(1 July 2005 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Football's global governing body Fifa has closed its 2010 World Cup telecast rights deals for the European territory.

Direct deals are done in the UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy, while the rest of Europe is going via European Broadcast Union (EBU).

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has put the value of the European rights alone as in the region of one billion euros. According to reports, this is roughly twice the value of the European TV rights for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The decision to split the European rights into direct deals for the major markets and the EBU handling the rest was made by the Fifa's executive committee on 29 June.

ESPN Star Sports holds the India rights for the telecast of the 2006 World Cup.

In the UK, the BBC and ITV will share broadcast rights for coverage of the 2010 and 2014 football World Cups. This is an extension to their existing deals. All 64 matches played during the two tournaments will be shared between BBC and ITV.

In Germany, pubcasters ARD and ZDF and paybox Premiere have gained. ARD & ZDF have the rights for 46 live games including important knock-out fixtures and those with the German team involved. Premiere, in turn, has exclusive rights for the other 18 games, and will be able to air all 64 games live. TF1 has the rights in France while Spain's TVE and Italy's pubcaster Rai and Sky Italia have won the rights for the respective regions.