring India to be played at neutral venues around the world in the next five years.

American Football

American football:  US network NBC acquired the so-called “network package” of American football’s National Football League rights, the main package of 23 matches per season, paying $600m (£316m/€465m) a year ov…
Football

Football: Dutch pay-broadcaster UPC acquired the pay-television rights for the Champions League from 2006 to 2009 (Page 7)
Cricket

Cricket:  Indian pay-television broadcaster Sony Entertainment Television acquired the international rights to this month’s India v Pakistan tour for $11.5m (£6m/€8.7m).

Baseball

Commonwealth Games:  UK public-service broadcaster the BBC acquired the rights to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in a deal with the Fastrack agency, which is selling the rights on behalf of the organisers.

Tennis

The International Tennis Federation has signed several television rights deals in Asia for Davis and Fed Cup tennis.

Baseball

Motorsport: German pay-broad-caster Premiere acquired the exclusive live rights for motor racing’s Nascar and Indycar series for the 2006 season.
Football

Football: Greek public-service broadcaster ERT acquired the free-to-air rights for all 31 matches of Euro 2008 in a €9.5m (£6.5m) deal with the Sportfive agency. It is the first deal done for the championship.
Athletics

Tennis: Pan-European cable and satellite broadcaster Eurosport extended its deal for coverage of the Australian Open for a further four years, from 2008 to 2011. Eurosport will also be the distribution agent for the media rights across Europe. The rights were previously held by the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella group representing the region’s public-service broadcasters.

American Football

Football: The German Football League awarded the rights for the Bundesliga in several three-year deals covering 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Athletics

Pan-European broadcaster acquires content specifically for the region for the first time.

Tennis

The Association of Tennis Professionals has drawn up a controversial plan to take ownership of six or seven top tournaments and turn them into an elite series