Tuesday, 27th February 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Crisis Threatens Italian TV Rights Central Sale Decree

Plans issued recently by the Italian government to centralise the sale of broadcast rights for Italian soccer’s top two divisions could be upset by last week’s political crisis in the country, which led to the resignation of the prime minister Romano Prodi. The upheaval also threatens new laws introduced after recent violence at Italian soccer stadia which must receive parliamentary approval by April 8 or fall into abeyance.

The decree centralising the sale of broadcasting rights must be approved within a six-month window, but even this longer timescale is now thought to be under threat. Prodi resigned last week after a defeat over foreign policy in the parliament’s upper house, and although he was asked by the president yesterday to remain as prime minister and put his majority to the test in parliament, it is unclear whether he has enough support to remain in power.

Italy’s parliamentary chamber last month proposed a law to market top soccer rights centrally, and distribute media revenues more evenly between the clubs, stripping the clubs of the right to negotiate their own broadcast contracts, as they have done since 1999. The new law giving the league control over the rights is intended to restore competitive balance to the league after a period in which 80 per cent of the estimated annual value of the rights for top-tier Serie A soccer has been controlled by the big five clubs: Juventus, AC Milan, Internazionale, AS Roma and Lazio.

In recent years, three domestic broadcasters have been waging a highly-competitive campaign to sign up the rights of the top clubs in individually-negotiated deals. Mediaset, the commercial broadcaster, holds the digital terrestrial rights of Juventus, AC Milan, Internazionale, Lazio and Roma, among others, until the end of the 2008-09 season.

The international rights for Serie A clubs are split between two agency groupings: Media Partners & Silva, a partnership between the Italian agency Media Partners and sports rights specialist Riccardo Silva; and a joint venture between RAI Trade, the rights distribution arm of the Italian public-service broadcaster, and Sportfive, the international sports agency. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007

Roland Garros Considers Equal Prize Money

The French Tennis Federation will debate the issue of equal pay for men and women players after the French Open at Roland Garros was left isolated as the only one of the sport’s four Grand Slams not to offer equal prize money. Wimbledon had also been resisting change but last week announced that it would fall in line with the Australian Open and US Open by paying equal prize money to men and women through all stages of the competition from this year.

FTF officials said that they will debate the issue at the committee meeting on March 16 but insisted that they were not responding to the Wimbledon initiative. Instead they said that the move was a logical step after their decision to award equal prize money to the men’s and women’s champions for the first time last year.

Last year, the women's WTA Tour accused the Wimbledon organisers of having a ‘Victorian era view’ for sticking to a policy of awarding higher prize money to its men’s singles champion than the women’s champion. Roger Federer, the men's champion, earned £655,000 ($1.3 million), while Mauresmo, took home £625,000. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007


WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Beckham's Salary is Fraction of the Figure Announced

David Beckham's contract with MLS side, Los Angeles Galaxy is a fraction of the USD 250 million that he was rumoured to get. His contract is worth about US$27.5 million in base salary over five seasons. A person who had been briefed on the deal, spoke on condition of anonymity since details had not been made public, said Beckham's average base salary is $5.5 million per year. Simon Oliveira, Beckham's spokesman, would not confirm the salary.

AEG, the company that runs the Galaxy, gave a much higher figure when Beckham's contract was announced last month. Beckham's contract, according to those familiar with the details, is a complex and distinctive arrangement that gives him a percentage of club sponsorship, and merchandising and kit sales contracts, along with promotional appearances.

Beckham will easily be MLS' highest-paid player. According to figures published by The Washington Post last April, Chivas USA's Juan Francisco Palencia was the highest paid player last season for a total of USD 1.36 million, which includes USD 692,308 in salary and about USD 668,000 in bonuses. The Galaxy's Landon Donovan was second at USD 900,000, followed by Kansas City's Eddie Johnson at USD 875,000, according to the Post. Source: EUFootball.biz, 26th February 2007


INFO BOX

Superbikes World Championship – Riders after Round 1
# Country Rider Points
1 GBR Toseland 45
2 ITA Biaggi 45
3 ITA Lanzi 25
4 AUS Corser 23
5 JAP Kagayama 23
6 JAP Haga 21
7 AUS Bayliss 19
8 GER Neukirchner 16
9 ESP Xaus 13
10 ESP Nieto 11
Source: SBK Official Site

