Friday, 30th March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

TSA Secures Japanese Baseball

Total Sports Asia (TSA) has joined forces with Korea’s MBC ESPN to acquire the exclusive television rights to a number of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) broadcast in Korea in 2007. The partners have bought the rights to all the away games of the Yomiuri Giants - Japan’s most famous team. Korean slugger Lee Seung Yeop is in his second season playing with the Tokyo club. The deal includes games against the Yokohama Baystars, Hanshin Tigers, Hiroshima Toyo Carp and Tokyo Yakult Swallows baseball clubs, all of which belong to the NPB’s Central League.

All the games acquired are expected to be shown live on the MBC ESPN sports channel, starting with the opening game of the season this Friday between the Giants and the Baystars. The NPB regular season runs from March until September. MBC ESPN was established in 2001 as a joint venture between MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) and ESS (ESPN Star Sports).

“Many thanks to Total Sports Asia, we were able to add another quality contents to solidify our number one status in Korea”, said Jin-Yong CHOI, Manager (Programming) of MBC ESPN.

Chung See Liang, managing director (Korea/Japan) of TSA, said: “We are extremely honoured to be able to partner with MBC ESPN on this acquisition and are also very pleased with the outcome. The Tokyo office of TSA covers two of Asia’s most important markets – South Korea and Japan – and we are very excited to be able to participate in professional baseball, which is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports in both countries. This deal also marks TSA’s first major foray into the world of Japanese professional baseball and we are confident that more such deals will follow in the near future.” Source: Sports Media, Sport Business, 29th March 2007


FRIDAY SPOOF!

Murray and Rusedski - Wimbledon exclusive
Warning: Harmful if taken seriously :)

Andy Murray the new tennis star who dons a dirty hat and exhibits a bad temper insists he is Scottish. Sadly for Andy he has yet to learn that he is Scottish ONLY when he loses, when he wins he is English. Another top class tennis player who is English when he wins is Greg Rusedski, clearly he is Canadian when he loses and of German origins if he loses badly.

The two tennis stars are planning to team up for this years Wimbledon doubles games in the hope of putting a homeland on the map. It's not known yet where the country is or what it will be called. Source: Spoof.com, 28th March 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* The International Olympic Committee has launched a tender for the sale of internet and mobile rights in Hong Kong for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. Conditions of the tender are contained in the invitation to tender which can be obtained by contacting: newmedia_hongkong@olympic.org. Bids must be submitted by 5pm on April 20. The tender follows a similar one launched last week for internet and mobile phone rights for the 2008 Olympics in China. Source: Sportcal, 29th March 2007

* The NBA will return to China in October with three games featuring the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Orlando Magic and the China Men’s National Team, it was announced today in Shanghai. NBA China Games 2007 will tip off on Oct. 17 with the Cavaliers and the Magic playing in Shanghai at Qizhong Forest Sports City arena. The event will head to Macao for another two games at the new Venetian Arena. On Oct. 18, the Magic will play the China Men’s National Team, and a rematch between the Magic and the Cavaliers will be on Oct. 20. Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 29th March 2007

* Fuel TV is hanging ten with the Wolfpak, a group of aggressive surfers who patrol the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. The action sports channel, part of Fox Cable Networks, is targeting a July 7 premiere for The 808, a seven-episode original series centering on the group, led by Kala Alexander, who has appeared in feature film "Blue Crush" and "North Shore". The series is co-produced with Red Square, which has produced "10 Count" and "Project: Detention" for Fuel. Fuel, which launched in July 2003, is seen in 24 million homes. Source: Hollywood Reporter, 29th March 2007

* German distributor setONE GmbH has introduced a new magazine series on sailing for the international market. Planet Sail TV will provide a range of coverage on sailing sports, with an emphasis on the 2007 America’s Cup. SetONE is also distributing two automobile magazines - Test Drive TV, tracking the global automobile market, and Classic Wheels TV about vintage cars. Source: Sports Media, 29th March 2007

* Controversial staggered kick-off times on the final day of rugby union's Six Nations Championship this season are to be extended, with a second, so-called 'Super Saturday' scheduled for the penultimate matchday weekend of 2008, organisers revealed today. The format is a result of organiser Six Nations Rugby Ltd's 2005 broadcast agreement with public-service broadcaster the BBC which wants final-day scheduling to maximise the amount of live content available, in return for its £120-million ($235-million) television rights fee. Source: Sportcal, 29th March 2007

* Ronaldinho is close to a marketing rights agreement with Disney Studios, according to his brother and agent Roberto Assis. “I cannot say too much because we've guaranteed confidentiality, but negotiations are heading in a good direction,” Assis told GloboEsporte.com. The Disney contract is not expected to interfere with the agreement Ronaldinho signed with Mauricio de Sousa productions, which has the license to produce merchandising related to Ronaldinho worldwide. Ronaldinho’s cartoon-magazine is also in its third edition in 25 countries. Source: Football Insider, 29th March 2007

* Birmingham in England is to host a new top-tier event on the Professional Squash Association Men’s World Tour later this year. The English Grand Prix – Birmingham 2007 will take place at the University of Birmingham from September 6 to 9 and will feature 400 competitors in senior, junior and masters tournaments. The event is organised by sports management company internationalSPORTgroup and will help the city prepare for the staging of the prestigious British Open in 2010. Source: Sportcal, 29th March 2007

* Elite women's international squash will be staged in Madrid later this year when the Spanish capital hosts the 2007 Women's World Open Squash Championship. The historic agreement to stage the biggest-ever event in women's squash - boasting a cash prize-fund of more than $100,000 - has been reached between the World Squash Federation (WSF) and Madrid City Council. Madrid 16, the organisation lobbying to host the 2016 Olympic Games, is also supporting the event. Source: Sports e-Media, 15th March 2007

* CONCACAF will adopt a new qualifying format for the annual Fifa Club World Cup. From 2009, the body will use a group system for its club competitions, replacing the Champions Cup. The decision was approved by Concacaf’s executive committee at its meeting in Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles on Tuesday. The finalised format for the 'Concacaf Champions League' will be disclosed at the body’s ordinary congress in May. Source: Sportcal, 29th March 2007


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/General: Mixed Reaction from US Tennis to WTA Tour Changes

The United States Tennis Association today said that ‘there are some issues remaining’ in response to a major overhaul of women’s tennis which was unveiled yesterday by governing body the WTA. The USTA last year set aside $10 million to establish a rival women’s tennis circuit should it fail to reach agreement with the WTA, the women’s professional tennis governing body, over proposed changes to the tour.

The USTA has been resistant to change over the US Open Series, which comprises 10 major men's ATP and women's WTA events, culminating with the US Open, one of the game’s four Grand Slam events. The new WTA schedule will include a longer off-season and fewer top-level events, in a bid to increase player participation and reduce injuries.

There will be four top-level events – including the US tournaments in Key Biscane and Indian Wells in USA – in which participation is mandatory, together with increased prize money and a drive into China. On top of those two events, USA will stage five premier events: Charleston, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New Haven and Stanford.

Prize money will increase to an estimated $72 million in 2009, a 30-per-cent hike on this year, but top-10 players failing to take part in tournaments will be subject to suspensions and larger fines than previously.

The new streamlined schedule will consist of 20 events, comprising eight in North America, seven in Europe and five in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously there were 26 tier I and II events. The season-ending tour championships will be switched from November to October, extending the off-season to nine weeks from seven. Source: Sportcal, 29th March 2007

Elsewhere/General: Euroleague Basketball Unveils ULEB Summer League

Euroleague Basketball announced, in partnership with Verde Sport, that the inaugural edition of the ULEB Summer League will be held in Jesolo, Italy from Thursday, June 28 until Sunday, July 1, 2007. In addition to the ULEB Summer League, a number of parallel events will be held in Jesolo and the surrounding area.

