Media

The Chinese national volleyball association has decided to loosen its grip on China?s volleyball clubs by offering them the opportunity to run their own league matches.

NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises (NHL ICE) has named Phase2Media, the online marketing and sales organisation, the exclusive advertising sales representative for NHL.com.

IBM has begun a new version of its Olympic fan-mail service (www.fanmail.olympic.ibm.com), expected to handle 1million e-mails for athletes during the Sydney Games.

The Chinese national volleyball association has decided to loosen its grip on China?s volleyball clubs by offering them the opportunity to run their own league matches.

Sportsworld Media Group plc, the international sports media company, has formed a new company, SSM Sportsworld, to represent its European and Latin American interests.

There seems to be no end to the spell cast by Tiger Woods over television viewers, after his performance broke records again at the weekend.

UK sports advertising firm Metrosport has been appointed to handle advertising and sponsorship rights for the current UK tour of the Indian national soccer team.

Hussey Seating Company and Seiko Epsom Corp, the global technology company, are to co-develop `an interactive media seating solution? for the sports industry.

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.

Australian swimming star Ian Thorpe has outlined plans to halve the number of his personal sponsors after the Olympics, although each will be paying a premium for their association.

Sporting goods company Umbro is planning to launch a content and e-commerce website in September backed by a major advertising campaign.

Canadian Major League Baseball franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays, has become the subject of a $150million buy out offer from Rogers Communications, a Toronto- based cable company.

Sportal.co.uk is extending its offer of providing free SMS text results for the remainder of the Formula One season.

BBC director-general Greg Dyke is considering plans to use commercial outlets such as video-on-demand services to help revamp BBC sport, following a review of the division by acting director Richard Sambrook.

Major Japanese Internet investor Softbank Corp has affirmed that its affiliate will start an online sports news service in a joint venture with Rivals.com Inc, a U.S. operator of Internet sports news.

Foreign security forces accompanying athletes to the Sydney Olympics will not be allowed to carry guns to protect their delegations, according to Australian attorney-general Daryl Williams.