Tuesday, 31st July 2007

RESULTS

Source: DTM Official, 29th Jul 2007
A heart-stopping final in front of 74,500 spectators in the seventh DTM race of the season at Zandvoort in The Netherlands. After exciting duels between the two Audi drivers Alexandre Prémat with his year-old car and Martin Tomczyk, Prémat looked on course for victory. But only a few yards before crossing the finish line, his German fellow Audi driver Tomczyk still found a way past the 25-year old and thus claimed his first DTM victory of the season. “I dedicate this win to my late grandfather”, Tomczyk said, moved by the second victory of his DTM career.


THIS WEEK

Sun, 6th Aug 2007
AVP Crocs Tour 2007: Final Day – Chicago Open
Superbikes 2007: Race Day – Brands Hatch, UK


INFO BOX

Previous Asian Cup Hosts
Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

1956 Hong Kong
1960 South Korea
1964 Israel
1968 Iran
1972 Thailand
1976 Iran
1980 Kuwait
1984 Singapore
1988 Qatar
1992 Japan
1996 United Arab Emirates
2000 Lebanon
2004 China
2007 Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam


SPORTS SHORTS

* Kerry Stokes's Seven Network Ltd. lost a lawsuit alleging Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and others colluded to win TV rights for the Australian Football League, forcing the closure of his C7 sports channel. Seven alleged that News and 21 others including the AFL and the NRL colluded to outbid C7 for the Australian Football League broadcast rights in 2000, effectively killing of Seven’s pay-TV operation C& that was launched in 1999. But the Australian federal court ruled that the Seven failed to prove collusion which destroyed C7 and prevented it from accessing the Foxtel subscription-television network. Stokes had been seeking about A$500 million in damages, but may now be liable for costs. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, Worldscreen, Bloomberg, 27th Jul 2007

* Qatar, as expected, will host Asian soccer's showpiece national teams event, the Asian Cup in 2011, the Asian Football Confederation announced. Qatar was left as the sole candidate to stage the event after Iran and India both missed the deadline to submit bids, but the Gulf state still had to satisfy the AFC of its ability to stage the tournament. A late proposal by Australia to join the bidding failed but reports indicate Football Federation Australia, the national governing body, is being encouraged to submit a bid to host the event in 2015 instead. Source: Sportcal, Sport Business, 30th Jul 2007

* ESPN Star Sports will supplement its coverage of the Indian cricket team’s tour of the UK by showing the visitors' one-day international against Scotland on August 16. The match will be played at Glasgow's Citylets Titwood ground and follows the rained-off attempt to stage a match there between India and Pakistan on July 3. ESS is showing India’s series of matches against England and will also televise this year’s inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. The Twenty20 event was officially launched in Johannesburg on Thursday and will involve 12 teams playing short format matches over 13 days in three cities. The final takes place at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on September 24. Source: Sportcal, Indian Television, 27th Jul 2007

* Plans by Michel Platini, president of Uefa, to restrict the number of teams from any one country for participation in the Champions League to three have been rejected by the European Professional Football Leagues, who have also dismissed his proposal to allow national cup winners to qualify for the Champions League. Platini wants to increase the representation of other countries by taking away the right of England, Spain and Italy to enter up to four teams in the Champions League, with effect from the 2009-10 season. Source: Sportcal, 27th Jul 2007

* German pay-television, Premiere, has targeted a steep increase in profit margins following its recapture of live rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga from rival Arena. Georg Kofler, Premiere’s chief executive, said he wants to achieve a profit margin before interest, tax and amortization of between 20% and 25% ‘in the mid-term,’ up from 10% at present. Premiere recently won sub-licensed rights to the Bundesliga for the next two seasons from Arena, the pay-television channel, agreeing to pay an estimated €100 million ($137 million) a year. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* IMG Media has been reappointed by English soccer’s top-tier Premier League to be its exclusive audio production partner. The company will produce and distribute all international radio content for a further three years. The deal, which continues from the 2007-08 season, takes the partnership into its 10th year. It will see TWI, the sport production arm of IMG Media, continue to produce live Premier League radio commentaries each week. IMG Media will remain as exclusive worldwide sales agents operating across more than 200 countries. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* All television broadcasters in Vietnam will share the rights to the 2007 South East Asian Games, taking place in Thailand in December, according to the Vietnam Olympic Commitee. Hoang Vinh Giang, the chairman of the VOC, said that, in accordance with article 59 of the South East Asian Games regulations, all member nations’ Olympic committees had been handed the rights and they would be made widely available. Giang added that the VOC could have chosen to sell the package of rights to an exclusive partner in Vietnam, thus making more money, but preferred to make coverage available to all provincial television stations so that everyone is able to watch the events. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* Sepp Blatter has opened up the race for the 2018 World Cup by saying that Asia or North and Central America would be as capable a host as Europe. ‘Europe think they are privileged and they should have the World Cup, even in rotation, every third time, but why? There is no written rule they can have it. Other confederations have shown they can organise it.’ It emerged last month that Fifa could drop its policy of rotating the World Cup around different continents and bids from all continents except those that have hosted the last two editions of the competition would be welcome. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* The number of rounds in the Formula 1 motor racing world championship is increasing from 17 to 18 next season with two new destinations on the calendar. The Spanish city of Valencia and the Asian city-state of Singapore will both stage their first races in 2008 while the Indianapolis race has been dropped. The Singapore event will take place, probably at night, on September 28. Despite previous reports to the contrary, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will kick off the season on March 16 and the Turkish Grand Prix moves from August to May to accommodate the Valencia event. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* UK boxer Ricky Hatton is set to meet American Floyd Mayweather Jr in what is expected to be one of the fights of the year after a verbal agreement was reached between the promoters of the pair. Hatton has been calling for a contest with Mayweather since an impressive victory over Mexico’s Jose Luis Castillo in an IBO light-welterweight title fight. Mayweather, regarded as the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer, announced his retirement after defeating US star Oscar De La Hoya in a WBC light-middleweight title fight in May, but is prepared to return for a high-profile clash with the Briton. It is likely to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on December 8 and De La Hoya’s firm Golden Boy will act as promoter. Source: Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

