Thursday, 1st March 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Biaggi: MotoGP a "Waste of Time"

Superbike newcomer Max Biaggi has launched an amazing attack on motorcycling's blue riband championship, saying he wasted his time in MotoGP. The Italian won on his World SBK debut in Losail on Saturday, and said he wished he had comer to the series sooner. "I'm so happy to be in WSB, I really am. I should have discovered this championship a lot earlier - I think maybe three years earlier would have been good," he told MCN.

"It's difficult because when I was in MotoGP I believed in things that never happened. I think after being with Yamaha for so long I should have come to WSB then, instead of staying in MotoGP wasting my time." Biaggi is a former 250cc world champion and long-time rival of Valentino Rossi, but never won a title in the MotoGP class. The 35-year-old made a remarkable start to his superbike career, guiding his Alstare Suzuki to victory in race one in Qatar, then taking second place in race two. Source: Eurosport News, Related Review on Motorcycle USA, 28th February 2007

Blatter Keeps 2018 World Cup Bidders Guessing over Rotation

The World Cup could be staged in either North America or Asia in 2018, potentially ending England's hopes of hosting the tournament. Sepp Blatter, the president of world governing body Fifa, said that the federation's executive committee could decide to prolong a continental rotation policy presently in place, when it meets in December.

With Asia having hosted the 2002 tournament (in Japan and Korea) and the 2006 event having taken place in Europe (Germany), South Africa will host it in 2010 and a South American country (probably Brazil) will host it in 2014. This would mean that North America would be in line to host it in 2018 or, if the Americas are counted as one continent, it would move back to Asia again.

However, he added that bidding for the competition could be opened to all bidders, saying: 'It may be that the majority of the Fifa executive committee, where you have eight European representatives out of 24, can find the 13 votes needed.' England will be competing with USA to stage the event, after the US Soccer Federation last week unanimously gave its approval for a US bid. Australia and China could also bid to host the competition. Source: Sportcal, 28th February 2007

Other Headlines:
On Bloomberg: China May Fight England, U.S. to Host 2018 World Cup
On The Toronto Star, FIFA hints at 2018 World Cup in N. America
The Associated Press on the Int. Herald Tribune: Americans look to stage 2018 World Cup
On Pan-Asian Biz: World Cup 2018 - China vs. USA


WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Things to Know - ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in Caribbean

* Made of silver and gild, the Cricket World Cup trophy has a golden base and top as shape of globe, which is connected to the base through three stumps like support. The logic behind three stumps is to represent three aspects of a cricket match - batting, bowling & fielding. The same Cricket World Cup trophy has been won by winners since 1999, which means the Australians have never let anyone else have a closer look at this latest and only stable Cricket WC prize. All the previous WCs before till 1999 had different trophies.

* Cricket World Cup is easily in top three most viewed sporting events on Earth. 2003 WC in South Africa fetched almost $66M for a 40 day event, with 48% coming from television rights. 2007 Cricket World Cup in West Indies will easily double that amount, if not triple it. Not only that, Internet broadcasting deals, radios, cell phones updates and various programs have been planned to cover Caribbean tournament in every possible sense.

* Rivalries to watch between three teams; India vs Pakistan, Australia vs New Zealand and Kenya vs South Africans. Not many countries play cricket, which reflects on not many arch rivals playing each other and presenting the battle of them all. That said - South Africans are always competitive against Aussies whereas we Indians hate losing to anyone.

* 16 teams will participate. 8 major, 1 famous but rising, 2 known but struggling and then 5 minnows. In names - India, Australia, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa and hosts West Indies in the major group, Bangladesh in second group, Kenya and Zimbabwe in third where as newcomers Ireland, Canada, Scotland, Netherlands and Bermuda in last group. ICC has does a wonderful job by making a World Cup format where these new cricketing teams will get a fight with majors, but ultimately - only the big ones will fight out for the Cup from the Super 8's round.

* Australia has won last two cricket World Cups, 1999 at England and 2003 in South Africa. The only team to have won the cup 3 times (having won it in 1987 too). They have been dominating world cricket for almost a decade now, but lately their form has slipped since winning the Ashes 2007 but the Aussies still deserve a place in the semi-finals. Having won their last 11 World Cup matches and winning the last ICC CWC in 2003 without losing any match, they are certainly in a strong position.

* The winner of Cricket World Cup will receive a prize of USD $2.24 million. The runners-up will get $1 million while the two losing semi-finalists will get $450,000. The World Cup teams at 5th, 6th , 7th and 8th positions will earn a check of $200,000, $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000 respectively whereas the winner of a match in group stage will get $10,000.


