Thursday, 19th July 2007

HEADLINE NEWS

More News: Liverpool Appoints New Commercial Director

Liverpool, of English soccer's top-tier Premier League, have appointed Ian Ayre as their commercial director. It is a new position and will see Ayre manage and direct commercial activity. He will join on August 16 and report directly to chief executive Rick Parry. Ayre will be tasked with growing sponsorship and merchandising revenues, starting with the selection of sponsors around the club's move to a proposed new stadium in 2010. As the former chief operating officer of Total Sports Asia, the sports marketing firm, Ayre will also lead the development of the 'LFC' brand in Asia. Source: Sportcal, 18th Jul 2007

Liverpool chairman Tom Hicks today hailed the ‘heaven sent’ appointment of the club’s new commercial director Ian Ayre. Hicks said Litherland born and bred Ayre - a Liverpool fan who once scored a half-time prize penalty in front of the Kop in 1975 during Chris Lawler’s testimonial – stood out after a determined international search for the right man to raidly develop the Reds’ huge commercial and marketing potential around the world. Ayre, 44, headhunted by Liverpool in a painstaking global search following the Americans' takeover in February, will assume a high profile and important new board role at Anfield, reporting to Reds' chief executive Rick Parry. Source: IC Liverpool, 18th Jul 2007

Liverpool’s new commercial director Ian Ayre today spoke of the challenges ahead as he prepared to return from Asia for a ‘dream job’ at his hometown club next month. Ayre, 44, a lifelong Reds fan, was yesterday announced as Anfield’s newest summer signing. Said Ayre from his current base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: “I knew there was definite interest from Liverpool and the club is very dear to my heart. But it was only when I met Tom Hicks and George Gillett that I really understood the scale of the opportunity. I met George in London and Tom in New York and they are great guys. I was overwhelmed by how easy they were to deal with. Usually you might find people at that level a little aloof but that was not the case at all with them.” Source: IC Liverpool, 18th Jul 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Copa America champion, Brazil, has returned to the top of the FIFA rankings of soccer teams. Brazil jumped from third in the wake of its Copa America championship. The Brazilians defeated Argentina 3-0 in the tournament finals Sunday. That strong runner-up showing allowed the Argentines to move to second from fifth in the July rankings. The FIFA soccer rankings are determined through an accumulation of points over a four-year period with the importance of matches and the strength of opponents weighed in and recent matches are weighted heavier. Source: Earth Times, 18th Jul 2007

* South Korean telco KT has signed a deal with internet content service operator, NHN, to develop KT’s new IPTV service, Mega TV. NHN will provide a wide range of services through the TV platform, including a TV search service and information search. NHN owns Korean portal and search engine Naver. Officially launched two weeks ago, Mega TV offers 1,200 on-demand titles including soaps, movies, and educational programmes from Korea and abroad, and user-generated content and interactive services like instant messaging, finance and sports information. It broadcasts in standard and high-definition. Source: Rapid TV News, 18th Jul 2007

* China Mobile plans to bid for the mobile TV rights of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The group is currently deliberating how best to make their bid. “We are not sure currently whether to bid for the Olympics solely, or to cooperate with other companies,” said Zhou Yi, China Mobiles general manager. China Mobile has gained permission to show advertisements on its wireless application protocol (WAP) network from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The 2008 Olympics will be broadcast on new media such as internet and mobile TV, as well as traditional TV channels. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 18th Jul 2007

* Broadcast Mobile TV will reach revenues of $11.7 billion worldwide by 2011, with Japan predicted to lead the market with revenues reaching $2.9 billion and the US will follow closely at $1.8 billion, says Juniper Reseach. The UK is also predicted to be a key market at $989m. Japan is initially offering a free service on its ISDB-T ‘One Seg’ network, Juniper Research predicts that it will start charging for the service in 2008. Japan, US and UK markets are prime breeding grounds for mobile television viewing mainly because of the large appetite for TV viewing. Source: Content Futures, 18th Jul 2007