The competition will consist of a combination of existing Euroleague teams and teams made up of elite-level free agents. As the only event of its kind in Europe, the ULEB Summer League will be a focal point for the basketball community. Not only players, but also team executives, scouts and agents from all over the world can be expected to attend the ULEB Summer League.Located 40 kilometers from historic Venice, Jesolo has great prestige as a seaside resort and is a very popular destination for tourists. Source: Sports e-Media, 14th March 2007

Thursday, 29th March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Women's Tennis Calendar Set for Major Overhaul

Women’s tennis is to get a major overhaul, after the board of the WTA, the women’s professional tennis governing body, approved plans for a streamlined tournament schedule in 2009. The schedule will include a longer off-season and fewer top-level events, in a bid to increase player participation and reduce injuries.

There will be four top-level events – existing events in Key Biscane and Indian Wells in USA and new ones in Madrid and Beijing - in which participation is mandatory, together with increased prize money and a drive into China. Prize money will increase to an estimated $72 million in 2009, a 30-per-cent hike on this year, but top-10 players failing to take part in tournaments will be subject to suspensions and larger fines than previously.

The streamlined schedule will consist of 20 events, comprising eight in North America, seven in Europe and five in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously there were 26 tier I and II events. The season-ending tour championships will be switched from November to October, extending the off-season to nine weeks from seven. Source: Sportcal, 28th March 2007


WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Yahoo to Offer Unlimited Email Storage

Yahoo Inc. plans to offer unlimited e-mail storage to its quarter of a billion users, starting in May. The world's biggest e-mail service is scrapping its free e-mail storage limit of 1 gigabyte responding to explosive growth in attachment sizes as people share more photos, music and videos via e-mail. Microsoft has a 2 gigabyte free e-mail storage limit, while Google caps its Gmail service at 2.8 gigabytes.

The decision to remove e-mail storage limits reflects the plunging cost of storage as new computers store up to a trillion bytes of data and owners of 80-gigabyte iPods can carry 100 hours of video in their pockets. By contrast, Yahoo first introduced its e-mail service under a decade ago and capped storage at 4 megabytes per user. At that time, an "ultra high-density" floppy disk for personal computers then held 144 megabytes.

Starting in May, the changeover to unlimited storage should take a month. One caveat Yahoo makes is that the offer is for personal use and subject to guidelines against abuse that apply to Yahoo Mail. No one can build a business giving away unlimited storage to other consumers using Yahoo Mail, executives said.

Two countries -- China and Japan -- are excluded. "We will continue working with these markets on their storage plans," John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail said in a statement. Yahoo is a minority owner with partner Softbank in Yahoo Japan Corp. and a part owner with Alibaba of the Yahoo business in China.

Yahoo is also looking at increasing storage for other services such as its Flickr photo-sharing service. "We are looking at those on a case-by-case basis," he said. It's a far cry from when giving away 2 megabytes of data was considered a big deal, said David Nakayama, Yahoo's group vice president of engineering and developer of RocketMail, which Yahoo acquired and relaunched as Yahoo Mail in 1997. Source: Reuters on Yahoo!, 28th March 2007


INFO BOX

Global Product Placement Spending

Global paid product placement grew 37.2% to $3.36 billion in 2006 and is forecast to grow 30.3% to $4.38 billion in 2007, driven by relaxed European regulations, emerging Asian markets and shifting American models, according to PQ Media. The U.S. remains the largest global market for product placement, accounting for 66% of spending. Growth in the European and Asian placement markets will accelerate going forward, as legal restraints are loosened and global brand marketers move to capitalize on emerging opportunities in these regions.

TV placements remain the dominant choice of brand marketers, accounting for 71.4% of global spending in 2006 at $2.40 billion, with projected growth of 33.9% in 2007. Film placements comprised 26.4%, or $885.1 million, in 2006 with forecasted growth of 20.5% this year, driven by cross-promotional packages linking movie placements to ad spots, websites and point-of-purchase displays, as well as virtual embedding for local targeting.

While placements in other media account for only 2% of total spending, growth will exceed 30% over the next several years due to increased demand for videogame and online placements aimed at the elusive 18- to 34-year-old demograp hic.

The Americas will remain the largest and fastest-growing region for paid product placement in 2007, with projected spend of $3.79 billion and growth of 31.2%, followed by Asia and Europe. The United States will remain the world's largest market for product placement in 2007 with spending of $2.90 billion, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and Japan. China will be the world's fastest-growing product placement market in 2007 with spending growth of 34.5%, trailed by the U.S., Italy, India and Canada. Source: Info IQ, 28th March 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Malaysia’s government will push ahead with its digital-terrestrial project, starting in 2009 and due with analogue switch-off due in 2015. Malaysia has formally adopted DVB-T and is aiming for digital transmissions to start in Kuala Lumpur first, before extending signals countrywide. A recent 1,000-home six-month trial of the technology by Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) showed 60% of respondents rating signal quality as either good or very good, with 88% saying picture quality improved overall. Two multiplexes were approved for the trial. Source: Rapid TV News, 28th March 2007

* China may order mobile networks in Hong Kong to tear down their 'trail' 3G networks in favour of TD-SCDMA. Although no 3G licences have been issued to cover the mainland yet, the government had announced that 'trail' TD-SCDMA networks are to be built in eight Chinese cities. TD-SCDMA is China's own version of 3G and a direct competitor to W-CDMA, already offered in Hong Kong. However, Franklin Lavin, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, has urged China to let carriers make their own choice. China is the world's biggest mobile phone market with 461 million phones, and the decision would have far-reaching effects on the equipment market. Source: Ken Radio, Telecom Asia, 28th March 2007

* Qualcomm, developer of code division multiple access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, and KDDI Corporation, who together established MediaFLO Japan Planning Incorporated in December 2005, have revealed results from an extensive consumer survey of attitudes towards mobile TV. The survey included more than 3,000 Japanese consumers and showed subscribers are more likely to take up mobile broadcast services when they experience it firsthand, providing evidence of commercial viability for MediaFLO services in the Japanese market. Source: Advanced Television, 26th March 2007

* Thailand’s telecom industry is headed for a showdown between the independent regulator and the government's ICT Ministry. The dispute centers on a proposal by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to license the country's power utilities to offer telecommunications services over their existing fiber optic lines. Three state-owned electricity agencies are interested in earning money by leasing their fiber optic networks to operators to provide data and broadband Internet services and possibly broadband power lines in the future. Source: Telecom Asia, 28th March 2007

* The ATP Board approved Shanghai to host the ATP’s Asian Masters Series tournament, starting in 2009. Shanghai has hosted the men’s season-ending Tennis Masters Cup on three occasions. The first was in 2002 followed by 2005 and 2006 and will continue to stage the tournament in China for the next two years. Tennis Masters Cup Tournament Director and ATP CEO International, Brad Drewett said the tournament had played a significant role in the development and popularity of the game in not only Shanghai, but also China as a whole. Source: Sport Business, 28th March 2007

* Canada’s CBC has reached a six-year deal with the National Hockey League (NHL) until 2014. The national English-language broadcast rights - plus multimedia rights - will start when the current agreement expires after next season. CBC will continue to air Live Hockey Night In Canada - now in its 54th season. Local press estimates put the deal at C$85 million. Versus will remain as the main NHL broadcaster in the US, who earlier exercised an option to pay US$72.5 million for the 2007-08 season and picked up the rights for the following three seasons. Source: Sports Media, Sportcal, Sport Business, 28th March 2007

* Diego Maradona will lead a team of fellow retired stars of Argentina’s national football team as the ShowBol Tour hits Central America to play indoor matches in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Buenos Aires-based Nexus Entertainment is selling the rights to the ShowBol Tour. The company said there are plans to visit Italy, Egypt, France and Spain. Source: Sports Media, 28th March 2007

* UK commercial broadcaster, ITV, has appointed digital rights company Premium TV to stream live internet coverage of the Boat Race, the high-profile rowing race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The event will be shown simultaneously and free of charge on both ITV1 and itv.com on April 7. Viewers who miss the race can catch-up the video-on-demand service, which is also available at no fee. Premium TV already provides live streaming of ITV’s coverage of the Champions League, European soccer’s top clubs competition. Source: Sportcal, 28th March 2007