INFO BOX

The Verifiable Truth Behind the Most Watched TV Sports of 2006
Sport/Event/Claim/Verifiable*
* Football, Italy v France World Cup final, 715.1m/260m
* American Football, Super Bowl Steelers v Seahawks, 750m-1bn/98m
* Winter Olympics, Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony, 2bn/87m
* Football, Champions League Arsenal v Barçelona, 120m/86m
* Formula One, Brazilian Grand Prix, 354m/83m
* NASCAR, Daytona 500, na/20m
* Baseball, World Series Game Five, na/19m
* Golf, US Masters (final day), na/17m
* Tennis, Wimbledon Men's Singles Final, na/17m
* Basketball, NBA Finals Game Six, up to 1bn/17m
* Cycling, Tour de France (final stage), na/15m
* Golf, US Open (final day), na/10m
* Golf, Ryder Cup (final day), up to 1bn/6m
* Commonwealth Games, Melbourne Opening Ceremony, 1.5bn/5m
* Cricket, ICC Champions Trophy final, na/3m
Source: The Independent UK, 1st March 2007

Tennis’ Most Impressive Achievements
*Andre Agassi: is the only singles player to have achieved a Career Golden Grand Slam (won all four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic gold medal in his career )
* Steffi Graf: Mrs Agassi is the only player ever to achieve a Calendar Year Golden Slam in 1988 when she won all four Grand Slam events and the Olympic Gold medal. She was ranked #1 a total 377 (non-consecutive) weeks, including a reign of 186 consecutive weeks (August 17, 1987- March 10, 1991) - more than any man or woman.
* Martina Navrátilová: has won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at all four Grand Slam events in her career, the most recent being her swan song mixed doubles at the U.S Open 2006 with Bob Bryan.
* Roger Federer: is the only player in the Open Era to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in three consecutive years. He has 22 consecutive final wins (the previous record was a distant 14) and has been in 7 consecutive Grand Slam finals (and counting).
* Ivan Lendl: reached the finals of the U.S. Open for eight consecutive years, reached 19 career Grand Slam singles finals and 9 consecutive year-end championship finals.
* Jimmy Connors: reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open for 12 consecutive years, has 109 career titles and had a top 5 ranking for 13 straight years or so. He was on the ATP computer ranking for 24 years.
* Chris Evert: won 125 straight matches on clay before losing once. She went on to win another 72 more before losing again. She won the 1976 U.S. Open losing just 12 games the entire tournament.
* Rod Laver: achieved two 2 Calendar Grand Slams in his career
Source: Various contributions on Talk Tennis Forum


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Indian government has cleared the return tomorrow of Sony's action channel AXN, which was banned on 17th January after showing "obscene programmes". The information and broadcasting ministry declared today that effective 1 March, it was lifting the ban order it had issued against AXN. The decision follows an apology tendered by the channel as well as a commitment to put in place system of self-regulation to ensure that programmes and advertisements "do not create further problems in the future." Source: Indian Television, Exchange4Media, 28th February 2007

* Neo Sports is also reportedly in the sights of Sony Entertainment Television, which is reported to have offered Rs 3.15 billion (US$71 million) for 26% of the channel. Sony last year bid to acquire Ten Sports, but lost out to the Zee Group. The company will reportedly use funds earmarked for that acquisition to purchase the stake in Neo Sports, if it gets approval from Nimbus’ board. Source: Rapid TV News, Variety, 1st March 2007

* Vietnamese Pool player Luong Chi Dung has ranked in the top ten in Asia for the first time. The Sports Daily newspaper reported, Chi Dung, after a successful year in 2006, reaching the quarters-finals of the 2006 9-ball Pool World Championship, ranked ninth in the Asian standings. Chi Dung, with 845 points, was the first Vietnamese 9-ball pool player to have ranked among the top ten players in Asia. Another Vietnamese player Nguyen Thanh Nam is 15th in the standing with a total of 562 points. Source: Nhan Dan Vietnam, 28th February 2007

* Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. said it will continue tie-up talks with major shareholder, Rakuten Inc. Rakuten and TBS have made little headway since they began tie-up talks in November 2005. TBS has been cool to Rakuten's business integration proposal, insisting that the online shopping mall operator should relinquish most of its 19% stake in TBS before substantive discussions start. Source: Total Content + Media, 28th February 2007

* The Singapore Government announced the close of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the Singapore Sports Hub project. Proposals were delivered to the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) by three consortiums; Alpine Mayreder Consortium, Singapore Sports Hub Consortium and Singapore Gold Consortium. The evaluation of the proposals will begin in March, with the successful consortium expected to be announced by the middle of this year. Source: Sports e-Media, 28th February 2007

