Broadcast Rights

The Olympics are supposed to promote peace and goodwill among people and countries. But only one day after the U.S. Olympic Committee announced plans to launch a new cable channel dedicated to coverage of Olympic sports, an international controversy has erupted, threatening to scuttle the channel and Chicago's bid to be the host city for the 2016 Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee, the governing body that organizes the Games, on Thursday scolded the U.S.

Red Sox Nation has spoken. A pending deal by Major League Baseball to put its Extra Innings pay package exclusively on DirecTV may have to be put on hold now, buffeted by an uprising involving baseball's most ardent fans, spearheaded by those who live and die with the Boston Red Sox. MLB expected to announce the deal as early as next week, but that was less certain after Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the matter.

WASHINGTON -- Video killed the radio star, as the 1979 hit song goes, and now some fear an obscure group of federal copyright judges may be on the verge of killing Internet radio. In a ruling made public Tuesday, the Copyright Royalty Board significantly increased the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming digital songs online. The decision also ended a discounted fee for small Internet broadcasters.

Mexico's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down key provisions of a controversial media law crafted in large part by the nation's two dominant TV broadcasters. The court's action could help pry open Mexico's broadcasting market, one of the least competitive in Latin America outside of communist Cuba. And it could embolden Mexico's government to rein in other business titans that control key sectors of this nation's economy.

Is that all there is? Fortunately for the NBA, it isn't, even with TV ratings cratering for this joke of a Finals ... which you could see coming all season as Western powerhouses vied for the honor of walking over whichever 98-pound weakling made it out of the East.

Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN and Time Warner Inc.'s TNT agreed Wednesday to pay the National Basketball Assn. $7.4 billion over eight years for rights to televise its games and, in one of the first deals of its kind, stream action on the Internet and mobile devices. The deal, which begins in 2008 and runs through the 2015-16 season, works out to an average of about $930 million a year. That's a 22% increase over the $765-million average under the current agreement, industry sources said.

Broadcasters have sought sweeping rights from the sports leagues they cover to distribute game video wherever fans might watch -- on television, on the Internet or even on mobile phones. The leagues, which initially paid outsiders such as ESPN and CBS SportsLine to manage their websites, are now more protective of their digital assets, especially now that they are a source of advertising revenue.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin is readying proposed guidelines for the upcoming auction of prime public airwaves that would require that the winning companies let consumers hook up any wireless device to the network.

Federal regulators sought to alter the nation's wireless future Tuesday, taking steps to improve public safety response during emergencies and to spur new competition for high-speed Internet access. They also tried to resolve a long-standing annoyance for cellphone users -- having to buy new phones whenever they switch wireless carriers. The key to those issues is a swath of prime public airwaves that the Federal Communications Commission must auction by January.

If you're looking for the Bob Hope Classic on television beginning in 2007, you'll have to find the Golf Channel on the remote control. Under the PGA Tour's new six-year television contract announced Wednesday, the cable channel will be the new home of the 47-year-old tournament, which will not be telecast by a network for the first time. ABC's final Hope telecast is next week.