* The Premier League will hand more than £90 million over to the Football League over the next three seasons. Dubbed a ‘solidarity package', the new mechanism ensures a proportion of Premier League income is redistributed down the professional football pyramid. Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney added: "This is a generous gesture by the Premier League and, on behalf of our clubs, I offer my thanks. In part, the need for a payment of this kind stems from the significant financial gap that exists between their league and ours - largely due to the financial success of the Premier League. This positive initiative will help to address this issue." Source: Soccerex Business News, 27th Jul 2007

* A 2006 ruling by the Media Development Authority of Singapore, stating that exclusive pay-TV carriage deals are not anti-competitive, has been upheld by the island nation’s Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). SingTel, operator of new pay-TV, mio TV, appealed the MDA ruling, arguing rival StarHub’s exclusive carriage deals with channels would hurt competition in the pay-TV sector. MICA ruled exclusive agreements “do not substantially foreclose potential entrants’ access to key content for the pay-TV market in Singapore.” MICA also stated that SingTel had “not provided sufficient evidence to show that exclusive carriage agreements have resulted in substantial foreclosure of Singapore’s pay-TV market.” Source: Worldscreen, Rapid TV News, 30th Jul 2007

* Korea’s TU-Media has secured major broadcaster MBC for its S-DMB service. South Korea has two rival DMB operators. The problem for the satellite-delivered system was that it couldn’t offer content from the popular MBC network which is part of rival all-terrestrial T-DMB system. That has now changed and under a new deal, TU-Media can now offer MBC on its S-DMB system. TU-Media has struggled to make progress with its pay-TV system (the rival T-DMB service is free), and this move is seen as giving TU-Media a lifeline. Next, TU’s target list is programming from “other outlets” including SBS, giving it material from two out of the nation’s top three channels. KBS is the missing network. TU-Media claims 1.17m subs, as at the end of June. Rival T-DMB service claims more than 4m users. Source: Rapid TV News, 30th Jul 2007

* Korea Telecom will launch an IPTV platform with linear channels in Russia before it does in Korea. KT’s Mega TV offers on-demand titles as well as interactive services. But there are still no broadcast channels for now as legislation allowing broadcasting over telecoms lines has yet to pass the National Assembly. Russian affiliate NTC, of which KT owns 80%, has no such restrictions. KT’s president Nam Joong-soo said that KT had waited, wanting to launch first in Korea, but that the company “couldn’t wait anymore”. Source: Rapid TV News, 30th Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Broadcaster: Ten Sports and Goal TV In Licensing And Production Pact

Ten Sports and Goal TV agreed a new multi year deal which will allow Goal TV’s exclusive football content to be shown to the 50 million households of Ten Sports and Zee Sports in the Indian sub-continent. The agreement also sees the production of Goal TV’s two all-football channels shift to the Ten Sports headquarters in Dubai. Goal TV founder Thomas Kressner said “it is an excellent development for us to partner with the Indian sub-continent’s leading sports channel, with its huge daily audience and solid production experience”.