* The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics did a deal with ABC Television for $225 million for TV rights. This was the largest television deal at the time. The LA Olympics tied up with Coca-Cola as a sponsor in a deal that was worth $12 million compared to the entire receipts of the [1976] Montreal Olympics from sponsorships totaled $6 million. Source: Q&A with Barry Sanders on Sports Observed, 28th February 2007

* In the USA, the NCAA signed a $6 billion, 11-year deal with CBS for the men's NCAA basketball tournament rights in 2003. The same year, the NCAA signed a $200 million, 11-year deal with ESPN for the rights to 20 NCAA championships, which included women's basketball and other non-revenue sports. Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 28th February 2007

* Canada’s CBC will pay a price for NHL rights. The league is certain to ask for a figure in the $100-million-a-year range, well up from the current $65-million. The hike is unavoidable because the CBC is currently earning a profit of about $30-million annually from hockey. Insiders believe that CBC is prepared to fork out the money, but argues that a 35% increase for a package that will have fewer Canadian Maple Leafs games, will produce less revenue. Source: The Globe & Mail, 27th February 2007

* BBC Worldwide has retained international distribution rights for all horse racing from the Ascot course. BBCWW renewed its deal to distribute Royal Ascot (event in June), the King George Weekend (July) - including the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes – and the Mile Championships (September). In 2006, racing from Ascot was licensed to 33 markets, including India, Japan, the Middle East and the USA, and reached millions of viewers through worldwide news access. Source: Sports Media, Sportcal, 28th February 2007

* Sports Marketing Surveys will undertake a comprehensive research programme for the 2007 Formula One season. Using the latest image recognition system, Magellan, the programme will allow sponsors and teams to obtain the most accurate valuation of their exposure through Sports Marketing Surveys' methodology in over 140 markets. SMS's consumer research programme, through its online panel, allows clients to determine awareness, purchasing behaviour and profile of F1 followers across the world. Source: Sports Media, 28th February 2007

* Over 588 million unique viewers watched coverage of the Formula One season in 2006, according to data from Formula One Management. Coverage of the 18-race series was available in 185 territories. The F1 season generated 144 hours of programming. Worldwide, this carried into 10,600 hours of stand-alone F1 broadcast coverage. More than 40% (4,555 hours) of that was live, with over 2,500 hours dedicated to live race coverage. Source: Sports Media, 28th February 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Broadcast: Government Set Encryption Mandates for DD Signals

The government will set mandates for encryption of Doordarshan’s terrestrial signals of the forthcoming ICC World Cup. This has been decided in a bid to address the concerns of private broadcasters who feel that sharing live sporting events with DD leads to piracy. The Union Cabinet set up the technical sub-group in DD to look into the matter had proposed that DD signals be encrypted so that it only feeds the content to DD’s terrestrial transmitting centres.

The Sports Broadcasting Ordinance was recently passed by the Union Cabinet making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live and clean feed with Prasar Bharati for sporting events of national importance. Encryption of DD’s signal is in line with global practices where terrestrial networks use a closed system for feed transportation. If the proposal is implemented, DD will have to bear the technical costs of encrypting signals for 1,400 terrestrial transmitters, besides decoding 70,000 cable network routers to stop pilferage of live feed by neighbouring territories.

Private broadcasters such as ESPN Star, Nimbus and Zee, who, among themselves own close to 95 per cent of all Indian cricket telecast rights, had earlier demanded that DD signals be encrypted on the ground that the satellites used by DD had significant signal dispersion into many neighbouring countries, including the Middle East and Singapore. They felt that since DD had not upgraded its technology, the signals sent through terrestrial transmitters without any encryption could be pirated and used by broadcasters abroad.

With regard to DD’s direct-to-home platform, the source in the sub-group has said that DTH was aimed to complement the terrestrial network and has recommended that it continue to be free-to-air. However, to address the issue of the rights of sports broadcasting signals, the sporting event may be carried as deferred live, he said. Source: Exchange4Media, 1st March 2007

Elsewhere/New Media: Celtic Announce Broadband Video Deal

Servecast announced that they have signed a new deal with Scottish Premier league Club, Celtic for advanced video streaming services until the end of the 2008/2009 season. Servecast will provide all streaming services for Celtic ‘s broadband video subscription service, Channel 67 Online+ delivering on-demand, live content and simulated live channels over the Celtic website.