* As it attempts to put the disaster of the ESPN-branded phone behind it, ESPN announced a programming lineup for its new mobile channel, ESPN Mobile TV, which is being offered in the US through Verizon V Cast and MediaFlo’s platform. The channel will stream live ESPN events, including Arena Football games and the Summer X Games, while also feature made-for-mobile news shows, including ScoreCenter and ESPN ReSet. Source: Mediaweek, 28th March 2007

* The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has signalled bold intentions to stage the 2014 World Cup by launching a logo it will use to promote the event. The logo was unveilled in the Swedish town of Trosa ahead of Brazil’s 1-0 friendly win over Ghana in Stockholm (Sweden) on Tuesday. “Brazilian football, because of what it represents in the world, and our people deserve a World Cup,” Brazil coach Dunga told the CBF’s official website, CBFNews.UOL.com.br. “The time has arrived for Brazil to host a World Cup once more.” Source: Football Insider, 28th March 2007

* Swimming legend Mark Spitz has launched an attack on FINA, the sport’s world governing body, accusing them of having no respect for athletes' well-being. Spitz is upset that this month’s world championships programme was not switched to have morning finals and evening heats, mirroring the controversial decision at next year's Beijing Olympics. Spitz said it was ludicrous the needs of the athletes were not put ahead of revenue. Source: Sportcal, 28th March 2007

* The FAI, the international aeronautics federation, will take over supervision of the Red Bull Air Race. Beginning with the race in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on April 6, the FAI said its ‘experienced safety expert Roger Schad will supervise the preparation and conduct of each of the 12 races in the 2007 series.’ The series involves planes flying low to the ground over an obstacle race between air-filled pylons at speeds of up to 250mph. IMG Media last year agreed a three-year deal to acquire the complete worldwide media rights for the series. Source: Sportcal, 28th March 2007


MORE NEWS

Hong Kong/Broadcaster: PCCW Achieves Forecast

Hong Kong’s PCCW ended 2006 with 758,000 IPTV subscribers, which is just over the 750,000 that it had forecast for the year. This is an increase of 209,000 over IPTV subscribers at the end of 2006. PCCW's broadband subscribers grew to 1.117 million at the end of 2006 from 953,000 at the end of 2005.

PCCW received HK$739 million (US$95 million) in IPTV and content revenue in 2006. 501,000 of the 750,000 IPTV subscribers are pay TV subscribers. (The remaining 249,000 IPTV subscribers take only the free channels included in the broadband subscription.) The ARPU for IPTV and interactive services grew to HK$140 (US$18) at the end of 2006 compared to HK$114 (US$15) at the end of 2005.

PCCW added more than 30 TV channels in 2006 bringing its total to 120. This included exclusive rights for broadcasting the English Premier League (EPL) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) soccer matches. PCCW plans to introduce HD in H2 2007 using ADSL-2+ at 18 Mbps. Source: Bob Larribeau Blogs on Telco TV View, View PCCW’s 2006 Results, 28th March 2007

Elsewhere/General: TWI Keeps Big Production Deal

The contract to deliver the Premier League internationally has gone to TWI again. The production arm of IMG Media, has been re-appointed as the EPL’s production partner, producing and distributing all of its matches for the overseas TV market for another three years. The deal kicks off with the 2007-08 Barclays Premiership season.

TWI, producer of the Premiership’s international coverage since 1998, will offer international licensees all 380 matches live via satellite, including 92 in high-definition. The deal - comprising 900 hours of production in total per season - also includes weekly production of a highlights show, a midweek magazine and a Friday night preview programme.

Graham Fry, managing director of TWI Production said: “We are delighted to continue our successful relationship with the Premier League. The League is broadcast in over 160 countries with a global home reach in excess of 570 million, making it the world’s most watched domestic league competition. As a partnership, we are confident that we will be able to achieve even greater heights in building its popularity and profile worldwide over the next three years.” Source: Sports Media, Sport Business, Sportcal, EUFootball.biz, 28th March 2007

Wednesday, 28th March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

UFC Scores TKO on Business Rival

Fans of the world's two biggest mixed martial arts promotions, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Japan's Pride Fighting Championship, have argued long and loud over which group boasts the best fighters. That question remains unresolved. But on a business level, there's no doubt about the result: UFC owner Zuffa LLC just scored a TKO with the purchase its business rival's assets.

The UFC now oversees a staggering collection of talent, including nine fighters in FOXSports.com's world pound-for-pound Top 10 ratings. And their vision for the rules of the sport on a worldwide basis — or at least the Unified rules accepted by American state athletic commissions, with five-minute rounds and uniform weight classes — will be implemented in both groups effective immediately.

What the transaction does not do, despite what you may read elsewhere, is give the UFC anything close to a monopoly over the business.

This deal went down in large part because several other well-heeled players have gotten into the American mixed martial arts game, from Gareb Shamus' International Fight League to the Showtime-backed Elite Xtreme Combat to offshore gambling magnate Calvin Ayre's Bodog Fight promotion. It was likely no coincidence the announcement of the purchase was held just hours before a press conference in Los Angeles announcing an ambitious Showtime-backed show in June at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum featuring MMA legend Royce Gracie.

In the short term, not much will change for the average viewer aside from rules changes, which means the foot stomps and kicks to the heads of downed opponents that distinguished Pride from the UFC are no more. Zuffa will continue to run the Japanese company as a separate entity, with its separate roster of fighters separate champions, and separate office staff. Pride will continue to air in America on FOX Sports Net, and Zuffa officials indicated they are working on getting the brand back on Japanese TV.

UFC president Dana White is promising "Super Bowl of MMA"-style shows eventually, featuring matchups between the top stars of the two promotions. But the company's patience in growing their business — they endured several years and seven figures worth of losses building the brand before hitting paydirt last year — indicates they're not going to burn through the potential biggest-money matches in their history anytime soon. Source: Fox Sports, 28th March 2007

The Making Of A Sports Mogul

When Casey Wasserman was a lad, Sundays meant tagging along with his granddad, MCA chief Lew Wasserman, to the famously downscale Beverly Hills deli Nate 'n Al. There, Hollywood players on the make would stream by the table, pitching projects, asking favors, or just schmoozing with the man who all but invented the modern studio system. "It was like a college education on how to do business and treat people," recalls movie producer Steve Tisch, who used to frequent Nate 'n Al with his father, a Wasserman friend.

Now 32, he is in the middle of building a sprawling sports marketing agency, Wasserman Media Group--a challenger to the behemoth of the business, IMG. After a four-year spree of acquisition by checkbook, WMG today represents 400-odd clients, including 6 of the top 30 picks in last year's NBA draft. Last summer, Wasserman was selected--over competitors like IMG and the William Morris Agency-- to sell naming rights to the planned New York Giants and Jets $1 billion-plus stadium in New Jersey.

Not bad considering that eight years ago, Wasserman was a rookie sports owner who had plunked down $5 million for the Los Angeles Avengers of the then-shaky Arena Football League. Wasserman could have gone into show biz but chose to step away from the shadow of his famous granddad. "If you're Michael Jordan's kid, you had better be one heck of a basketball player," he says. Today, the Avengers franchise is worth $25 million, though like most sports teams it still makes no money. Wasserman calls the Avengers experience his "MBA in sports." Article Continues on Business Week, 2nd April 2007

Why Did IMG Let All Those Stars Walk?

It seems an odd strategy for sports marketing powerhouse IMG: Build the business by letting your star athletes leave. But that's exactly the path IMG is taking these days. Certainly not all its athletes are making for the exits. IMG still crosses the T's on Tiger Woods' Nike deals and makes sure Roger Federer's Wilson rackets are strung. But since private equity mogul Theodore J. "Ted" Forstmann spent $750 million for the company in 2004, IMG hasn't been the glitzy campus for sports studs that it used to be.

The question swirling around IMG: Is that transformation part of Forstmann's new strategy to expand the business in profitable, new directions--or a fumble that cost the company $30 million-plus? One thing is clear: Last summer, IMG got out of the team-sports business. The move came after a shake-up that resulted in Forstmann firing one of the company's senior executives, Peter Johnson. A few months later two of the company's top sports agents left IMG, taking their clients, including baseball's Derek Jeter and football hotshots Peyton Manning and LaDainian Tomlinson, with them.

