United Kingdom

NTL may bid for four of the six live television rights packages of English football’s Premier League.

The Six Nations championship boosted television audiences in all participating countries except Italy.

The viewing figures for British Sky Broadcasting’s live coverage of Premier League matches have taken on an added importance.

Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN are hoping to make a big move into cricket in a bid to target a worldwide Asian audience.

French football’s Ligue 1 rights the most expensive in the world

SBS6 acquired the exclusive rights for all Professional Darts Corporation events in the Netherlands.

Spanish Primera Liga club Real Madrid was the world’s biggest earning club in 2004-05.

English football’s Premier League is likely to split the sale of its delayed-as-live television rights into two packages in its forthcoming tender.

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.

France, Italy, UK and Nordic region the only European territories covered so far.

Golf: The US PGA Tour signed new six-year deals with the CBS and NBC networks, from 2007 to 2012.

Terrestrial television viewing of sport had a good year in 2004

TV Sports Markets has a new owner.