Media

Quokka Sports have signed a programming distribution and promotion agreement with Road Runner, a leading high-speed online service jointly owned by Time Warner Inc., MediaOne Group, Microsoft Corp., Compaq Corp. and Advance/ Newhouse.

The control of Everton Football Club will be determined by auction following the decision of majority shareholder and former chairman Peter Johnson to rebuff a #30m offer from board director Bill Kenwright.

Representatives from UK soccer, cricket and tennis have urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to create a new Ministry of Sport. They have called for sport to be separated out from the current Culture, Media and Sport ministry and given its own high profile department.

USA Networks, the USA Cable owned and operated cable company, has recorded, soaring ratings for the 2001 US Open Tennis Championships.

News Corp's latest financial results for the second quarter 2001 have shown that Asian joint venture ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is still $21million (?23.4m) in debt.

Brazilian football has become entrenched in political infighting as soccer chief Ricardo Teixiera, stung by damaging allegations and incidents this month, tries desperately to cling to power.

British race track owner Arena Leisure said it had enough cash in the bank to fund its share of new horse racing media rights consortium, attheraces, for four years.

Negotiations over the French TV rights to the 2002 World Cup have stalled because rights holders the Kirch Group have set the price too high, a French newspaper has reported.

The government reviews of England?s beleaguered Wembley Stadium and the national athletics stadium at Picketts Lock, both being assessed by former Prison Service director Patrick Carter, will not be available until this Friday and next week respectively.

Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch has been in a Barcelona clinic for the last two weeks, according to the Spanish media, as fears mount over his health.

The future of the beleaguered Wembley Stadium will be debated this week when trouble-shooter Patrick Carter releases his report on whether the national stadium should stay at its north London home.

R Douglas Kahn has stood down as president and CEO of satellite and cable distributor PanAmSat just a month after the firm reported sharply reduced earnings for the second quarter of the year.

Columbia?s major soccer division ? Division Mayor del Futbol Colombiano ? has slapped a fee on media use of goal images scored during matches in local tournament Torneo Copa Mustang for which it owns the broadcasting rights.

Sergio Cragnotti, president of Italian soccer team Lazio is looking for a partner to invest in the Serie A club and says he would prefer a media company.

ESPN Today, the sports broadcaster?s dedicated interactive channel, has attracted 500,000 users since it launched last month.
Sport and Interactive TV: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here

UK cable company NTL has boosted the financially-pressured digital television market by announcing that it has passed the one million subscriber mark for the first time, adding that it was on course to reach its end of year target of 1.25 customers.