Johnson, then IMG's CEO of sports and entertainment and a loyalist of the firm's late founder, Mark McCormack, oversaw the agency's team-sports business. A 30-year IMG veteran, Johnson had close ties with Tom Condon, who represented football clients, and with baseball agent Casey Close. The relationship was so tight that both agents had "key man" clauses in their employment contracts giving them the right to leave IMG if Johnson ever departed. Four months after Johnson was fired, Condon and Close sold their practices to Creative Artists Agency Inc. Condon, whose lineup of 75 National Football League players established IMG AS A FOOTBALL POWER, collected $30 million.

Competitors are still amazed over how simply Close and Condon were able to leave IMG and take their clients. "Nothing like that has happened that I know of," says Donald L. Dell, the pioneering sports lawyer who founded the ProServ agency, now called SFX Sports Group Inc. "I don't think Teddy was in favor of just giving away his assets." Article Continues on Business Week, 2nd April 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* A deadline of April 18 has been set for bids for the internet and mobile rights in China for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Over-the-air rights for the Games belong to CCTV. Timo Lumme, IOC of television and marketing, said: "We are looking for offers from media companies that will develop the promotion and coverage of the Olympic Games, embrace new technologies and guarantee the widest possible audience in China for the Olympic Games across a variety of media platforms." Source: Sports Media, 27th March 2007

* Japan’s Fuji TV sued former dot com luminary Livedoor on Monday for $292 million in damages over losses it absorbed after buying a stake in the since disgraced Internet portal company. The lawsuit, filed in Tokyo District Court, seeks compensation for the loss in value of nearly 134 million Livedoor shares the Tokyo-based broadcaster bought in 2005 for 44 billion yen ($373 million) as part of an alliance. Fuji took a substantial loss when it later sold the shares to Livedoor's new partner, Usen, for about 9.5 billion yen ($80.5 million). Source: Telecom Asia, 27th March 2007

* Showtime Arabia the leading Pay-TV network in the Middle East today re-launched its locally-produced platform with more, great programming and new features offering more choice, control and better customer experience at no extra cost. 3 new SHOWSPORTS channels replace the Sportsnet channels with SHOWSPORTS 1, SHOWSPORTS 2 and SHOWSPORTS 3 - being the home of the Premier League from August 2007 and of many other exclusive leagues. Source: AME Info, 26th March 2007

* Asia Pacific Broadcasting takes a look at how digital broadcasting in all its forms. TV, mobile, and broadband, is fundamentally changing the way sports content is consumed. The trick, it concludes, will be finding a way for a single transmission site to serve multiple content providers and devices. And sports rights holders are taking notice as the IOC announced that it would award mobile-TV rights, in addition to the traditional free-to-air TV rights for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Source: Summarized on Sports Video Group, Full Article on Asia Pacific Broadcasting, March 2007

* Four days remain in Major League Baseball's negotiating window, and a U.S. Senate committee put increased pressure on the sport on Tuesday to find a way to offer its Extra Innings package to a broader audience served by cable providers. If not, DirecTV, a satellite-only provider, will have exclusive rights to the package for seven years and a 20-percent stake in the Baseball Channel, which will be offered on its basic tier beginning in 2009. DirecTV has agreed to pay $700 million for that exclusivity. Source: Major League Baseball Official Site, 27th March 2007

* Russia's state television, Sport TV Channel, will broadcast Russian Premier League matches in 2007 under an agreement with NTV-plus. The deal is the result of a turn-around after NTV-plus purchased exclusive rights from the Russian Football Union (RFU) to live soccer matches for the next four years under a $100 million deal at pay-per-view rates instead of on state terrestrial channels. NTV-plus’ deal was reportedly criticized by President Vladimir Putin but under the new sub-licensing deal, all live matches will now be broadcast free this year. Source: Sport Business, 12th March 2007

* Nortel says it's made the first live call over an Ultra Mobile Broadband network delivering high-definition video and VoIP. Nortel says it used MIMO advanced antenna technology in its major 4G technologies - WiMAX, Long Term Evolution, and UMB. Clear voice conversations can be delivered with other high bandwidth applications running simultaneously on the network using its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and UMB technologies. Voice calls can also be maintained when users cross UMB coverage to 2G without interruptions in their conversations using Nortel's VoiceCall Continuity (VCC) based handover. Source: Mediacaster, 20th March 2007

* The Western Australian Trade Office in Indonesia has announced the appointment of a football taskforce to develop people-to-people and business linkages through sport between Western Australia and East Java. Football Dynamics Asia, an Australian-Asian sports development firm with experience in regional development in Indonesia, will head the taskforce. It will focus on identifying opportunities for regular friendlies between Western Australia and East Java representative teams and the professional soccer clubs in both countries. Source: Football Insider, 27th March 2007

* The America’s Cup is set to generate €6 billion ($7.96 billion) and 61,300 jobs for the host country Spain. Host city, Valencia, is set to gain €3.7 billion from hosting 1 million visitors over the three months of the event, having spent over €2 billion on infrastructure improvements, according a report entitled The Economic Impact of the America’s Cup. The province will partially bear €1.3 billion of the costs. An extra 300,000 tourists are also expected to visit Spain in the years following the event. Source: Sportcal, 27th March 2007

* The US could lose the right to host the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles over TV broadcasting conflict. The International Skating Union is yet to secure a host-broadcast TV contract with a US carrier, which would be a breach of an agreement the union has with other TV rights holders to provide a worldwide TV signal. The ISU’s existing contract in the US, with ESPN, expires in 2008 and although talks are underway over a new deal, no agreement has been reached. Source: Sport Business, 21st March 2007


MORE NEWS

Malaysia/General: G-14 Endorses New Malaysian Youth Tournament

European soccer pressure group the G-14 has endorsed a new international youth tournament to take place in Malaysia later this year. Fourteen top clubs have signed up to play in the Champions Youth Cup which will take place between August 5-19, in what will be a key platform for the clubs involved to market their club’s brand in the Asia market.

Clubs involved are: AC Milan, Ajax, Arsenal, Boca Juniors, Chelsea, Flamengo, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto, Internazionale, Juventus, Manchester United, Paris Saint Germain and PSV Eindhoven. They will field under-19 teams alongside national youth teams of Qatar and Malaysia. The inaugural event is supported by Malaysian Youth & Sports and Tourism Ministries, backed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). The event is promoted by UK firm Gifted.

G-14 general manager, Thomas Kurth confirmed that G-14 was committed to developing a programme of ‘development assistance’ for Malaysian football in partnership with the Ministry of Youth & Sports and FAM and stressed that such a programme would be carefully constructed and implemented for long term benefit. Source: Sport Business, 20th March 2007

Korea/New Media: Chelsea Extends Asian Language Website Options

Chelsea has today extended its reach into Asia with the launch of its first ever Korean language website, Kr.ChelseaFC.com. The announcement with web partner MediaCorp took place at a ceremony set up by the Premiership champion’s official sponsor Samsung in Seoul (Korea). The Asian country is a key strategic market for Chelsea following its five-year partnership with Samsung which began in 2005.

The launch of the new website represents the latest development in Chelsea's new media strategy abroad. In January the club unveiled its first Mandarin language website for China and there are plans for further websites in other overseas markets. The connection between Chelsea and Samsung will be extended this summer when the Samsung Bluewings take part in a four-team tournament in Los Angeles with Chelsea, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Tigres. Source: Sports Media, Sport Business, 27th March 2007

Asia/Broadcaster/New Media: ESPN Star Launches Mobile Packages

ESPN Star Sports has launched a series of new packages in India for mobile phones in pursuit of hitting 10 million subscribers by 2012. Mobile ESPN will offer packages for regular updates on cricket, international football, English Barclays Premiership football and sports news in voice and SMS formats. Mobile ESPN is currently available on Airtel, Hutch and BSNL networks. The football value packs will cost consumers Rs50 (about US$1) per month.