* The Breeders’ Cup world Championships will be streamed live over internet on their website for the first time this year. The 11 races on October 26 and 27 2007 will be shown on breederscup.com simultaneous with live broadcast on ESPN. Last year, ESPN aired a live feed on espn360.com, a broadband service available on mobile services. Running live streaming simultaneously with live TV coverage is rare due to reliance on ad revenue to regain TV rights fees. However Breeder’s Cup and ESPN’s eight-year agreement is revenue sharing, rather than a strict typical rights contract. Source: Sport Business, 18th Jul 2007

* British Telecom’s new online sports channel has launched. BT’s service is comprehensive, offering 242 Premier League matches per season, plus up to 125 Coca Cola League and Carling League games but only 46 matches of the all-important Premiership games are live on Setanta Sports. The Setanta live action is likely to offer the greatest appeal, given that it includes 46 Premier League matches from England and 60 from Scotland, as well as action from other European soccer leagues, US PGA tour gold, Nascar auto racing from the USA and Magners League rugby. Source: Rapid TV News, Reuters, 18th Jul 2007

* 19 Entertainment and Major League Soccer’s Soccer United Marketing have teamed to produce David Beckham’s Soccer USA, a 30-min show that will air in the United States and around the world. Hosted by U.K. television personality, Natalie Pinkham, the show will follow Beckham in his first season with Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy. It will feature game highlights as well as behind the scenes footage and interviews with Beckham. This is the second major behind-the-scenes TV project to focus on the Beckhams after NBC earlier aired Victoria Beckham: Coming to America. Source: Broadcasting & Cable, 18th Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

Asia/General: Manchester United Defend Asian Tour

Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, English soccer’s Premier League champions, has defended the club’s controversial tour of Asia. The tour, which takes in matches in Japan, South Korea and China, has courted controversy because it clashes with the Asian Cup, the continent’s top national teams competition. Ferguson rejected claims that his club were only interested in the tour because of the financial benefits.

Les Murray, the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Sports Group, last month launched an outspoken attack on European clubs’ attitudes to the Asian market. He told the ABU Sports Conference: ‘Manchester United, and other elite European football clubs like it, make massive amounts of money out of Asia, selling their tee-shirts and occasionally making appearances, charging fat match fees in return for turning up, usually without their best players, to go through the motions, usually at the pace of holiday makers on a picnic. ‘This is how European football repays, and reinvests in, the massive Asian markets it milks.’

Manchester United opened their tour yesterday with a 2-2 draw against Japanese champions Urawa Red Diamonds in front of 60,000 fans in Saitama. The Asian Cup, which is being jointly hosted by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, started on July 7 and runs until July 29. Source: Sportcal, 18th Jul 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Premiere Regains Bundesliga Rights After Regulator Intervenes

German pay-television broadcaster, Premiere, has won back the live rights to the German Bundesliga until 2009 after a sublicensing deal with rivals Arena was approved by the cartel office. The market regulator has given Arena the green light to sublicense its live rights for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons to Premiere, the previous rights holder, after the two broadcasters amended their original deal in the face of competition concerns.

Premiere will pay Arena a reported €300 million ($413.7 million) for the rights in the next two seasons. Arena initially agreed to pay €240 million-a-year for the rights for three seasons, beginning with the 2006-07 campaign. As part of the new deal, Arena will be allowed to broadcast Premiere’s Bundesliga coverage via cable and satellite for the next two seasons, a near role reversal of the deal that was presented for the scrutiny of the cartel office.

A statement from the cartel office said that the original Arena-Premiere agreement ‘contained a number of other points that would have led to an end to competition in terms of price and quality.’ Ahead of the verdict, it was reported that, if the two broadcasters had not been allowed to work together, Arena would have been forced into giving the broadcast rights back to Premiere due to a shortage of funds. Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV News, 18th Jul 2007