Wembley Stadium
* Wembley Stadium is a stadium under construction in Wembley, London
* It serves as the successor of the previous Wembley Stadium, which was built in 1924 and demolished in 2003
* At a cost of £750m ($1,487m) the new Wembley is the most expensive stadium ever built
* The design accommodates 90,000 spectators during soccer matches
* Wembley Stadium will host the first NFL American Football game played outside of Europe in 2007
Source: Infostrada Databox, January 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Japanese ad spending edged up 0.6% to almost $50 billion in 2006 over 2005, marking three consecutive years of increase, thanks in part to the Torino Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. However, spending on TV, newspaper, magazine and radio - dropped between 1.2% and 3.8%, announced Dentsu ad agency. Internet ad spending shot up by 29.3% to $3 billion. Terrestrial TV ads dropped 1.2% to $16.8 billion, while Satellite TV ad spending remained strong, up 11.7%. Dentsu forecasts 2007 ad spending to inch up by 1.1% to $50.5 billion. Source: TV Asia Exec. News, 26th February 2007

* Digital BS (broadcasting satellite) viewing in Japan increased in all time categories last year, according to a joint survey by five digital BS broadcasters. Average weekly golden time (7 pm.to 10 pm.) PUT of all five digital BS broadcasters increased to 11% between Nov. 28 and December 3, compared to 7.9% six months ago, while prime-time (7 pm to 11 pm.) went up to 10.6% from 7.6%. The whole day PUT moved up to 4.9% from 3.7%, according to the survey conducted with 874 households registered to the broadcasting conditional access system (B-CAS). Source: TV Asia Exec. News, 26th February 2007

* Hector Figueroa of Puerto Rico-based SportsNow! Inc. is in China trying to secure deals with CCTV and Shanghai Media Group, and is talking to casinos in Macau about a project to bring some big-name boxers to China. “The idea involves trying to help the development of Chinese fighters,” he said. “One of the keys to that is enable people to experience the atmosphere of a heavyweight fight.” Source: Sports Media, 26th February 2007

* New broadband channel surfchannel.tv is under construction, dedicated to surfing action and lifestyle programming. It will feature skateboarding, snowboarding and sky surfing as well as board sports on the water and water skiing. Philippe Ney is president of the venture, while Jeffrey Glover acts as head of business development. Source: Sports Media, 26th February 2007

* French channel Sport + will be carrying extensive coverage of badminton this year. The pay-TV service will show 52-minute wrap-ups of 10 events on the International Badminton Federation’s Super Series circuit plus the final. Starting on March 5, it will also carry a 26-minute bi-monthly magazine World Of Badminton on Monday afternoons. Source: Sports Media, 26th February 2007

* NBC will carry Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) in the USA for the first time. The network reached an agreement to show seven CORR races nationally starting April 28. The package includes two-wheel drive and four-wheel wheel trucks racing on special courses set up at auto racing tracks. The 2007 calendar starts April 21-22 features races in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Dallas. Source: Sports Media, 26th February 2007

* Global Sportnet, the Germany-based sports marketing agency, has been appointed to market the media rights outside the UK to a series based on athletics' Great Run events. As well as marketing the international media rights for the television series, Global Sportnet will be responsible for generating exposure and new revenue streams for the various programme formats. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007

* US adventure and action sports channel, Versus has agreed to show matches from the country’s Major Indoor Soccer League. The schedule includes two regular season games, a MISL Championship Series Semi-Final game on April 14 and the Championship Game on April 21. There will also be a live magazine show on April 7 to preview the Championship Series. Coverage begins with the match-up between Philadelphia and Baltimore on March 24. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007

* Blackburn Rovers has reaffirmed its commitment to use part of the funds from the Barclays Premiership’s new television deal to reduce ticket prices for next season. Blackburn has suffered poor attendances of late at its Ewood Park stadium and currently sits at the foot of Football Insider’s Attendance Table. Source: Football Insider, 26th February 2007

* Nikolai Valuev, the Russian WBA heavyweight title-holder will take on Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Chagaev in his next fight. The contest between the two undefeated combatants will take place in Germany on April 14. British heavyweight, Lennox Lewis has denied that he is to come out of retirement to take on the Ukraine’s Vitali Klitschko. Lewis quit in February 2004 after defending his WBC title against Klitschko in the previous June. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007

MORE NEWS

BWF: Malaysia Coach Wants BWF to Scrap Notional Ranking

Malaysian national doubles coach Rexy Mainaky hopes the Badminton World Federation (BWF) will get their act right – as far as the draws for the men's doubles of the Super Series events are concerned. Rexy felt that the BWF should either do away or review the notional ranking that allows a new doubles pair to get a place in the main draw of the Super Series.