Service offered is a mixture of delayed and live coverage of games as well as premium video content that will be available exclusively online in the form of 24/7 channels. Content includes interview clips, match highlights and live video broadcasts of all Celtic league and domestic cup games outside of the UK and Ireland using Servecast’s geo-blocking system. Live audio commentary of all games will be available to Channel 67 Online subscribers regardless of their location. Source: EUFootball.biz, 28th February 2007

Elsewhere/General: US Women's Soccer League Set to Rise from the Ashes

Preparations are being made for the launch of a new women’s professional soccer league in the USA in 2008. The competition will be the successor of the Women’s United Soccer Association, which folded in 2003, and the organisers claim that financial lessons have been learned.

Tonya Antonucci, the chief executive of the Women’s Soccer Initiative, said: ‘We knew we would get one chance at this relaunch. We spent a lot of time studying and researching. We knew we had to cut costs to get those in line with actual revenues.’ Teams based in Los Angeles, Dallas, St Louis, Chicago and Washington will be joined by a sixth team, the location of which is yet to be announced, when the league starts in April 2008.

Backers of the six teams have signed letters of intent to launch the new venture and confirmed that they have the necessary financial backing. It has been estimated that the running costs for each team will come to between $1.5 million and $2.5 million per season. The new league is in negotiations with the marketing division of Major League Soccer, the top US men’s soccer league, to handle its sponsorship and marketing activities.

The Anschutz Entertainment Group, the operators of MLS’ Los Angeles Galaxy, will own the women’s team that will be based at the Home Depot Center. The Chicago franchise has agreed to share the Bridgeview Stadium with the Chicago Fire men’s team, while the owners of the Dallas and Washington women’s teams are in discussion with their MLS counterparts.

The organisers of the new league hope to capitalise on the anticipated heightened interest in women’s soccer following this year’s World Cup in China. The league will comprise a 20-match schedule, including playoffs and an All-Star game, and run from April to August each year. Source: Sportcal, 28th February 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Why Fifa's Claim of 1 Billion TV Viewers was a Quarter Right

The myth that the World Cup final attracts a global television audience of more than a billion people has been debunked by an Independent investigation into TV viewing figures that shows that true audiences are between a quarter and a third of that size. This prompted Fifa to admit yesterday that numbers up to now have been massively exaggerated in some cases, and simply guessed in others.

Fifa has promised to use only verifiable data in future. The revelation about exaggerated figures not only raises questions about Fifa's methods for attracting multimillion pound sponsorship deals - including six major, long-term commercial partners, secured before the 2006 World Cup - but also about its tactics in marketing TV rights.

The company ultimately responsible for compiling World Cup TV data is Infront Sports and Media, whose chief executive is Philippe Blatter, nephew of Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter. Infront also handles the global sales of World Cup TV rights. It is not known whether any sponsors have complained to Fifa about exaggerated audience claims. The Independent contacted five of them - adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates Airline, Hyundai and Sony - and they either failed to respond or said: "No comment."

According to Fifa's overblown figures, the World Cup finals of 1998, 2002 and 2006 respectively attracted global audiences of 1.3 billion, 1.1 billion and 715.1 million people. It is understood the claimed figure for last year's showpiece between Italy and France is relatively low only because Sponsorship Intelligence, the respected London-based firm that collated the numbers for Infront, had already urged Fifa to be more realistic in the way data was compiled.

In fact, the 715.1 million still includes a large element of guesswork, including for most of Africa. It also used unreliable "diary data" (which overstates numbers) in some major Asian countries. The figure, concedes Fifa, also includes "a huge number of repeats, highlights and delayed showings", as well as an estimated 100 million-plus people watching "out of home".

So how many people actually watch the World Cup final live, from start to finish? According to Initiative Sports Futures, independent analysts with no ties to Fifa, the figure for the 2006 final was 260 million in the 54 key markets it surveyed, accounting for 90 per cent of the world's TV households. ISF sources figures only from markets where data is collated electronically by reputable monitors, such as Barb in the UK.

The most glaring example of past audience exaggeration was in China during the 1998 World Cup. Audited figures were taken from one small area in Shanghai and extrapolated to the whole country to claim 10.8 billion "views" for the tournament. This was at least 8 billion more than the reality.

On 28 June last year, on day 20 of the 2006 finals, Infront was claiming the "cumulative total" for the German event would be more than 30 billion people for 64 matches (or 469 million per match). SI's figures subsequently said it was 26.2 billion, and this included all replays and out-of-home figures, audited, guessed or otherwise.

The irony is that the World Cup, by any measurement, is streets ahead of any other sporting event in popularity. Nor, as our accompanying table (see above) shows, has Fifa been unique in making claims about TV data that verifiable figures show to be laughable. Source: Nick Harris reports in The Independent UK, 1st March 2007