Friday, 23rd March 2007

WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Malaysian Pirates Slap Bounty on DVD-sniffing Dogs

Malaysian DVD pirates have offered a bounty on the heads of sniffer dogs which earlier this week helped seize around US$3m in fake DVDs. According to The New Straits Times, "syndicate bosses" are none too happy about the olfactory abilities of black Labradors Lucky and Flo, who on Tuesday were involved in the location of "a cache of around a million pirated game and movie discs in the southern city of Johor Baru".

Six people were cuffed during the operation, which discovered pirate DVDs and copying equipment "hidden in concealed spaces and secret compartments spread over four floors of an office building". Neil Gane, an official of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), told Reuters: "As a result of the extent of loss to the pirate syndicate, we have information from the domestic trade ministry that the Johor syndicate is intent on killing Lucky and Flo. Source: Reuters on CNet News, 22nd March 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV) has agreed to broadcast the 2007 Copa America in Japan. Total Sports Asia, the exclusive representative of rights-holder Traffic in Asia, brokered the deal. “We have been working with NTV for many years on such prestigious soccer properties as Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana,” said Chung See Liang, TSA's Tokyo-based managing director (Korea/Japan). Source: Football Insider, 9th March 2007

* Chinese companies have today been invited to bid for internet and mobile rights to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The TV rights were acquired by state broadcaster CCTV in 1998 but there will also be significant demand for coverage on other platforms anticipated. In launching the tender process, the IOC said it would assess bids on ability to meet standards in broadcast quality, capacity to reach the broadest possible audience and their commitment to promote Games and values of the Olympic Movement. The deadline for interested parties to submit bids is 5pm on April 18. Source: Sportcal, 22nd March 2007

* IEC In Sports will handle exclusive worldwide broadcast distribution of English football club Manchester United’s tour of Asia this year. The event, organised by Pro-Events Management Ltd, will visit four countries, starting in South Korea on July 17. Manchester United is scheduled to play Seoul FC in Korea on July 17 and in Japan to play Urawa Reds in Saitama on July 20. The next match will be against a Chinese club side still to be determined in China on July 23, followed by a match in Kuala Lumpur versus the Malaysian League XI. Source: Sports Media, 12th March 2007

* CCTV will co-produce a 50-hour series of Olympic preview programming with SportsNow! Inc. The partners will produce 100 half-hour programmes profiling athletes on track to take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, with CCTV 5 responsible for production of the Chinese content. Puerto Rico-based SportsNow! will produce the input from the rest of the world, and will handle worldwide distribution of the show for all media. The programme is to be ready for airing on CCTV 5 from April 2008. Source: Sports Media, 12th March 2007

* Rainbow Media has linked with PCCW to launch a Voom high-definition channel in Hong Kong. It is the first full-time Voom channel to launch in Asia and one of the first 24/7 HD channels to launch in the region. PCCW serves over 700,000 subscribers in Hong Kong. Other Voom distribution deals are promised for Singapore, and a Voom programming block is already on air in Korea. Source: Rapid TV, Worldscreen, 23rd March 2007

* India’s hopes of hosting a Formula One grand prix as early as 2009 were boosted when New Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dixit lent her support to the idea of a street race. She welcomed the idea after meeting with Vijay Mallya, owner of Kingfisher Airlines who is a sponsor of the Toyota F1 team. The addition of an Indian race would mean further expansion for the series into Asia. South Korea has already been promised a grand prix for 2010 and Singapore is also hoping to host a street race. Source: Sport Business, 23rd March 2007

* Satellite capacity may be under pressure for the Beijing Olympic Games next year following the recent failure of the launch of a new bird by SES News Skies. Space on the new NSS 8 satellite had been pre-sold on a permanent basis with the European Broadcasting Union taking a lot of it. However, the rocket blew up on launch. Intelsat, Pan Am Sat and Asia Sat thus find themselves in what appears to be a seller’s market for occasional use users. Source: Sports Media, 14th March 2007