The Premiership service, for example, will offer 22 SMS alerts every week related to five clubs - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle United. The international football pack includes 23 SMS alerts every week related to five European clubs - Bayern München, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The alerts will include daily morning football news headlines, match summary after every match and gossip from the international football arena. The Sportcenter service will cost Rs30 (US$0.60) per month and includes two SMS alerts daily - in the morning and evening - from the world of sports as they happen. The cricket SMS pack will also cost Rs30 per month. Source: Sports Media, 27th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: ICC Demands Removal of Footage from YouTube

The International Cricket Council has told video-sharing website YouTube that it must remove clips showing matches from the ICC's flagship tournament, the Cricket World Cup presently under way in the Caribbean. The ICC, together with the Global Cricket Corporation, the rights distributor for the event, has claimed that the website is guilty of copyright infringement.

In addition to video coverage of the event on the tournament's official website, www.cricketworldcup.com, British Sky Broadcasting, the UK pay-television broadcaster, Australia's free-to-air Nine Network and the North American satellite and cable group Echostar have all purchased broadband rights for the competition. Source: Sportcal, 27th March 2007

Elsewhere/New Media: Mobile TV Recording to Double

The SD Card Association, an industry standards association backing and promoting the SD Memory Card for digital connectivity, claims that the number of Japanese mobile phone users who can record TV programmes from their phones will more than double during 2007.

At the moment, 5 million consumers can record programming from their mobile phones on to either SD High-Capacity or SD memory cards. That figure will rise to 12 million by the end of the year, the association predicts. Thirteen handset models feature SD recording technologies and three-quarters of Japanese mobiles are equipped with SD slots.

In Japan, “one segment” digital-terrestrial broadcasting launched in April 2006. Handsets are equipped with mobile TV tuners to receive the signal and SD specifications to record the programming. In “one-seg” broadcasting, the simulcast DTT signal, aimed at mobile terminals, occupies one of 13 bandwidth segments allocated for the video portion of each DTT channel. Japan uses the ISDB-T standard for digital-terrestrial broadcasting.

The SD Association added it is working with the major mobile TV technologies, including the DVB Project, Korea’s DMB and Qualcomm’s MediaFlo to “increase the portability and interoperability of content in and between devices such as mobile phones, car navigation systems and portable DVD players.”


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

TV Rights in Football: Will Fans Pay the Price?

Football Clubs in Europe should show solidarity when it comes to selling TV rights - that's the message in a report to be debated by Members of Euro Parliament on Wednesday. The report has been prepared by Belgian People's Party MEP Ivo Belet and the debate is likely to touch upon how fans watch football matches in the future.

Recent developments suggest that the days of football on TV for free may soon end. This is reflected in the amount that TV bidders will pay for the right to screen a first rank tournament - for example the TV rights for the European "Champions League" for 2006-2009 went for €647 million. With that kind of investment those who pay for them expect a return on their investment via pay-to-watch TV.

Individual vs Joint selling of TV rights

There are two ways of selling TV rights for football in the EU. The first is "individual selling" where single clubs conclude deals with TV broadcasters. Real Madrid have a €1.1 billion deal with Mediapro to televise their matches until the end of the 2013 season. Naturally, this guarantees Real a cash flow that other teams in the Spanish League can only dream about. In turn, this allows them to buy the world's best players and continue their domination of the domestic league. Belet believes that individual selling of TV rights "threatens completely to destroy the competitive balance" in football.

The method is "joint selling" where Clubs in an Association collectively sign a single contract with broadcasters. In January this year England's Premier League did that with 81 broadcasters in 208 countries. The deals will net €950 million from foreign revenue and €420 million from domestic sources. Although criticised as a "monopoly practices" this is the approach the Belet report favours.

Moreover, the European Commission recently ruled that this practice is not contrary to the EU's Competition law. Last year, the Independent European Sport Review concluded that “central marketing or collective selling of rights by the football authorities at European level is essential to ensure that solidarity nurtures the different levels of the pyramid, not least the grassroots”.

TV online and on the phone

Rapid advancements in technology have led to the internet and mobile phones being used to watch football. During the last World Cup in Germany 2.5 million people in the UK followed the matches on the internet. This is particularly so if games are shown during the day and people are at work with access to a computer.

However, controlling access can be a problem: UEFA - the governing body of European football is currently locked in a dispute with web TV stations in China and India over copyright issues. For mobile phones, a recent study indicated that mobile television could have 100 million subscribers in Europe by 2010. Clearly, the way football is watched will continue to evolve. The debate will air live online on the Parliament's website on Wednesday. Source: European Parliament Official Site, 27th March 2007

Tuesday, 27th March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

UEFA a Global Brand With Expected RM3.67 Billion Revenue

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has come a long way from its beginnings in the 1950s as the governing body of European football to become a worldwide branding powerhouse that will chalk up 800 million euros (RM3.67 billion) annually until 2009 from television and sponsorship deals for the UEFA Champions League.

Its marketing and media rights director Philippe Le Floc’h said the annual tournament of Europe’s elite football clubs has been UEFA’s biggest global revenue contributor annually since the European Cup was rebranded and reformatted into the UEFA Champions League 15 years ago. “We control the TV rights for all the Champions League matches and we sell the rights and get sponsorship for a three- to four-year period. About 70% to 80% of the revenue collected will be distributed back to the clubs as prize money and TV rights.

Le Floc’h was in Kuala Lumpur for a three-day tour of the UEFA Champions League Trophy as part of UEFA’s initiative to acknowledge the importance of its audiences outside Europe. He said some 3.4 million Malaysians followed the UEFA Champions League on a regular basis. In the 2005/06 season, there was over 70 hours of coverage with 54 broadcasts on free TV in Malaysia.

Besides the UEFA Champions League, he said the regulatory body had recently taken over the distribution for the UEFA Cup from the quarterfinals stage onwards to increase interest in the competition, which features Europe’s second-tier clubs. He added that UEFA was expecting a turnover of €50 million annually from the competition for the next two years. After 2009, UEFA will assume control of the distribution rights from the first round of the competition.

In addition, Le Floc’h said UEFA was expecting €1.5 billion in revenue from the UEFA EURO 2008 tournament that will see 14 nations battle it out next year to be crowned champion of Europe. “Previously clubs sold the TV rights for their own home matches resulting in some matches being shown and others wouldn’t. Now, we have centralised the marketing for the UEFA Cup from the quarterfinals stage. We will start building the brand of the competition and bring in media partners to purchase the whole package,” Le Floc’h said. Source: The Edge Daily, 26th March 2007

FIFA Freezes Agencies Out in World Cup TV Rights Deal

Sports agencies have again been left out in the cold by Fifa after it extended its television rights deal with the European Broadcasting Union to cover the 2014 World Cup. The news follows the decision to return to the EBU for the 2010 World Cup rights, with the exception of the ‘big five’ markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and Scandinavia, where the rights were sold in-house. Deals negotiated separately with broadcasters in these countries covered the 2014 World Cup as well as the 2010 edition, with the exception of Germany and Spain.

The selection of the EBU as the European rights distributor for the competition in 2010 and 2014 will allow public-service broadcasters in Europe to acquire rights through their EBU membership and underlines Fifa’s intention to make its flagship tournament available to the broadest possible worldwide audience. The media rights for the 2006 World Cup were distributed by the Infront Sports and Media sports agency but in June 2005 Fifa opted to return to the EBU, which last held the rights in 1998, as it sought to ‘improve the reach globally by going to the public broadcast channels.’

ARD and ZDF, the German public-service broadcasters, last week agreed a deal with Fifa worth €150 million ($199.2 million) to show all 64 matches of the World Cup in 2014, leaving Spain as the only country in Europe’s major five markets without a deal in place for the tournament. At the time of allocation of the 2010 rights to EBU, Fifa also announced that UK rights had been awarded to the BBC and ITV for 2010 and 2014, with the public-service broadcasters paying a small increase per tournament on their joint fee of $199 million for the 2006 World Cup.

TF1, the French commercial broadcaster, won free-to-air television rights for the 2010 and 2014 competitions in France, paying $153 million and $165 million respectively, while RAI, the Italian public service broadcaster, won all the rights for both tournaments paying an overall sum of $444 million. Rights in Scandinavia for 2010 and 2014 were acquired by a consortium of seven free-to-air broadcasters. JL: No fee was disclosed.