Goal TV’s content includes exclusive live action from the French, Scottish and Dutch premier leagues and programming from top English clubs Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, and Spanish La Liga club Barcelona. Ten Sports senior vice President Peter Hutton said “this volume of excellent football content is part of a growing bouquet of football rights on Ten and Zee Sports. It supports our existing deals with the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Supercup, FIFA, AFC, the English championship and the All India football federation”

The new agreement means that Taj TV, parent company of Ten Sports, will now produce and transmit nine channels from its Dubai based headquarters, ranging from the “Cricket Plus” channel for Directv in North America to the “Football Channel” for Singapore cable operator Starhub. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 30th Jul 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Row Over South African Soccer League Rights Resolved

The bitter dispute over television rights to South Africa’s top soccer league has ended with SABC, the domestic public service broadcaster, agreeing a deal with the organisers and pay-television operator Supersport to provide coverage. SABC has been given exclusive rights to 110 Premier Soccer League matches per season and will show a further 33 games with Supersport simultaneously. Supersport retains the exclusive rights to at least 112 fixtures. The agreement comes just days before SABC’s legal challenge to the PSL’s original five-year R1.6-billion ($225-million) deal with Supersport was due to be heard.

Upon acquiring the rights, Supersport pledged to offer a package of games to free-to-air broadcasters, but SABC, which previously held the rights, challenged the award on the grounds that the rights were the subject of an arbitration dispute between itself and the PSL. There were widespread concerns that the deal with the subscription broadcaster would deprive the average supporter of top-flight soccer in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

However, Supersport said last month that it had offered SABC and ETV, the privately-owned free-to-air broadcaster, a minimum of 110 games in the 2007-08 season, including an equal share of major derby games and cup finals at a reasonable rate. Daki Mpofu, SABC’s chief executive, said yesterday that the settlement would allow the free-to-air broadcaster to show games involving the leading PSL teams, the final stages of PSL competitions and the end-of-season matches which decide promotion to and relegation from the league.

The deal, which will double the number of televised matches, has been described in some quarters as a climbdown by SABC as it has accepted the same number of games and exclusivity as was originally offered by Supersport. Source: Sportcal, 27th Jul 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

A New Era of Televised Football
Tom Cary and Clive Morgan writes for The Telegraph UK, 28th Jul 2007

With the football season fast approaching, it is time to work out how you are going to watch the unprecedented amount of football being brought to your living room over the next 10 months. It used to be relatively simple. Fans wishing to view live Premiership games had to pay a monthly subscription to Virgin Media (formerly NTL/Telewest) or Sky to access the Sky Sports channels via cable or satellite.

But now, thanks to a European Commission ruling, the competition has been opened up - and rival companies have not been slow to get in on the action. Sky Sports still have two-thirds of the live football market as far as the Premier and Football Leagues are concerned. Rupert Murdoch's heavyweights also bring the usual European and international fare to the table. This season, however, the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports are weighing in with Premier League and Scottish Premier League matches.

Then you have the attractive option of delayed screenings. Both Sky and BT Vision (BT's digital television service via a broadband connection) are offering 242 "near-live" games. If you are willing to wait until 10pm on the day of the match, you can take in all the action for as little as £4 a month. BT are clearly hoping the additional attraction of broadband will swing the punters their way.

Terrestrial TV will only get you so far; the BBC supplement their Match of the Day highlights programmes with FA Cup action and England's home internationals, ITV share Champions League rights with Setanta and Sky Sports and Channel Five have secured the prized scalp of Serie A.

How much will it cost?
First you need to decide on the platform through which to access your channels. The options are satellite TV (Sky), cable TV (Virgin Media), via a broadband provider such as BT, or on Freeview.

Satellite
To watch your football on satellite TV, you will require a satellite dish plus Sky Box (free for the standard box to £299 for the HD ready). Installation is free once you sign up to a package. This season, Sky Sports will show 92 live Premiership matches (from £34). You can also add the Setanta Sports bundle at a cost of £15 per month (although there is a current discount available of £5 per month for first three months). Sky also offer standalone channels - Chelsea TV, MUTV, PremPlus - which cost £6 per channel. Each match on PremPlus will set you back £8.

Cable
If you want all the action live it will come at a price. The cheapest offer, at present, comes through Virgin Media, which announced last week that it would combine the Sky and Setanta matches for customers of its 'XL' package (£38.50 per month). Failing that, you can take the Setanta package on its own for £8.00 per month on top of the price of a subscription package.

Broadband
BT believes it has found a huge gap in the marketplace - customers who can't, or won't, pay for expensive subscriptions. This season, BT is offering 242 "near live" matches on its BT Vision service for £4 per month. Sky have a similar service (called Football First). BT also offer the 242 "near live" matches plus Setanta on top for £12.00 per month. BT Vision requires a BT broadband connection (from £17.99; £8.95 for the first six months) and a set-top box (free but with a connection fee of £30).

Freeview
Setanta, but not Sky Sports, can be accessed via a compatible Freeview box and costs between £8.00 and £9.99 depending on the bundle. You will also require a decoder card (around £10).