* The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) expects revenues of more than €45 million in 2007, up by about 50% from last year, according to Ireland’s Sunday Business Post. The newspaper said the FAI hopes to earn at least €7 million for the television rights to Ireland’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Germany at Croke Park in October. Source: Sports Media, 19th March 2007

* UK’s BBC and ITV are reported to have been handed a deadline of today by Sportfive to come up with an improved offer for the rights to broadcast Euro 2008. It is understood that their initial bids fell far short of the £90-million ($176-million) target that Sportfive had set itself for the UK market. Sportfive is thought to be struggling to break up the perceived duopoly over European Championships rights that the BBC and ITV have enjoyed for previous competitions through their membership of the European Broadcasting Union. Source: Sportcal, 23rd March 2007

* Brazilian commercial network TV Record has won rights to the Summer Olympics in 2012 and the Winter Games in 2014 in a new deal worth US$60 million. The International Olympic Committee said the deal with Rádio e Televisão Record S/A “marks a significant revenue increase on the agreement negotiated for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games”. The IOC negotiated directly with TV Record and not through the Broadcast Union pool. TV Record will offer exposure with coverage across TV, cable, satellite, Internet and mobile telephones. TV Globo is the current Olympic rights-holder in Brazil. Source: Sports Media, 19th March 2007

* Greenlight Television is backing the 2007 Powerboat P1 World Championship to widen global audience and increase marketing support to teams, sponsors, manufacturers and host venues. Each P1 Grand Prix of the Sea is currently televised to over 70 countries and Greenlight is expected to significantly increase in global TV exposure. In addition to creating a race programme and news items for use in syndicated shows, 2007 will see increased usage of video news releases and satellite feed for worldwide use. Source: Sports Media, 15th March 2007

* One of the broadcasters of the ICC Cricket World Cup has thrown up a problem for rights-holders in other countries. The broadcaster has neglected to geo-block the video on its website, so streaming coverage is freely available around the world - including the American market, where direct-to-home satellite companies market the event on a subscription basis. Source: Sports Media, 16th March 2007

* There continues to be uncertainty about the control of archive television material from domestic league football. Premiership clubs are unsure about the extent of their rights to video from the days before the launch of the Premier League in 1992, according to Mark Ashton, head of communications of Everton FC. He says there is confusion about rights and what can be used by the clubs for their own media outlets, such as broadband channels. The “consensus” seems to be for clubs “to put it on and plead ignorance”. Source: Sports Media, 9th March 2007

* France’s Lagardère Group has taken the operational reigns of sports rights giant Sportfive, which it bought at the end of last year. Olivier Guiguet, chairman and chief executive officer of Paris-based Lagardère Sports, has been named as the interim chief executive officer of Sportfive Group. He will work closely with Stéphane Schindler, chief operating officer of Lagardère Sports. Source: Sports Media, 9th March 2007

* The new Eurosport Events will organise and promote as well as produce television coverage and exploiting the media rights for some events. It will be the umbrella over two series created by Eurosport, the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (ICC), as well as the new International Formula Masters, launching this year. Eurosport Events is also the partner of the Global Champions Tour of show jumping. Source: Sports Media, 15th March 2007

* Mobile and online video content specialist Kamera has linked with Sportfive to distribute programming to online portals and mobile operators worldwide. The deal includes qualifying matches for UEFA Euro 2008. Sportfive also distributes European TV rights for Euro 2008. Kamera already distributes SportCall, a sports service available in a variety of languages via 1MP China, and Cellebrum India in Asia. Kamera works with over 30 online video customers worldwide, and operates and distributes online video content to over 25 mobile operators. Source: Sports Media, 20th March 2007

* The ATP has put an end to the controversial new round-robin format for its tournaments, opting to return to the knockout format for all men's events. The experiment ran into trouble with several tournaments having already decided to revert to the traditional format and some of the top players boycotting tournaments in which it had been trialed. Controversy hit the tournament in Las Vegas three weeks ago over the interpretation of the new format’s complex rules. Source: Sportcal, 23rd March 2007


MORE NEWS

TSA Takes Masters Football

Total Sports Asia has reached a deal to handle exclusive distribution of media rights in Asia of Masters Football, which features former stars of British football competing in action. TSA is distributing all television, broadband and mobile platform rights of the indoor, six-a-side competition for all territories in Asia - excluding the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East, where deals are already in place.

