Media

NBC, responding to viewer complaints, has dropped a commercial for Nike sports shoes and clothing featuring a female Olympic runner being pursued by a chain saw-wielding man.

International women's squash has received a $4.5m boost after London-based intellectual property rights acquisition company Fablon Investments Limited acquired the rights to the Women's World Open and Women's World Team Championships in a unique nine-year agreement with the World Squash Federation (WSF).

The U.S. men's basketball "Dream Team" were trapped in their hotel on Monday by a demonstration against a World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne.

The protracted broadcast rights negotiations over coverage of World Cup 2002 for the Japanese market have finally been concluded.

Sportal, the global provider of interactive sports content, has signed an extensive multi language sports content distribution deal with Yahoo! Europe.

NBC will offer more Olympic programming than ever before with the help of its cable-TV outlets CNBC and MSNBC.

Nickelodeon GAS (Games and Sports for Kids) is presenting a new NFL show aimed at children.

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has signed a five-year deal with the Premier League?s West Ham United FC to design, develop and maintain the club's internet site.

InMotion Technologies is to produce VideoFinish/SimulCam broadcast images for ZDF, the main German broadcaster for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

The head of South Korea's 2002 World Cup organising committee has resigned for personal reasons, a committee spokesman has confirmed.

Pressure on organisers of the Sydney Olympics to lift its ban on foreign television media from Homebush during the Games is mounting after the US joined the European Union in calls to refer the issue to the World Trade Organisation.

Australian media have demanded urgent action to solve air traffic control and baggage handling problems at Sydney Airport before hundreds of thousands of people flood through there for the Sydney Olympics.

A new 24-hour soccer channel will be launched this year for the Asian market with the content initially available to audiences in Greater China, Hong Kong and Bejing.

English Premier League soccer club Liverpool is to broadcast games on the internet in a $20m deal with Granada Media.

Cable firm NTL is negotiating with the BBC to use its Match of the Day format for its range of pay-per-view English Premier League soccer games.

Sportsline.com, the world's largest sports online media will enter the Korean market when it open Sports.com Korea (www.korea.sports.com) today.