Events

State owned telecommunications company China Netcom has been named the official telecom sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee.

Greece will build four press villages to accommodate journalists covering the Athens 2004 Olympics, organisers said on Tuesday.

The Australian National Rugby League (NRL) has signed a six-year deal worth $400million (US$216 million) with Australia's biggest pay television company Foxtel.

Eight countries - including France, Spain and Britain - are forming a breakaway European governing body for triathlon, the sport which made its Olympic debut at the Sydney Games.

Battery firm Energizer has signed a deal to become an international partner of the European Athletic Association Programme of Championship events 2000-2003.

The award-winning WestpacTrust Stadium may be joined by an indoor sports venue.

The European Commission has withdrawn a threat to fine Spain's Telefonica and Sogecable over rights to broadcast Spanish soccer matches on pay-television.

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) has enlisted legal representation it its bid to win a slice of earnings from the Australian Football League?s (AFL) broadcast rights.

Sportal and Ford of Europe have signed a deal to make Ford a key sponsor of the Sportal Network.

Sportvision, Inc., the US-based sports media technology, has appointed Steven F. Roberts to executive vice president, Product Management, and promoted Russell Quy to executive producer and vice president, Media Production.

The NBA has reached a television agreement with Digiturk (Turkey) to launch a 24-hour basketball channel and has renewed its agreement with NHK (Japan) to include a 60-minute programme on NHK?s terrestrial channel.

Attendance at North American sports events reached a booming 422 million last year with the four major sports accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total, according to a new study.

Inspired by the success of the Lifetime women's cable channel, the USA Network has begun screening TV movies and mini-series on Saturday afternoons as an alternative to the sports programming on broadcast networks.

RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co will sponsor its final Winston 500 next week at Talladega, ending the longest continuous race sponsorship in the history of the NASCAR Winston Cup series.

Virtual technology company Orad Hi-Tec Systems has been recognised with an Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

ESPN has promoted Russell Wolff, senior vice president of programming and event management for ESPN STAR Sport (ESS) in Asia, to senior vice president, ESPN International.