Media

Arena Leisure, the racecourse and media group, is set to announce this week it has clinched a deal to control television rights to British horseracing, according to newspaper reports.

Wireless Group, the owners of Kelvin McKenzie?s TalkSport radio station said losses for the year to December 31 2000 widened to #34.2 million ($49.3m) from #27.5m ($39.7m). Operating losses at TalkSport widened by #200,000 to #7.9m. Despite the losses, McKenzie said it had been a good year for the company, especially for TalkSport which saw its advertising market rise by 15 per cent.

A series of proposed amendments to the constitution of the Rugby Football Union will be debated and voted on by members at a special general meeting in London late Friday.

Television producer and five-times Emmy Award winner Charlie Stark is to become the executive producer of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) where he will focus on developing the broadcast profiles of drivers in the FedEx Championship Series.

English soccer fans may only be able to watch four of the 64 World Cup games on terrestrial television next year, according to Labour backbenchers John Grogan and Ivor Caplin.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's pet project to build an 80,000-seater national sports stadium was in fresh trouble on Thursday as coalition partners and opposition politicians lined up to criticise the plan.

Sweden?s answer to Rupert Murdoch, Jan Stenbeck, has bought a 17 per cent stake in soccer team Djurgarden. Stenbeck's company, Modern Times Group (MTG), owns several media companies, including the free commuter newspaper Metro which was introduced in the UK two years ago.

Greyhound racing will become the only spectator sport in British history to launch a generic television advertising campaign. Three months worth of adverts will appear on Sky from Saturday with the aim to encourage viewers to visit one of the country?s 32 greyhound tracks.

ZOO Media, the UK-based company that helps brands to optimise financial returns from their sporting rights, has announced a reverse takeover of three-dimensional image provider Kazoo3D, pending shareholder approval.

Baseball?s official site, MLB.com, will this week launch two new features it hopes will raise its customer confidence after several early-season gaffes.

Sportingbet.com, the online sports betting company, has signed a five year contract with Ozmosa to provide online sporting and gaming bets in East and South East Asia. Ozmosa?s 7,000 customers can currently bet on televised US baseball and the casino game, Baccarat.

London?s Capital Radio has failed in its bid to gain the rights to broadcast Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham and Chelsea soccer matches on its Capital Gold station for the next three years.

The long-running dispute between English rugby clubs and the Rugby Football Union went some way to being healed on Wednesday when a promotion and relegation system and future funding was agreed.

PanAmSat has expanded its deal with ESPN to include nine PanAmSat satellites for worldwide programme distribution services.

Virtual imaging company Orad has won a sports Emmy for its role in NBC?s coverage of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

An American radio station has dropped its online broadcasts of a local ice hockey team because of advertising concerns.