Friday, 29th June 2007

SPORTS SHORTS

* The 2007 NBA Draft will be televised in 115 countries in 18 languages. Chinese Basketball Association star Yi Jianlian, of the Guangdong Southern Tigers, is among many international players eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft and CCTV, China’s national TV station, will be on-site to produce a live programme featuring Yi. This marks the first time CCTV, a 20-year NBA TV partner, will produce a live programme on-site at the Draft. Guangdong TV will be televising the Draft for the first time. Source: Sport Business, 27th Jun 2007

* ESPN Star Sports acquired the mobile rights for Wimbledon in India. The Mobile ESPN service will provide the official video clips, match score updates, player specific contents, wallpapers and the official Wimbledon ringtone "Purple & Green". The video clips will contain a daily dose of the Day's Highlights (2007 Championship preview, Daily Preview, Individual Match highlights, Player interviews and Daily Round Up) and also archive clips of the Golden moments and the 2006 championships roundup. Source: Sport Business, 27th Jun 2007

* Manchester Utd is in talks with marketing groups WPP, Publicis, Omnicom and McCann Worldgroup to drive the club's digital fan base from 4 million online users to 50 million within three years. MU Group Commercial Director, Lee Daley, said that the right partner "has to have global reach and there has to be core strength in Asia." The club is set to complete research into its global audience that will likely show a fan base which had grown from 75 million in 2003 to around 90 million due to the increased penetration of the Premier League on TV around the globe. The figures are likely to show that the MU fan base in China "has probably doubled" in the last four years. Source: Asian Football Business, 28th Jun 2007

* The Rugby League International Federation appointed IMG Media as exclusive sales agents for international TV rights to the Rugby League World Cup 2008. IMG Media will distribute international rights to all 18 matches of the tournament taking place in Australia from 25 Oct to 22 Nov 2008. The deal includes all broadcast rights with live coverage of each game available. IMG’s sports production arm, TWI, will provide daily and overall highlights of the matches, as well as produce and distribute a new media package. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 27th Jun 2007

* Tien, the Dutch commercial broadcaster previously known as Talpa TV, has been sold to media giant, RTL Group. The RTL Group and Talpa Media Holding, the group owned by media tycoon John de Mol, have confirmed a deal that sees RTL take over Tien’s sports rights, including highlights of the Eredivisie, the country’s top-tier soccer league. Talpa TV launched in August 2005 after acquiring the Eredivisie highlights rights for €40 million ($53.6 million) a year until the end of the 2007-08 season, and was renamed Tien at the end of last year. Source: Sport Business, 28th Jun 2007

* Canadian internet TV carrier, JumpTV, has agreed a deal with Telelatino for internet broadcasting rights in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Over 100 matches will be streamed on www.jumptv.com as part of the deal, although the agreement is subject to the approval by Fifa. JumpTV will have similar rights to all Fifa-sanctioned championships until 2014 as part of the agreement, starting with the under-17 World Cup in August. Games will be streamed free of charge and revenue is expected to be generated through advertising. Source: Sportcal, 27th Jun 2007

* The FIH, field hockey’s world governing body, has agreed a new three-year deal with digital television channel Sport1 to broadcast its events in the Netherlands. The six-figure agreement is co-exclusive with Dutch state broadcaster NOS. The deal will see Sport1 broadcast live all matches from Champions Trophies and World Cups, and selected matches from the men's BDO Champions Challenge. The FIH distributes its world-level events on a country-by-country basis in Europe. Source: Sportcal, 27th Jun 2007

* Secondsout.com signed an exclusive deal to screen Vladimir Klitschko’s IBF/IBO world heavyweight title defence against Lamon Brewster on July 7. It will broadcast the fight live. The fight will not be shown by any UK broadcaster. This is the second Klitschko defence to be screened exclusively live in the UK by Secondsout.com. It will further screen at least 35 live events a year from around the world this year. The service is complimented by weekly news programmes, documentaries, interviews and a massive and growing archive of boxing action. Source: Sport Business, 27th Jun 2007

* EM.TV, the German media company that once owned a share in Formula One, is set to change its name to EM.Sport Media. The media firm built its business on children’s TV programming, but intends to sell its kids entertainment assets in order to focus on its more profitable sports business. In addition to changing its name, the company will transfer its headquarters to Ismaning, where DSF, PLAZAMEDIA and Sport1 are headquartered. Source: Sports Business, Sportcal, Worldscreen, 28th Jun 2007

* The directors of Birmingham City have agreed to sell a 29.9% stake to Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung for £14.7 million ($29.4 million). The agreement makes Yeung the largest individual shareholder, but he does not yet have control of the newly-promoted club. Meanwhile, Thaksin Shinawatra has increased his shareholding in Manchester City to almost 66% after acquiring a further 9.9% stake believed to belong to British Sky Broadcasting. Thaksin's £81.6-million takeover offer has already been approved by the City board. Source: Sportcal, 28th Jun 2007


MORE NEWS

Thailand/Rights: Euro 2008 Broadcasting Rights Sold

RS International Broadcasting and Sport Management, Thailand’s newly-formed broadcasting group, has won the rights to all matches at soccer’s 2008 European Championships. The acquisition of rights for the 31 games at the tournament follows the company’s purchase of rights across all platforms for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups at the end of last year. It has yet to be announced which Thai broadcasters will show matches at Euro 2008.

RS International Broadcasting and Sports Management was formed in 2006 as a joint venture between RS plc, the country’s second-largest entertainment group, and International Broadcasting and Sports Management. It has been claimed that RS could generate around 700 million baht ($22.1 million) over the next year as a result of the deal.

