Media

Athens organisers have picked a shortlist of five banks as sponsors for the 2004 Olympics Games.

Michigan Racing commissioner Annette M. Bacola has signed orders authorizing 606 days of live horse racing for 2001.

UK commercial sport radio station, talkSPORT has recorded a rise in audience figures.

Germany's digital TV market is finally showing signs of growth, according to figures released by a German consumer electronics association.

Totalbet.com, the e-betting joint venture between the Tote and PA Sporting Life Limited, has become the first UK betting site to offer direct-to-pool betting on US horse racing pools.

Channel 4 has made a joint submission with BSkyB and Arena for the rights to televise British horseracing. The bid is worth a projected #750m over 10 years.

Online media content producer Broadband Sports saw its consolidated online traffic surge to an all-time high of nearly two million unique visitors in September 2000.

The Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA) has entered into an eight-year deal with Fablon Investments which is worth more than $10m to the women's game.

Australia has benefited to the tune of $1.4billion from Olympic-based income during September, pushing the trade balance into surplus for the first time in three years.

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.

Betting on cricket has become one of India's biggest organised rackets both in terms of money and volume of deals, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report into match-fixing.

The total debt of Spanish Primera Liga clubs reached a grand total of SP189bn ($970m) in 1998/9, according to a new survey.

The Swedish prosecutor's office has reopened an inquiry into a suspected attempt to bribe the International Olympic Committee into choosing Stockholm for the 2004 summer games.

Francis Baron, chief executive of the English Rugby Union, aims to make England the number one rugby nation in the world as part of the unions soon to be announced 8-year Strategic Plan.

Brazilians have hit out at Sepp Blatter after the FIFA president threatened in a magazine interview to kick the country out of the 2002 World Cup.

Nielsen Net Ratings has hailed NBCOlympics.com the Sydney Olympic web site champion for the US audience.

European online auction house QXL.com Plc has launched QXL.tv to deliver live auction programming via television and the internet.

The Victorian state cricket team has joined forces with sports internet group Sportal Australia to produce a new cricket web-site at www.bushrangers.com.au.