Fifa will now attempt to secure a deal in Spain for 2014, with the EBU distributing the remaining rights in Europe, and Football Media Services, a joint venture between Infront and Dentsu, marketing the rights in Asia.

Fifa's decision to team up with the EBU once more and make the 2010 and 2014 World Cups available to public-service broadcasters in Europe comes at the same time as Sportfive is struggling to agree deals in major European markets such as Germany and the UK for soccer's Euro 2008 European Championships. Sportfive is seeking about €150 million from ARD and ZDF for Euro 2008 rights, the same fee paid by the duo for all 2014 World Cup games, and the agency has so far failed to obtain the estimated $176 million it was looking for from the BBC and ITV in the UK.

It could now allocate some games to pay-television in that market, despite listed-events legislation that demands that the entire event is reserved for broadcast by free-to-air television. It could do so by claiming that it has not been offered a 'fair price' for the rights by free-to-air broadcasters. Source: Sportcal, 26th March 2007


WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

IMG Launches Man United Gadget

IMG Media and Manchester United are launching a Microsoft Windows Vista-enabled Man United Gadget on the club's official website, ManUtd.com. The Man United Vista Gadget is a mini-application that lives on a fan’s desktop, or within the Windows Vista Sidebar, which gives fans a free permanent official Manchester United presence on their desktop.

Clicking on it, fans can access live interactive news, video (including match footage) and audio. Fans will be able to personalise the Gadget, choosing which feeds they receive, for example, overseas fans may wish to de-select ticket news. Fans can even ‘dress’ their Gadget in any of three kits.

Mark Hargreaves, general manager of Manchester United Interactive, added: “The Man United Vista Gadget represents a new avenue of delivering information to users so that they can receive up to the minute information at their desktop without lifting a finger.” Source: Sports Media, 26th March 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* The International Hockey Federation revealed excellent television results for the 2007 BDO Hockey Champions Trophy for women, held in Argentina in January, generating audiences of 47 million worldwide. Coverage exceeded 150 hours on 36 channels, including host broadcaster ESPN, Eurosport, Fox Sports (Australia), Ten Sports (Middle East & Indian Sub-Con) and Astro SuperSport (Malaysia). There were 96 live broadcasts. FIH reported a sponsorship value of €598,635 from 60 hours of screen time for BDO as title sponsor (calculated at 10% of advertising spot rate). Source: Sports Media, 26th March 2007

* The FIFA Club World Cup has been amended to include a qualification play-off match involving a team from the host nation and the champions of the Oceania region. The move is designed to create more interest among fans in the host nation. Japan will now be permitted to enter the winners of its J-league, in the play-off. The winners of the match will join the champions from each of Fifa’s five other confederations in the next round of the competition. Source: Sportcal, 26th March 2007


MORE NEWS

Singapore/Broadcast/General: Mulling Media Changes

Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) is proposing a number of changes to the rules governing the country’s media sector, the Media Market Conduct Code. The changes are aimed, the MDA says, at nurturing “a pro-business environment while ensuring more media choices for the public”.

Among the proposed changes are expanding the code beyond broadcasting and print media to new media; adopting market and dominance definitions on a case-by-case basis rather than having them pre-defined; and adopting “a pro-active approach towards handling industry competition and public complaints by revising enforcement procedures to be more pro-industry”. That means the MDA would be obliged to make their analytical process arrive at preliminary decisions available to parties for comment, after which the MDA would issue either a revised decision or a final decision.

Also proposed is that media providers would not be able to “unreasonably” leverage on non-media affiliates’ market power. For instance, not accepting special treatment from an affiliate which owns distribution infrastructure. Submissions on the proposed changes are due by May 7. The MDA is aiming to issue the revised code in the fourth quarter of 2007. Source: Rapid TV News, 26th March 2007

Asia/General: Formula One Leads the Field in Far East

With the Formula One season underway, the Chinese market is likely to deliver the top numbers in 2007, as it did last year. In 2006, total F1 broadcast time in China on CCTV and Shanghai TV, reached 352 hours - third highest in the world behind Germany and Japan but China’s 276 race hours exceeded the other two markets (243 in Germany and 193 in Japan). The Chinese market generated 117 million unique viewers, largest total worldwide, according to Formula One Management.

The San Marino GP produced the top audience for a single race in China last season with 22.3 million viewers – better than the World Table Tennis Championships. The average audience for F1 in 2006 beat Chinese Super League football and Italian football, but trailed the National Basketball Association (NBA). The averages for table tennis, Super League, Italian football and NBA all declined in 2006 from the previous year, while F1 held steady. Source: Sports Media, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: FA 'Reaches Target' for Media Rights Auction

The English Football Association is reported to have reached its target of £400 million ($785 million) in the bidding for the domestic media rights for its competitions, including home England international matches and the FA Cup, after a second round of bidding. Last week, the public-service-pay-television combination of the BBC and British Sky Broadcasting were set to renew deals to share the rights.

However, today it is reported that their joint £380-million offer for the rights for four years beginning with the 2008-09 season ‘may have’ been surpassed by a bid from commercial broadcaster ITV. Bidding may go to a third round. For the first time, England and FA Cup matches have been split into different packages as part of a 15-package rights offer from the FA, English soccer’s governing body. Presently the BBC pays £60 million and BSkyB pays £15 million a season, in a deal worth £300 million over four years.

ITV, whose soccer output is concentrated on the Champions League and Uefa Cup, the top European clubs competitions, previously televised FA Cup matches from 1998 to 2001. Meanwhile, BSkyB’s pay-television rival Setanta, is said to be interested in some of the lesser rights on offer, such as those for England under-21 matches. Source: Sportcal, EUFootball.biz, The Telegraph, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Host Country Joins Euro 2008 TV Rights Refuseniks

Broadcasters in Austria, one of the two hosts of Euro 2008 European Championships, are joining a group of broadcasters in top European soccer markets that are claiming that the price is too high. ORF, the Austrian public-service broadcaster, told the Kurier Daily: ‘We could have the broadcast rights tomorrow if we would pay the incredible fee that Uefa wants. I am strictly against it.’

Uefa said earlier that it had agreed a deal for SRG SSR, the Swiss public-service broadcaster, to broadcast live and highlights coverage of all 31 matches of Euro 2008. Agreement is yet to be reached in Germany, Spain and the UK. In France, it is understood that the rights will be shared by TF1 and M6, although this awaits confirmation. Italy’s Rai signed a contract for exclusive rights on significantly higher terms than for Euro 2004.

Uefa appointed Sportfive to distribute the rights to Euro 2008 on a territory-by-territory basis throughout Europe. Sportfive has targeted €600 million ($798 million) in rights sales for Euro 2008.

It is understood that UK’s BBC and ITV’s initial bids fell far short of the £90-million ($176-million) target that Sportfive had set itself for the UK market. However, Uefa has to some extent tied its own hands, by stipulating that about two-thirds of the matches (19 out of 31), in countries in which the national team is involved in the competition, must be shown on free-to-air television. The 2008 European Championships are scheduled for June 7 to 29, 2008. Source: Sportcal, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Canal+ Pays More For Top 14

The Ligue Nationale de Rugby has awarded television rights of French rugby top flight to Canal+ for four seasons from 2007 to 2011. Canal+ has agreed to show all 185 matches each season, with three matches of each round live on the main pay service and others available on pay-per-view. Canal+ will pay €24 million next season, eventually rising to €29 million in 2010-11, according to L’Equipe. Canal+ currently pays €20 million a year.

Alexandre Bompard, the head of sports at Canal+, said viewing of Top 14 has grown by 50% over the past four seasons. Public channel France 2 will show the Top 14 final this season on free-to-air television, shared with Canal+, but public TV did not win the same treatment for the next four seasons. Its offer of €700,000 for each final during the period was deemed insufficient, L’Equipe reported.

