Tuesday, 7th August 2007

HEADLINE NEWS

TSA Acquires Classic NCAA Basketball Game Rights in Japan

Total Sports Asia acquired the DVD distribution rights for the 1982 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Game in Japan. The game involved the University of North Carolina v Georgetown University and featured two of the greatest basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing.

TSA acquired the rights from the NCAA and Thought Equity, the NCAA’s exclusive global archive licensing partner. TSA plans to publish and distribute the DVD in Japan with Tohoku Shinsha Film Corporation.

Chung See LIANG, Managing Director (Korea/Japan) of Total Sports Asia said, "Although both Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing have since retired from the game, they are still extremely popular among basketball fans in Japan. The 1982 final game is still now talked about among fans and we are very pleased to be able to partner with Tohoku Shinsha Film Corporation to release a DVD of this game in Japan”. Source: Sport Business, 6th Aug 2007


RESULTS

Source: AVP Official, 6th Aug 2007
Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger won their fourth title of the pro beach volleyball season yesterday, successfully defending the AVP Chicago Open by downing Brad Keenan and John Hyden 21-19, 21-17. The duo moved into second place in the overall standings with 3,816 points. In the women’s final, favourites to win, Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, outplayed Angie Akers and Brooke Hanson 21-16, 24-22 to take home the winners’ purse.

Source: SBK Official, 6th Aug 2007
James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) basked in the glow of his first ever World Superbike double win, scored his first ever wins at Brands Hatch, and took a huge 66 point lead into the final three rounds, which appear after the traditional summer break. Toseland’s wins were his seventh and eighth of the year, and he has now won three of the last four races.


THIS WEEK

Sun, 12th Aug 2007
AVP Crocs Tour 2007: Final Day – Manhattan Beach Open


DID YOU KNOW…?

Where does the word "soccer" come from? It seems that in the 1880s, students of Oxford University abbreviated words by adding "er" to the end; for instance, breakfast became "brekkers" and "rugby rules" was referred to as "rugger." When one student, Charles Wreford-Brown, was asked if he'd like to play rugger, he was apparently the first to abbreviate "association rules" (Football Association rules) by answering, "No, I’d rather play soccer." Brown later became an England international and Football Association vice-president.


INFO BOX

Mobile Statics
Source: Info IQ, 3rd Aug 2007

* 13 mobile TV broadcast networks in 2007
* 149.5 million mobile subscribers in India
* 500 million cell phone accounts in China
* 51% of mobile users are found to be interested in mobile TV
* 52 million TD-SCDMA subscribers in China by 2011
* Men spend 458 minutes a month on wireless, women - 453 minutes
* Mobile content and services to generate $150 billion by 2011
* Mobile gaming in Asia-Pacific to reach $18.8 billion by 2011


SPORTS SHORTS

* Mexican beer, Corona Extra, will no longer be the title sponsor of Superbike World Championship after this season. Parent company Grupo Modelo announced on Friday that it was pulling out of motor sport for commercial reasons. FGSport Group said that a new title sponsor will be announced before the end of the season. Hannspree, the Taiwanese manufacturer of LCD televisions which sponsors the Ten Kate Honda team, is a leading contender to replace Corona Extra. Source: Sportcal, 6th Aug 2007

* The International Olympic Committee today announced an exclusive deal with Hong Kong’s i-Cable for the broadband and mobile rights for the Olympic Games in Beijing, and for rights across all media platforms for the games of 2010 and 2012. The television rights for the Beijing games had already been acquired by Asian Television and Television Broadcasts Limited through their membership of the Asian Broadcasting Union. Source: Sportcal, 6th Aug 2007

* Malaysian telco, Maxis, signed a three-year partnership deal with sports channel ESPN Star Sports to become the broadcast sponsor of English Premier League football matches in the country. Maxis said it will sponsor live and delayed matches shown over two channels, ESPN and Star Sports in Malaysia. It said the broadcast sponsorship will run from 2007 until the 2010 season and, based on previous deals, is expected to be worth RM11 million (3.2 million dollars) a year. ESS is a Singapore-based joint venture between ESPN and, Star TV. Source: Channel News Asia, 4th Aug 2007

* The International Fight League announced that STAR Sports in Asia will carry IFL programming to over 50 countries and a viewership of more than 300 million. This is IFL’s first Asian deal; content from the professional mixed martial arts league also airs in more than 50 countries in the Middle East on MBC. In addition, CanWest Global in Canada will distribute IFL content on its Global X-Treme Sports Channel. IFL’s U.S. deals include IFL Battleground on MyNetwork TV and Fight Night on FSN. IFL programming will also be seen worldwide on the Armed Forces Network. Source: Worldscreen, C21 Media, 6th Aug 2007