TSA has reached agreements for Masters Football in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia for 2007. Masters Football, founded in 1998, is exclusively endorsed and sanctioned by the English Football Association (FA) and the Professional Footballers Association (PFA). Players include former stars such as Peter Beardsley, Ian Wright, Ally McCoist and Glenn Hoddle. The Masters Cup will take place throughout June and July with the Masters Grand Final held in September.

Julian Jackson, TSA’s senior vice-president of media, said: “I came across Masters Football due to its massive popularity in the United Kingdom, and knew that it would have a similar impact in Asia. Football fans want to know what their childhood heroes are up to now and it’s great to see them produce their skill once more.” Source: Sports Media, 13th March 2007

Korea/Rights: Pride Finds New Home

Pride FC is moving from one of Korea’s biggest multi-channel competitors to its rival in a surprise deal running until 2011. The series had been on CJ Media’s XTM channel but is moving to On Media’s Super Action. The surprise is in the fact that broker IB Sports, which completed the new deal with On Media, is partnered with CJ Media in the Xports cable channel. CJ Media bought 70% of Xports in June of 2006, while IB Sports retains the other 30%.

In the past, IB Sports had sold Pride to XTM. This time around it gave its Xports partner first option but when On Media made a better offer, it went with the rival. Meanwhile, IB Sports has kept the rights to Ultimate Fighting Channel, which it controls in Korea, for Xports, sub-licensing UFC to that channel.

XTM is seeking to hold on to Korean rights to baseball games from Japan’s top club, the Yomiuri Giants, after having rights to away games last season. Terrestrial broadcaster SBS has rights to the team’s home games. The Giants are a hot property in Korea since the emergence of Korean Lee Seung Yup as one of the team’s stars. Another player, Lee Byung Kui, joins the Chunichi Dragons club in Japan this season. Source: Sports Media, 15th March 2007

India/Rights: Rights Holder Negotiating Reduction in Indian Cricket Fee

Nimbus Communications is reported to be seeking a reduction of almost 30 per cent in the amount it is paying for the television rights to the Indian cricket team’s home matches. Last year, Nimbus agreed a deal worth $612 million to cover the games for four years until March 2010, but it wants to cut this by $180 million because of a dispute over encryption, according to the Business Standard newspaper.

As a result of a recent ordinance, Nimbus is compelled to provide a terrestrial feed of India’s matches to state broadcaster Doordarshan as they are considered to be events of national importance. However, Nimbus, which shows cricket on its new Neo Sports pay channels, claims that unencrypted signals used by Doordarshan are available outside India and that this is affecting revenues.

Officials from Nimbus and the Board of Control for Cricket in India are due to meet in Mumbai tomorrow to discuss the issue, which needs to be settled soon as the company is due to provide a bank guarantee of Rs9.6 billion ($221 million) by the end of this April as part of its contract with the board. Last year, Nimbus provided a bank guarantee of Rs3.75 billion. Source: Sportcal, 22nd March 2007

Hong Kong/Broadcaster: Now Sports on Multiple Platforms

Now Broadband TV has unveiled what it hopes will be a compelling offer for Hong Kong pay-TV subscribers – a new Now Sports channel. Now Sports 1 launched on March 22 and included a PVR service allowing users to record matches they miss to watch later, programmable over internet or via a mobile phone. The channel is available in Cantonese and English, and is available across multiple distribution platforms: television, broadband internet, mobile phone and a new PCCW fixed-line service, which PCCW has yet to provide details of.

