Media

CBS's NFL broadcasts saw lower figures in the past week, while Fox ratings brought mixed numbers.

The Football League, which represents clubs outside the elite Premier league, plans to launch English soccer's first pay-per-view television trial after Christmas.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone and the European Union (EU) competition commissioner have made headway in talks on commercial control of the sport, according to EU officials.

The New York Yankees' principal owner George Steinbrenner has been contacting his partners about possibly selling the baseball team to Cablevision, the cable television operator, Newsday has reported.

South Africa wants to host the unification fight between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in what would be the continent's biggest boxing event since the "Rumble in the Jungle" between Mohammad Ali and George Foreman.

Italian soccer clubs want to avoid a showdown over television rights that could end with the big clubs creaming off most of the money, the chairman of Italy's Football League said on Thursday.

Europe's leading 14 clubs have accepted UEFA's proposals for a 32-team European Champions' League.

Only 6,745 athletes from 42 nations have registered to take part in next month's Asian Games by the deadline this week, compared with the anticipated total of more than 8,700, the Games organising committee said.

Telecom Italia shareholders gathering in Turin are likely to be disappointed if they expect to hear that a digital pay-TV deal with media baron Rupert Murdoch has been wrapped up, industry sources said.

TV networks in the States are continuing to count the cost of the cancellation of weeks of NBA games and are now trying to find suitable programmes to fill their depleted schedules.

The head of marketing at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has revealed allegations of bribery swirling around the organisation had not deterred sponsors of the world's top sporting event.

News Corp Europe, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire, is set to make a formal offer for Italian television soccer rights by the end of February, chairman Letizia Moratti has announced.

Sports leaders have failed to agree on a compulsory two-year ban for serious drugs across all sports, leaving in place one of the biggest anomalies in the Olympic movement.

European Union Competition chief Karel Van Miert is investigating a claim that UEFA and the English Premier League forced clubs to accept a new-style European club competition.

Thousands of would-be investors in the William Hill chain of bookmakers - the second largest in the UK - are today looking at receiving refunds and betting vouchers after the planned flotation was shelved just hours before it was due to take place.

Among the diverse voices at this week's Interactive Sports West 1999 Conference in Los Angeles Mark Cuban's stood out.