* ESPN Star Sports has announced the launch of season two of Nike Football Locker Room which will be hosted by Gaurav Kapoor. The series will go on air starting 8 August that coincides with the start of the new season of Barclays Premier League (BPL). Every episode of NFLR will have expert guests to review the happenings of the week showcasing the important matches, best goals, quick facts, rule clarifications and analysis of moves during the game. Nike and ESPN Star Sports entered into a partnership in 2006, to connect with football obsessed fans in India. Source: Indian Television, 2nd Aug 2007

* Ten Sports has signed a non-exclusive agreement with Dialog Satellite TV, which will ensure direct-to-home distribution of its channels in Sri Lanka. Dialog TV viewers will now be able to access the Sri Lankan cricket team’s home matches, including those on England’s tour later this year. Mark Denton, vice president-international sales at Taj TV, said: ‘We are excited about our partnership with Dialog TV, one of Sri Lanka’s most dynamic companies, and believe that we will now see strong growth in pay television throughout the country.’ Source: Sportcal, Indian Television, Exchange4Media, 6th Aug 2007

* Jordan’s private-owned television network, ATV, is to offer sports coverage from ART, the pan-Middle Eastern broadcaster. The new channel will be available on terrestrial and satellite platforms for a deal worth a reported $2 million with ART, giving it exclusive rights to local, regional and international soccer fixtures. 35% to 40% of ATV’s content will be news, but will also offer films, children’s programming, drama and sport. ATV was due to start broadcasting on Wednesday, but its launch has been suspended as authorities seek confirmation that it meets technical requirements. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Aug 2007

* Portsmouth has announced the latest in a recent spate of media deals by revealing that the club is set to launch a Chinese version of its official website, www.pompeyfc.premiumtv.co.uk. The club sealed two major deals last week by striking agreements with The Local Radio Company and IMG Media, with the new agreement coming as the first development with the latter company. Portsmouth has teamed up with Shanghai-based PremierGoals for the project, and the new site will be launched in Mandarin by the end of the year. Source: Soccerex News, 3rd Aug 2007

* AirAsia, the Malaysian budget airline, has signed up to sponsor professional referees in English soccer for the next three years. With effect from this season, the company’s logo will appear on the sleeves of all referees in the top-tier Premier League, second-tier Football League and the FA Cup and Carling Cup knockout competitions. AirAsia replaces Dubai-based airline Emirates, which has sponsored English match officials for the last three years. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Aug 2007

* The Indian Olympic Association has reacted with anger to plans by the government to set up a regulatory body to supervise the functioning of the country’s sports federations. IOA president Suresh Kalmadi said the move is against International Olympic Committee rules. He added: ‘Federations in India are autonomous as per the IOC rules. People may say whatever they want to, but bringing the federations under the government is simply not possible.’ Kalmadi attacked sports minister Mani Shankar for his involvement in the decision, adding that the government official was responsible for creating a negative atmosphere surrounding sport in general in India. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Aug 2007

* Fifteen-year-old Yuki Bhambri appears to be India's latest tennis sensation. He has recently won an ITF Grade II tournament in Cairo, which has allowed him to break into the top 100 of the junior rankings. He now has the opportunity to play in a Grand Slam - the US Open junior Championships - for the first time. Soon after Yuki's win in Cairo, he was signed on by IMG and the tie up will allow Yuki to train at the famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida until he turns 18. Source: NDTV.com, 3rd Aug 2007

* The Pakistan Cricket Board has warned that current or former players involved with the board will face a ban if they agree to participate in the new Indian Cricket League. The league, which is backed by India’s Essel Group, owner of Zee Television, is due to kick-off with a Twenty20 competition in October and November and is trying to recruit players from home and abroad. The PCB is following the example of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and shunning the event. The BCCI has refused to sanction the competition and affirmed that current players will be ineligible to turn out for India or in the board's domestic competitions if they sign up. Source: Sportcal, DNA India, 3rd Aug 2007

* New pan-African pay-television operator, GTV, has committed to soccer in Uganda, agreeing to pump more than $5 million into the domestic game in return for exclusive media and commercial rights. Under the five-year deal, GTV will handle rights to the Ugandan Super League, Kakangulu Cup and the national team games. The company will also work with the Ugandan soccer federation to develop the sport in the country. The company holds TV rights across sub-Saharan Africa to 80% of the available matches in the EPL, with the rest held by South African operator Multichoice. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Aug 2007