Centrepiece of the channel will be coverage of UK Premier League soccer starting from August, when PCCW has nabbed rights from rival pay-TV operator i-Cable Communications. That deal runs for three years. Other rights held by PCCW include Italian Serie A and Japanese J-League soccer but the operator is planning to build up a roster of other sports over time.

Now TV has also added Eurosport and Eurosportnews to its line-up. The operator already offers pan-Asian sports channels ESPN and Star Sports. The channels will form the Mega Sports Pack, priced at HK$218 (US$28) a month, although an early bird offer for those who sign up for 18 months before March 31 reduces that to HK$178 a month, with five months free. Now plans to launch another Now Sports channel at a later date. Source: Rapid TV News, 23rd March 2007

Hong Kong/Broadcaster: Eurosport Launches Broadcast Hub

Pan-European broadcaster Eurosport launched a state-of-the-art broadcasting facility at Cyberport in Hong Kong. The facility, which will serve as the regional hub for its Asia-Pacific channel, is the network's second master control room for the region in order to create optimum broadcasting flexibility between European and Pan-Asian time zones.

The fully digital broadcast infrastructure will link the control room with Eurosport's headquarters in Paris and was built by Hong Kong-based company Ideal Systems. The channel is transmitted via the Asiasat 3S satellite, which guarantees maximum reception across the entire region. Eurosport broadcasts more than 300 days of live programming per year in the Asia-Pacific region from sporting events around the world.

In Hong Kong, Eurosport has signed a distribution contract with NOW TV for the local Hong Kong market. The Eurosport Group entered Asia in 2002 with a grant of landing rights in China for Eurosportnews, the Group's twenty-four hour sports news channel. Eurosportnews is available across Asia, while subscription channel Eurosport is available in Australia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Source: Sport Business, 23rd March 2007

Indonesia/General: Indonesian Tennis Pleads Poverty as Expulsion Threat Looms

Indonesia’s tennis association is facing expulsion by the International Tennis Federation if it fails to pay a fine due early next month. The ITF fined Indonesia $29,100 after its women’s national team refused to play Israel in the Fed Cup, the top international women’s teams competition. However, Martina Widjaja, chair of the Indonesian tennis association, told the Jakarta Post that the fine, due by April 5, is ‘simply beyond the association’s capability.’

She said: ‘If we fail to pay the fine, we could be expelled from the ITF and no longer able to play in the Fed Cup, David Cup or other international and multi-sports events sanctioned by the ITF.’ Indonesia pulled out of the competition in protest at increased military action by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The country, which is the world’s most populous Muslim country, has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Source: Sportcal, 23rd March 2007

Asia/General: TNSSport Expands Its Soccerscope Service

Sports research company TNSSport has launched Asia Soccerscope, the first dedicated, syndicated football-tracking product in the continent. Asia Soccerscope will measure league popularity and the cut through of sponsorship in both domestic and international football competitions. Following on from the successful development of Euro Soccerscope, the service will cover five markets in the region including China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea.

Soccerscope tracks the attitudes of football followers to sponsors and their products, the media and key issues surrounding the sport. Asia Soccerscope will gather its data by carrying out online interviews with a cross-section of football fans across its markets in Asia each season.

Richard Ames, managing director of TNSSport said: “The Asian football market is buoyant. Domestic and international leagues are increasingly popular, particularly the English Premier League which has excellent reach across the region. This means that domestic football sponsors are getting exposure on an international scale. Asia Soccerscope will enable the popularity of football teams to be tracked in multiple regions. This will allow clients to analyse the impact of their sponsorship on a much wider scale.” Source: Sports Media, Sports e-Media, 23rd March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Spanish Soccer Sharing Must Be For All

Spain is expected to rule on March 23 that distribution of the country’s Premier League soccer coverage must be on a non-discriminatory basis, following the competition authority ordering that rights holder Sogecable must share the rights. Sogecable, Spain's leading pay-TV operator, must negotiate with its rivals over its current exclusive coverage of the competition.