Canal+-owned Sport+ will share rights to the matches in the second division (D2), and Eurosport will show a weekly magazine covering the Top 14 and D2. Orange France acquired rights to show near-live video and highlights for mobile. Source: Sports Media, Sportcal, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: TV Globo Scores World Cup Rights

TV Globo has bought exclusive rights for Brazil for FIFA's World Cup in South Africa 2010 and in South America in 2014. The net and FIFA inked the deal in December, but it has just been confirmed in TV Globo's 2006 fourth-quarter report. TV Globo could pay FIFA $340 million for the two Cups. But if FIFA does not pick Brazil to host the 2014 event, the price for the package drops to about $300 million. Brazil and Colombia are in the running to host the tourney, with Brazil the favorite.

The coin to cover the expenses will come from TV Globo's cash flow. Company reported total net revenue of $2.93 billion in 2006, up about 12% from the previous year. It took an average audience share of 53% in 2006. The net intends to share the 2010 and 2014 World Cup rights with other Brazilian media groups. Similar negotiations failed in the past, however, as rival webs refused to pay Globo's high asking price for the 2006 World Cup. Source: Variety, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights/New Media: Secondsout.Com Plan to Sue YouTube

The UK’s Times newspaper reports British boxing entrepreneur Robert Waterman is planning to sue YouTube for $1 million after it carried clips of the WBO World heavyweight boxing title bout between Vladimir Klitschko and Ray Austin from Germany on March 10. Waterman’s Secondsout.com had concluded a globally exclusive deal to screen the fight live on the internet – except in the USA and Germany. But, he says, over 100,000 people viewed fight action free on YouTube.

The move highlights one of the key challenges currently facing the sports media sector - the damaging impact that YouTube and other sites which allow video to be uploaded and shared for free are likely to have on rights markets for many sports. Waterman’s company operates Secondsout.com, one of the world’s most visited boxing portals. He has acquired a portfolio of rights for exclusive live fights which form the backbone of the Secondsout.tv subscription / Pay Per View service which can be accessed through Secondsout.com.

Waterman is an experienced boxing manager and promoter. He promotes fights all over the world and has worked extensively with the BBC and Sky Sport, HBO and Eurosport. He passionately believes that Internet-delivered television will be the financial lifeline for many sports which are unable to demand regular airtime through regular broadcasters. But he believes that video piracy, facilitated by YouTube and others will seriously damage that potential. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 26th March 2007

Elsewhere/General: Blatter Says World Cup Rotation Could End After 2014

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the system of rotating the World Cup among continents could end after the 2014 tournament, a move that could hurt the United States' bid for 2018. "The FIFA executive committee has decided that the process of the rotation will go to 2014," Blatter said at a news conference Friday.

Whether it continues will be decided when the executive committee meets in Durban, South Africa, ahead of the 2010 qualifying draw on Nov. 23. That also is when the executive committee will select the site of the 2014 tournament, which is designated for South America and is likely to be in Brazil. Under the rotation system, the 2018 tournament would be in the North and Central American and Caribbean region. However, the British government has said it would back a bid by England.

FIFA also said its equity had gone from minus-$10.9 million in January 2003, following the collapse of its marketing partner ISL/ISMM, to $617 million last December. The World Cup ran a profit of $207 million, of which FIFA received $60 million. "Five years ago they wanted to send me to jail, and now I am getting a round of applause," Blatter said. "So you see how things can change." Source: Associated Press on EUFootball.biz, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Casper Star Tribune,26th March 2007

Global/New Media: Mobile Content to Double by 2011

The mobile content market globally is set to double in size between 2007 and 2011, according to a study from iSupply. While yesterday’s love affair with premium ring tones and downloadable wallpaper paved the way for enthusiastic new services, it is the content aggregators and providers who will drive growth.

iSupply say they expect Content Providers/Aggregators to see their take grow from today’s US$9.7 billion revenue to US$11.8 billion in 2008 and US$19.3 billion by 2011. Mobile operators themselves will see revenues grow from US$5.29 billion today, to US$6.13 billion in 2008 and US$8.53 billion by 2011. Content Enablement Platform Providers will also see benefits, from US$4.9 billion this year, to US$5.61 billion in 2008 and US$7.47 billion by 2011. Source: Rapid TV News, 26th March 2007

Monday, 26th March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Paffett Returns to DTM

Gary Paffett, 2005 DTM-Champion with the DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG-Mercedes C-Class, will return to the DTM after a one-year break. The 25-year-old Englishman, who has been a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes test driver in Formula One for more than a year, will drive the Persson team's 2006 AMG-Mercedes C-Class, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today. The 2007 DTM incorporates ten races and will start at Hockenheim on 22 April.

In December 2006 the possibility of Gary's DTM comeback first arose. However, at that time the four HWA factory cars had been already allocated to DTM record champion Bernd Schneider (42), double Formula One World Champion Mika Häkkinen (38), 2006 DTM runner-up Bruno Spengler (23) and Jamie Green (24), 2004 Formula 3 Euro Series Champion.

Gary Paffett has enjoyed a longterm relationship with Mercedes-Benz and McLaren. He was promoted by the Champions of the Future kart racing programme for young talents, which had been launched by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz. In 1999, he won the "Young Driver of the Year" award, which had been established by McLaren, Autosport magazine and the British Racing Driver Club (BRDC).

Paffett started kart racing at the age of ten in 1991. In 1997, he won the Formula Vauxhall Junior Newcomers' Championship and in the following year, the Vauxhall Junior Championship title. In 1999, he won the Formula Vauxhall Championship. After a year in the British F3 Championship, when he won the Scholarship class, he entered the German Formula 3 Championship, which he won in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he raced 30 DTM races and won nine. In that time, he started from pole position 5 times and posted the fastest race laps on 6 occasions. Source: DTM, Motorsport.com, 23rd March 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Taiwan aims to transfer all broadcast to high-definition by 2010, putting NT$5.2 billion (US$157 million) behind the project. Satellite HD tests will begin in 2007, with the Beijing Olympics targeted to be up and running. By 2010, five terrestrial channels will operate 30 digital channels on Taiwan’s digital-terrestrial spectrum. 14 DTT channels have been broadcasting since mid-2004. A target of 300,000 homes receiving HD within a year of launch has been set. Taiwan has around 5.2 million TV homes, of which a million have converted to DTT by July 2006. Source: Rapid TV, 20th March 2007

* Star has added two channels carried on PCCW’s Network Of the World (Now) platform in Hong Kong, aimed at attracting South Asian viewers living in Hong Kong. Star One and Tamil service Vijay will join Star Plus, Star News and Channel [V] India which are already carried by Now. But the new channels are relatively expensive – HK$78 a month each. Channels on Now aimed at the local population include Star Chinese Movies, Xing Kong, Channel [V] Mainland China, Star Sports and ESPN, Sky News and Fox News. Source: Rapid TV, 18th March 2007

* Chinese IPTV provider, UUSee has raised US$23.5 million to help develop new interactive services and boost content offering. UUSee offers nearly 60 channels of live TV programming and 350 channels of commerical content to 36 million mainland Chinese internet users. Broadcasters offering content through UUSee include CCTV, Beijing TV, satellite operator CSAT and SMG, who previously partnered UUSee to deliver live sports events. There were 137 million Chinese internet users by the end of 2006, of which 75% had broadband connections. There were 26 million new users in 2006, a growth of 23.4%, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre. Source: Rapid TV, 11th March 2007

* Investment in India’s cable TV infrastructure could boost the country’s national economic activity by 54.6 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) within five years, according to the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA). It also notes that India could gain 18 billion rupees in tax revenues by upgrading cable systems. However, India’s target of 20 million cable broadband subscribers by 2010 would still amount to less than half of China’s market. Source: Worldscreen, 23rd March 2007

* Doordarshan’s (DD’s) mobile television trials will supply four channels (including a news and sports service) onto DVB-H cellular mobiles in May, and increase the number to 10 and 15 channels over subsequent months. Tests had already been carried out in and around Delhi, which will be the first to receive the service followed by Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai. Tenders for the services were issued in January. DVB-H was adopted as India’s mobile TV standard in 1999. The channels will be supplied on an “operator neutral” basis. Source: Rapid TV, 26th March 2007