* German DTH platform Premiere is selling new subs at a rate of 3000 a day, reportedly selling 45,000 subs in July to its Bundesliga soccer games, due to start this coming weekend. He added that 200,000 new subs will materialise by the end of August, fueled by the sub-licensing deal with rights-holder Arena. A report on Premiere from Morgan Stanley following on from the recapture of the rights says this removes a significant amount of uncertainty, which has overshadowed the stock since April. Premiere can now offer Bundesliga coverage to its subscribers (cable and satellite) as before. This should drive subscriber and ARPU growth back towards 2005 levels and this suggests that Premiere is well-placed for the next Bundesliga rights tender. Source: Rapid TV News, 6th Aug 2007

* German pay-television giant Premiere, has called on the German Football League to move ‘Sportschau’, the weekly free-to-air highlights programme, to a late-evening slot. Sportschau, shown at 6.30pm on Saturdays by the German public service broadcaster ARD, ‘troubles Premiere enormously’ and asked the DFL to reschedule it and benefit from extra rights revenue from pay-television operators seeking more exclusivity. ARD currently pays around €85 million ($116.6 million) a year to broadcast Bundesliga highlights at 6.30pm on Saturdays. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Aug 2007

* French Ligue 1 club PSG launched a web TV channel, www.psg.tv. The channel will carry exclusive content including, interviews with players, re-runs of classic matches and footage showing snippets of life inside the club. Rival Ligue 1 clubs l'Olympique Lyonnais, l'Olympique de Marseille, RC Lens and AS Saint-Etienne also run web TV channels. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 6th Aug 2007

* Nokia is to launch internet-based mobile phone services for FIBA. The service will provide basketball fans with scores, news, schedules, and interviews through ‘Nokia Video Center’, available on certain Nokia phones. Nokia will also provide FIBA reporters with multimedia computers to record video, photo and audio content that will be made available on the FIBA mobile websites. Nokia will be present at many FIBA events this year, including the Olympic Qualifiers EuroBasket in Spain in September 2007. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 6th Aug 2007


MORE NEWS

Asia/Rights: Australian Open Appoints IMG Media for New Broadcast Deal

Tennis Australia appointed IMG Media to sell its Australian Open broadcast rights throughout the Asia Pacific region. Under the multi-year deal, IMG Media will add the Melbourne event to its already stable which includes Wimbledon, the French Open and the Tennis Masters series and final.

“We are delighted to have IMG Media on board,” Tennis Australia CEO Steve Wood said. “They are the experts in their field and will help us maximise income from our biggest single revenue stream, the Australian Open. All of which, I might add, we are channelling back into our sport in our bid to find Australia’s next generation of champions. We are the Grand Slam of the Asian Pacific and this extended agreement is a significant plank in our Asian strategy to get more exposure across the region on a number of platforms.”

IMG Media is the content production and distribution arm of the world’s leading sports, entertainment and media company, IMG.

“We are thrilled to be working with Tennis Australia again on what is one of the most keenly anticipated events of the tennis calendar,” Head of IMG Media, Asia Pacific, Michael Mellor said. “This year the tournament was broadcast across 192 territories to a global household reach of 649 million homes and now we look to further growing the Open’s international appeal, using IMG’s un-paralleled strength and depth on the ground in Asia and other territories.”

IMG Media’s CSI Sports CEO Chris Guinness is equally pleased with the deal. “IMG and IMG Media have enjoyed a long association with Tennis Australia and we are delighted to cement that partnership with this new deal,” Guinness said adding: “The Australian Open already has an incredible worldwide following and has recently featured some of the most dramatic play in the event’s history, as evidenced by Serena Williams this year, who became the first unseeded player in 29 years to win. We are confident we can give the tournament even greater exposure and attract new audiences.’’

Channel 7, Australia will screen domestic coverage in 2008. Source: Sport Business, 3rd Aug 2007

Mid-East/Rights: Showtime Bets the Farm on Football

Showtime Arabia is mounting a major effort to win new subscribers in the Middle East, using English Premiership soccer. Dubai-based Showtime spent a fortune to secure exclusive English Premier League soccer for its subscribers, and the marketing build-up has begun. Showtime will air every one of the 380 games kicking off August 11. In fairness, Showtime has gone the extra mile, investing in new local studio facilities, local hosting (in English and Arabic) and has secured some top-line talent to host the pre-match coverage, and actual match commentary.