Following last November's deal, RS holds the rights to all of Fifa’s international soccer competitions until 2014, including the forthcoming Under-20 World Cup in Canada, the Women’s World Cup and the Beach Soccer World Cup. RS has sublicensed the rights for the Under-20 World Cup to national broadcasters Channel 9 and Channel 11. Source: Sportcal, 28th Jun 2007

Thailand/New Media: Celestial Pictures Launches Mobile TV Channel in Thailand

Celestial Pictures has launched Kung Fu TV, a mobile TV channel featuring original kung fu content from its library of Shaw Brothers films, in Thailand on the mobile network provider Advanced Info Service (AIS). Updated weekly, Kung Fu TV’s programming will consist of bite-size content segments between 30 seconds to three minutes. Content will include video clips of fight sequences, music videos, action movie trailers, animated wallpapers and video ringtones. The company also has plans to roll out the channel in Malaysia and other territories in the near future.

Celestial’s Shaw Brothers film library consists of 760 films produced from the 1950s to the 1990s. The company is restoring the films and distributing them into cinemas, home video, television, and new media platforms worldwide. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Celestial Pictures is a subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks. It is focused on Asian-language film and television content including production, aggregation, distribution and the operation of TV channels. Source: Worldscreen, 28th Jun 2007

Asia/General: No Prize Money if Australia Wins Asian Cup

Australia will "pay to play" in next month's AFC Asian Cup 2007 as the Asian Football Confederation does not compensate any of the 16 finalists and the tournament offers no prize money. But Australia can make up for the lack of Asian Cup finances by winning the tournament which will qualify them for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 in South Africa. The latter tournament should see the Socceroos earn at least $1.5 million in appearance money plus ongoing bonuses of around $500,000 for each win.

"Asia's empty pockets are a stark contrast to the rich UEFA European confederation. UEFA handed out nearly $28 million to Greece for winning EURO 2004 while other nations were guaranteed $7.6 million just for qualifying plus a $950,000 bonus for each Group stage win". The FFA is expected to fork out an estimated $500,000 for each Asian Cup clash with Socceroos wages apparently accounting for most of incurred costs. Socceroos are reported to be on at least $5000 a match at the Asian Cup plus payments from player-generated revenue. Source: Asian Football Business Blog, 27th Jun 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: New Media Rights Boost Value of NBA Television Deals

US television networks have acquired additional new media rights as part of lucrative new eight-year broadcasting deals covering games in basketball's most popular league, the National Basketball Association. The contracts come into effect next year and are expected to bring in $7.4 billion, equivalent to $930 million a season. The present six-year agreements with national network ABC and cable broadcasters ESPN and TNT, worth a total of $4.6 billion, or $766 million a year, were due to expire at the end of the 2007-08 season.

Sports channels ESPN and ESPN2 will continue to televise up to 75 regular season games, mainly on Wednesday and Friday nights, and up to 29 playoff games, including one conference final, until 2016. ESPN has also secured the rights to provide live and other content on the internet and mobile phones via platforms such as ESPN.com, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. It also receives an enhanced package of international broadcasting rights.

ABC/ESPN has been paying $400 million per season for NBA rights, while TNT has contributed $366 million, but falling ratings have not diminished their appetite for basketball and the addition of internet and mobile rights have made them all the more valuable. ABC posted an average rating of 6.2 and audience share of 11% for its coverage of the recent NBA finals, in which the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0. Source: Sportcal, 28th Jun 2007

Elsewhere/General: Valcke Completes Rehabilitation with Fifa Reappointment

Jérôme Valcke, the former head of Fifa Marketing and TV who was one of four top officials ‘dismissed’ by Fifa in December last year for their part in a controversial sponsorship deal with Visa, was today reappointed as general secretary of soccer’s world governing body, replacing the departing Urs Linsi.

The appointment, which had been expected since it emerged that Valcke had been working with Fifa president Sepp Blatter on a restructuring of the organisation, comes despite Fifa having been forced last week to pay $90 million to settle a legal case with Mastercard, nearly half the value of the sponsorship deal it agreed with Visa.

Fifa today told Sportcal.com: 'As explained by the Fifa president at today's media conference, Jérôme Valcke has been completely vindicated by the decision of the appeals court in New York which vacated the decision by Judge Preska and ordered it to be reviewed.

'What is more, he has an excellent track record in terms of work and success in his tenure as director of Fifa Marketing and TV. Also it was the trademark dispute over the use of the twin globes which MasterCard claimed breached copyright of their own logo that prompted Fifa to court Visa as a rival credit card sponsor.' The trademark dispute was also ended as part of the out-of-court settlement with MasterCard.

Valcke today told Reuters: ‘I don’t want to comment on the last few months when I was completely out on my own. Now I just want to look ahead and build on the excellent relationship I have with Mr Blatter. With the appointment, Valcke becomes number two in the organisation behind only Blatter, who himself served as general secretary for 17 years under his predecessor Joao Havelange. Source: Sportcal, Sport Business, 27th Jun 2007

Sepp Blatter has taken full responsibility for the outcome of a protracted dispute with credit card company MasterCard in which Fifa has agreed to pay off its former sponsor in order to sign a deal with rival Visa. Blatter confirmed yesterday that Fifa had finalised an eight-year partnership with Visa, which gives the firm rights to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2014 event, likely to be awarded to Brazil. The deal is worth $170 million, $10 million less than the company had originally bid, and brings to an end a saga in which Fifa was accused of lying to both companies in negotiations and ultimately agreed to pay $90 million to extricate itself from the relationship with MasterCard, a sponsor of the last four World Cups. Source: Sportcal, 28th Jun 2007