Media

Research undertaken by Sport England has revealed that spending on sports-related activities in England has increased from #8.8bn in 1995 to #11bn in 1998.

Marla Messing, the CEO for the successful 1999 Women's World Cup, has moved onto the web.

Orad?s virtual advertising systems will be used during the 2000 Winter Goodwill Games. to be held February 17-20 in Lake Placid, NY.

SSM Freesports, the UK-based specialist lifestyle sports agency, has announced three high- profile signings to its management team : Nick Kennerley joins as SSM's newly appointed Head of Television, Betty Maitland joins as General Manager and Dan O'Toole as Head of Business Development.

The Callaway Golf Company has terminated its multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with golf star John Daly after he violated a contract clause to not drink or gamble.

ESPN and ABC Sports will merge their advertising sales staffs and have named Edward R. Erhardt, most recently vice president and group publisher of Advertising Age magazine to lead the combined entity.

A new, independent study comparing the effect of virtual advertising and conventional arena advertising on viewers of televised sports reveals that TV audiences had better recall and greater brand recognition with virtual ads.

Three of the six major categories at Sportel's Golden Podium Awards, the international sports TV competition held in Monte Carlo last week, were won by French media companies.

British broadcaster Sky has steadfastly refused to let television viewers watch, for free, the first round in the Battle of Britain play-off between England and Scotland for a place in Euro 2000.

Media baron Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Entertainment Group has turned over day-to-day control of the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers to a big league Hollywood executive just two seasons after buying the famous baseball club.

The beleaguered organisers of the Rugby World Cup have criticised ITV's coverage of the event as a "disgrace" according to a report in the UK?s Guardian newspaper.

Irish state broadcaster RTE has said it had failed to resolve a row with a Turkish television company over the rights to broadcast Wednesday's Euro 2000 play-off between Ireland and Turkey in Bursar.

Following press speculation earlier this week that telecommunications firm BT were in the frame for Premier League rights, today's proposed merger of UK media giants, Carlton and United News and Media, adds another twist to the plot of potential bidders.

Pep Boys auto-parts retailer has ended its sponsorship of The Indy Racing League (IRL) in a dispute which is likely to go to federal court.

Greg Norman, the PGA Tour's all-time leading money winner, and Mammothgolf.com, the Internet's leading golf e-tailer, have formed an extensive golf-related commerce and content partnership.

Australian newspaper reports say that plans to allow sightseers free entry into Sydney Olympic Park during the 2000 Games have displeased giant American television broadcaster NBC. NBC Sports head Dick Ebersol indicated yesterday he was not happy about the Homebush Bay Olympic site being turned into a "party and picnic" area for the Games. Ebersol, whose network is spending $1 billion to broadcast the Olympics, said he would have preferred the site closed to non-ticketholders at least during the first week of competition.