Media

The Spanish football club Real Madrid, which won the European Champions Cup last month for the first time in 32 years, has bought back part of the Canal Plus empire in Spain for Pta12bn ($80m) from Gesport.

Coca-Cola Co. and the National Basketball Association have unveiled a four-year marketing plan to cross-promote Coke's Sprite soft drink and the NBA as part of an ongoing global marketing partnership.

Bangladesh has brought in Russian experts to repair disabled power plants after soccer fans threatened violence if the electricity fails during World Cup matches.

Delta Air Lines is to sponsor the ATP Senior Tour of Champions this year.

Air France signed a surprise pay deal with its striking pilots Wednesday, ending a devastating 10-day dispute at the airline just hours before the start of the World Cup soccer tournament.

THE High Court has ordered an insurance company to pay about $5 million to a ski-field operator in compensation for lost profits during Mt Ruapehu's 1995 and 1996 eruptions.

Major League Baseball owners have voted unanimously at quarterly meetings to approve the sale of the Texas Rangers to media magnate Tom Hicks.

France 98 has not delivered the goods for UK commercial TV netork ITV despite the apparent deluge of television advertising related to football, reports the London Sunday Telegraph.

With Hong Kong's economy contracting, the territory's popular horseracing industry has found that fewer bettors are willing to try their luck.

Soccer's improving commercial image was under threat today after English soccer hooligans ran amok in Marseille on Sunday, battling Tunisians, police and local people in a series of running battles ahead of a World Cup match.

England will not be barred from the World Cup finals despite the behaviour of its hooligan fans, FIFA said on Monday.

NBC has clinched a record NBA Finals rating with a sixth-game overnight score that may also be the top single-game rating in league history.

The value of gambling through online computer services, particularly the internet, will increase from $535m to more than $10bn per year within five years, according to a recent report.

US racetrack operator Churchill Downs has appointed John H. Willie senior vice president, marketing, from the end of the month..

Two executives working for FIFA's marketing affiliate were placed under formal legal examination on Wednesday by a court investigating allegations of a World Cup ticket fraud, court sources said.

The NFL?s Philadelphia Eagles have signed virtual advertising company Imadgine Video Systems for its pre season games.