* Germany and Austria are discouraged by the asking fees for EURO 2008 rights. Sportfive is rumoured to want €150 million for German rights, an fee too high for broadcasters. ARD has made an offer below the Sportfive asking price. Speculation is growing that UEFA could be in trouble over its decision to distribute rights market-by-market, via Sportfive. Some €600 million is expected from TV rights, but might be too high even for football. Previously, rights were sold directly to the networks via the European Broadcasting Union. Source: EUFootball.biz, 26th March 2007

* German public-service broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, have agreed with FIFA to show all 64 matches of the World Cup 2014, elbowing out Premiere, the pay-television broadcaster which has exclusive rights to 18 matches of the 2010 World Cup. They have the option to sub-license exclusive rights for some matches to other broadcasters and non-exclusive coverage of all 64 matches to pay-television. The deal was negotiated by Dagmar Brandenstein, the managing director of SportA, the sports rights subsidiary of ARD and ZDF. Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV, Variety, 23rd March 2007

* Major League Soccer (MLS) announced the return of MLS Direct Kick, providing the opportunity to watch more than 100 MLS games through the television package. Starting April 7, DIRECTV, DISH Network and iN DEMAND Networks, will each present MLS regional telecasts. MLS Direct Kick will include regional broadcasts of MLS regular-season and select play-off games, including pre and post-game shows. All 195 games of the 2007 season, the MLS All-Star Game, play-offs and MLS Cup 2007 will also be available. Source: Football Insider, 23rd March 2007

* Major League Baseball has rejected a bid to keep its Extra Innings package on cable networks. Cable platforms In Demand and Dish Network have offered Extra Innings in the past. If other companies come on board, the fee would be shared. MLB has set a deadline of March 31. If none is forthcoming, the Extra Innings package will be available only via satellite platform, DirecTV, which would pay $100 million per year for an exclusive deal, according to press estimates. Source: Sports Media, Sports Video Group, 23rd March 2007

* Online video company GoFish has licensed hundreds of sports-related videos from extreme sport extertainment companies Adrenalina and Movie Made Productions. Under the agreements, GoFish users will have free access to a variety of original extreme and action sport programming such as American X, Movie Made Productions' extreme sports television show. Source: Digital Media Europe, 23rd March 2007

* Quattro Media has been appointed the official TV partner of the Decathlon for Everyone/Zehnkampf München event taking place on July 14-15 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich. The event is a combination of popular and competitive sports and entertainment, and up to 20,000 spectators are expected to take part in the competitions, which will see a selection of world-class athletes participate. 25 live music acts are also set to perform. Quattro will cover the competitions and the side events with TV footage. Source: Sports Media, 23rd March 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Rights: Cricket Board to Share Losses of Rights Owner

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has agreed to cover half of the loss in revenue sustained by the company which holds the television rights to the national team’s home matches after it was forced to share coverage with state broadcaster Doordarshan. Nimbus Communications, the sports marketing and media company, claimed that earnings would be 12 per cent less than anticipated and asked the board to compensate it accordingly.

The board’s working committee agreed in principle to the request from Nimbus but exact figures will be determined by auditors from the BCCI and the rights holder and a report is expected by the end of this month. Nimbus was said to be seeking a partial refund or cancellation of the $612-million contract to televise India’s games until March 2010 but BCCI’s Rajeev Shukla said an ‘amicable solution’ had now been reached and the deal would remain.

Having already paid Rs5.5 billion ($126 million) for matches played in 2006-07, Nimbus is withholding a bank guarantee of Rs9.6 billion for next season until concerns over unencrypted signals used by Doordarshan were addressed. Nimbus shows cricket on its Neo Sports pay channels and claims the fact that Doordashan’s signals can be picked up outside India on direct-to-home platforms, affecting revenues and has called on the government to take action. Source: Sportcal, 23rd March 2007

Indonesia/Broadcaster: Indonesia Costing Astro

Astro All-Asia Networks is being hit by its 20% stake in Indonesian DTH business PT Direct Vision, before the company has even been granted formal satellite landing rights. PT Direct Vision uses the Measat-2 satellite to broadcast its platform to Indonesia, which the Indonesian government has said is illegal. Landing rights are still in negotiation and Astro awaits formal authorization of satellite landing rights for PT Direct Vision.

While broadcasting since February 2006, the Indonesian operation has already accounted for RM230 million in investments from Astro. Astro said that for the year ending January 2007, losses amounted to an “estimated” RM157.4 million (US$45.5 million). That dragged Astro’s full-year profit down to RM160 million, compared with RM229 million the previous year, despite revenues rising 11% to RM2,224 million. Group EBITDA rose 50% to RM528 million.

Direct Vision is unlikely to become profitable before five to six years, the company’s chief financial officer Grant Ferguson reportedly said last week. But Astro remains committed to regional expansion. Ferguson cited India, China and Vietnam as countries that Astro is interested in – markets that do not already have developed pay-TV sectors.

But Astro’s home market remains its key business. Astro subscriptions in Malaysia rose to 2.016 million by the end of January, from 1.784 million the previous year. That represented 36.5% of Malaysian TV homes. ARPU fell marginally to RM78 as Astro targeted the mass market, but subscriber acquisition costs fell 11% to RM667 per sign-up as set-top box costs fell. The company kept content costs steady at 29.7% of revenues, compared with 289.3% the previous year. Source: Rapid TV, 26th March 2007

Asia/General: Sports Sponsorship Sees Upward Swing of 55%

Sports sponsorship activity in Asia saw a rise of 55% in 2006 over 2005 figures, according to IVCast, an Asian database that monitors sponsorship throughout Asia. The year-on-year increase translated to a sponsorship value of US$426 million.

“The evidence suggests sponsorship is becoming a more popular marketing channel in Asia, catching up with global sponsorship volumes, which are growing at a more sedate 10.5%, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report, and at a pace that is still quicker than traditional advertising at 5.3% according to Group M,” Ben Heyhoe Flint, GM, OgilvyAction Sports & Entertainment said.

The report found major events in Asia such as the Beijing Olympics and the Doha Asian Games have significant influence on the sponsorship industry, and the biggest spending categories were automobile at US$78 million and finance at US$63.8 million – automobile sponsorship was largely driven by Nissan’s annual sponsorship of the Yokohama Stadium in Japan, reported to be US$42.2 million per annum. Source: Marketing Singapore, 23rd March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: BBC and BSkyB 'Set to Share FA Rights again'

The BBC and British Sky Broadcasting are set to renew deals to share the television rights for England international soccer matches and the FA Cup, following the end of a second round of bidding today, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. However, the BBC and BSkyB are predicted to split the rights again, with the BBC paying a similar amount to the present deal, but BSkyB increasing its payments in return for the rights to more matches.

Presently the BBC pays £60 million ($118 million) and BSkyB pays £15 million a season, in a deal worth £300 million over four years. However, BSkyB will increase its contribution to £30 million a season, according to the newspaper, meaning that the new four-year deal, which begins with the 2008-09 season, will be worth £90 million a season, or £360 million in total. This compares with the £400-million figure that the FA is said to have targeted.

Currently, the BBC gets the first three picks of FA Cup matches in each round and shares England’s home internationals with BSkyB. BSkyB shows one FA Cup match per round. Also a possibility, is that commercial broadcaster ITV could trump rivals with a £400-million bid for all matches. ITV’s current output is concentrated on Champions League and Uefa Cup, but previously televised FA Cup matches from 1998 to 2001. Source: Sportcal, 23rd March 2007

Elsewhere/General: France 98 Stars Back Futsal

Compared to Spain, Italy and Russia, France have tended to be among Europe's minnows in the small-sided game but that could all change after Sunday's RTL-Futsal meeting at the famous Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy. Stars from the late 1990s, when France were the world's No1 football power, have answered the call to put on a show in front of 15,000 fans with many more at home watching the five-hour televised event.

Among the competing teams will be one representing the France '98 association, comprising 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2000™ winners including Zinédine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, Laurent Blanc and Bixente Lizarazu, several of them playing futsal for the first time. The fourth contestant in the round-robin event is Club des Internationaux Français, an organisation for former French internationals which will benefit from the afternoon's activities. Source: Uefa.com, 23rd March 2007