At present Sogecable offers one pay-per-view (PPV) match a week through Canal+ as well as eight PPV matches on its Digital+ service. It is these PPV matches that have to be shared with its competitors. These conditions also extend to internet, mobile TV and other future markets, according to the Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia (TDC), the official organisation that supervises the Spanish market.

Meanwhile, Spain’s government has approved the proposed take-over by Sogecable of Audiovisual Sport, the company running the negotiations for the rights. The history of the deal extends back to when Sogecable's Canal Satélite Digital satellite operator bought its rival (Telefónica-backed) Vía Digital, which saw Spain’s media regulators impose conditions which expire this coming November. These new rulings will in effect guarantee access by all operators to the PPV soccer matches. Source: Rapid TV News, 23rd March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights/Business: Premier League Faces Calls for Equal TV Money Distribution

Pressure is growing from some smaller clubs in English soccer’s top-tier Premier League for a more equitable distribution of television rights revenues, following a new rights deal worth £2.7 billion ($5.3 billion) in total for the three years beginning with the 2007-08 season. The clubs, led by Charlton Athletic, want revenue distribution adjustment to the established in which 50% is split equally between the league’s 20 clubs, 25% distributed according to league position at the end of the season and 25% according to the number of television appearances that each club makes.

Eight clubs met in Manchester on Monday to discuss the issue with the rest due to talk today. Richard Murray, Charlton’s chairman, is reported to have written to all of the other clubs with proposals for spreading the money more evenly. It is feared that with the new deal, which will result in 60 per cent more television revenue for the clubs from next season, the gap between richer and poorer cubs will grow wider. At least 15 clubs would be required to vote for the proposals in order to change the league's present system.

This is despite arguments from the league that the differential between the top and bottom will be the smallest yet. The winners of next year’s title are forecast to earn £50 million in television revenues, compared with £30 million for the bottom club. The differential between top and bottom club at the end of the 2005-06 season was £13.6 million. Source: Sportcal, 21st March 2007

Elsewhere/Rights/Business: Clubs Share Five-Way Split

Television income in French domestic football is divided among clubs based on five criteria. Half of the revenue for Ligue 1 Orange clubs is divided evenly among all 20. Further 30% is distributed on the basis of their performance that season, 5% distributed on the basis of average performance in the five past seasons. Media exposure determines the remainder; 15% based on television appearances during the season and 5% on the average appearances in the five past seasons. In Ligue 2, 90% of the income is divided evenly among the 20 teams.

Accounts made public by the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LNP) for the 2005-06 season reveal that league champion Olympique Lyonnais led Ligue 1 Orange clubs in television revenue with €42,485,111 - of which €16,589,444 (39%) was based on its first-place finish, and €8,585,037 (20%) came from television appearances during the season.

The top three clubs in the standings were the only ones to receive more for their performance on the pitch than their equal shares (€11,520,446 for each club in the league). Olympique de Marseille (OM), the club with the most television appearances, but only sixth in the standings, received €33,211, 159 in total, of which € 7,416,864 (22%) came from television appearances during the 2005-06 season, and another €3,317,889 (10%) came from television exposure during the previous five seasons (OM was first). Source: Sports Media, 14th March 2007

Elsewhere/General: Rogge Defends Television Move

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has defended the decision to move the timing of gymnastics and swimming competitions during the Beijing Olympics in order to accommodate television broadcasters. He pointed out that the change being made for the 2008 Games is not the first time that times have been shifted for television. It also happened for athletics events at the Seoul Games in 1988.

“One cannot always ignore economic problems and refuse to change,” Rogge said in an interview in L’Equipe this week. “If it were not for television rights and marketing, there would not be aid for developing countries, there would not be 203 participating countries - no universality, none of the money that goes to the international federations nor the national Olympic committees, hence nothing for the athletes.”

In the same interview, the IOC president said that that the new schedule would not pose any risk for the health of the athletes. Indeed, instead of 32 hours of recovery time that the swimmers would have for finals held in the evening, they will have 40 hours with the morning finals. “More recovery time would seem to me to be a positive,” Rogge added. Source: Sports Media, 22nd March 2007