Under the notional ranking system, the results of individual players with their previous partners are taken into account before a new pair is ranked. For the upcoming All-England, Indonesia's new combination of Sigit Budiarto-Fran Kurniawan, who are not even ranked in the top 300, managed to get a place in the main draw. Malaysia's Chan Chong Ming-Hoon Thien How, who are also without a ranking in the world standings, competed in the main draw of the first two Super Series at Malaysia and South Korea respectively.

The Indonesian said he did not understand the rationale behind BWF's decision to use the notional ranking. “BWF should either use the world rankings or even use the Super Series rankings to determine the qualifiers for the Super Series event. This notional ranking should be scrapped,” he said. BWF general manager P. Ganga Rao said the notional rankings would be looked into at the next exco meeting during the Sudirman Cup in Scotland in May. Source: The Star Malaysia, 23rd February 2007

India/Broadcast: Commonwealth Games for DTT start

Digital-terrestrial television should launch in India in 2010, to coincide with the Delhi-hosted Commonwealth Games, says a recommendation by a government-convened group. A sub-group of the Indian Planning Commission, called Going Digital, has suggested that state broadcaster Doordashan should start DTT broadcasts in India’s top seven cities during 2010, before rolling out to the rest of the country by 2013.

As part of a wider consultation process, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has started its consultation process with cable operators, broadcasters and equipment manufacturers over digitalisation of the country’s cable network. The process is likely to lead to a mandatory deadline for digitalisation for all forms of TV services. Source: Rapid TV News, 27th February 2007

Vietnam/General: Badminton Player Listed on Top 10 Outstanding Athletes

As a top Vietnamese player, Nguyen Tien Minh now ranks 51st in the World Badminton Federation’s standings. Good at both attacking and defending, Tien Minh is capable of reading the game, and finding weaknesses of opponents to attack. At the 15th Asian Games in Doha, despite Vietnam’s 4-1 defeat to the Republic of Korea, Tien Minh produced an impressive game against Lee Hyun Il, who is now seventh in the world and won a silver medal at the 2002 Asian Game, a bronze medal at the 2005 Asian championship and a bronze medal in the 2006 world championship.

Tien Minh’s victory over Lee was a nice surprise. Despite failing to win a medal at the tournament, the top Vietnamese player gave his best for national pride. With his achievements, Tien Minh was voted as one of the ten 2006 Athletes of the Year. Source: Vietnam Net Bridge, 20th February 2007

Elsewhere/General: Sportal Branches Out Internationally

New media services company Sportal has moved into Hong Kong in a new deal with mobile provider Hutchison. Sportal CEO Chris Mutimer reported that a deal in another Asian market is on the cards. The Melbourne-based company (of which one-third is owned by PA Sport, the publisher of Sports Media) also provides end-to-end mobile phone solutions for Vodafone Live Australia and New Zealand.

Sportal is also responsible for the websites of Cricket Australia, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), the Australian Tennis Open and the Golf Open, the Australian F1 Grand Prix, the National Basketball League, the Hyundai A-League and the New Zealand All Blacks. It is the official live scoring provider for the Australian Football League (AFL), ARU and All Blacks. Source: Sports Media, 26th February 2007

Elsewhere/General: Broadcaster Backs Planned New Netball Competition

A new 10-team netball competition involving teams from Australia and New Zealand and backed by New Zealand’s pay-television broadcaster Sky TV is due to launch next year, threatening the existing National Bank Cup which is televised by the New Zealand public-service broadcaster TVNZ. It is reported that the new competition will be worth NZ$1.5 million ($1.06 million) each a year to netball governing bodies in the two countries and is guaranteed peak-time television slots for three seasons beginning next year.

Teams from Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and a combined Otago-Southland side are set to represent New Zealand, while Australian teams that presently compete in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy are expected to represent Australia. These are the Sydney Swifts, Queensland Firebirds, Adelaide Thunderbirds, Melbourne Phoenix and Perth Orioles. The deal is expected to result in some top players going fully professional. Source: Sportcal, 26th February 2007