Showtime is dedicating up to three live channels (Showsports 1, 2 and 3) and Showsports Extra to manage up to four live games simultaneously. There are occasions when six games are being played at the same time, and the soccer games will pre-empt some programming on other channels.

Nevertheless, the decision to back English soccer is a huge risk. There are fans of the Premiership in the Middle East, but in previous years Showtime’s rivals have held the exclusive coverage without much benefit in terms of subscribers. Time will tell whether Showtime’s blanket coverage is what soccer fans want. Critics of Showtime’s philosophy have argued that while English soccer IS important, it does not have the ratings power of local soccer, local national soccer, or local international soccer, all of which is available in abundance to pan-Arabic audiences from a number of low-cost sources. Source: Rapid TV News, 3rd Aug 2007

Asia/Broadcaster: ABU Launches New Pro-Social Media Initiative

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has launched the ABU-Media Awareness Exchange (MAE), a new satellite and Internet distribution service aimed at delivering pro-social content to broadcasters across the region on issues such as poverty and climate change. The ABU-MAE involves a monthly satellite delivery mechanism of pro-social content to broadcasters across the region, which will be complemented by Internet distribution of the material. The ABU-MAE will partner with the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) on a yearlong collaboration that will seek to expand the reach of AIDS content in the Asia-Pacific region.

The MAE aims to enable regional and national terrestrials to provide constructive information and content that will strengthen and protect countries and the region at a time of increasing social, health and environmental risks. Content distribution is also being expanded on the MAE website to include “toolkits” for broadcasters who may wish to obtain scripts, creative and footage to adapt for use in their own locally-produced content.

“The potential role of the media in Asia in combating pressing global issues is tremendous,” said Francyne Harrigan, the development projects manager at the ABU. “With a regular content stream touching on such issues as poverty, pandemic flu, climate change and disaster reduction, it is hoped the MAE will bring about positive social change in countries across the region.” Source: Worldscreen, 3rd Aug 2007

Korea/Broadcaster: KT Launches Mega TV On-Demand Service

Korean broadband operator KT has announced the commercial launch of its online on-demand platform Mega TV, with content protection solutions being provided by NDS, delivering programming from the terrestrial TV broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS. NDS VideoGuard conditional access will be deployed throughout the KT IPTV network to provide end-to-end content protection. VideoGuard is deployed in more than 72 million homes worldwide, and facilitates an extensive range of pay-TV business models, such as multiple channel packages, tiering, pay-per-view purchase of programs from the electronic program guide (EPG), impulse pay-per-view and other services.

KT is now initially offering Mega TV in Seoul, Gwa-Cheon, Dong-Tan and other selected cities in Kyung-Ki province. The new Mega TV service will offer a multitude of video-on-demand programming services, and a range of interactive TV services, including an electronic program guide (EPG) developed by NDS. Many genres of programming are available, including movies, sports, culture, animation, documentaries, drama, and educational content. Research conducted during the Mega TV pilot phase revealed that 84 percent of target customers want to acquire the service when it becomes available.

Megapass is the flagship high-speed broadband service provided by KT, currently providing broadband services to over 6.5 million subscribers. As a launch promotion, KT will offer Megapass and Mega TV packages to subscribers. KT has announced that the company plans to attract 300,000 Mega TV subscribers by the end of this year. KT also continues to invest heavily in capital expenditure and is scheduled to complete the build-out of nationwide FTTH broadband network by 2010.

Young-Hui Lee, the senior VP of KT, commented: "KT takes great pride in figuring among the world's leading broadband operators, and we continue to innovate through value-added services. Mega TV is the most recent example of KT deploying world-leading technology to offer new services to our customers. NDS technology is vital in delivering the quality and variety of services that are integral to our long-term business plans.”

Asia/General: AFC Announces Seedings, Qualification Process

AFC has announced the seeding and qualification process for Asian teams for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. The seeding for the qualification format is based on the results from the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ and earlier qualifying rounds. The draw for Round 1 will be conducted at AFC House here on Monday 6th August 2007 at 3pm. The draw results will be announced immediately on www.the-afc.com. The format is as follows:

* 43 teams
* 4.5 qualification berths for Asia
* Teams ranked 1-5 receive a bye to Round 3

The seeding is as follows:
Source: AFC Official, 3rd Aug 2007

Elsewhere/General: Boca Juniors Looks to MLS

Boca Juniors’ marketing chief, Orlando Salvestrini, has confirmed the club is stepping up its bid to establish a franchise in Major League Soccer (MLS). The reigning Copa Libertadores champion is one of the leading lights in world football when it comes to maximising its brand and has delved into operations such as official club cemeteries, coffins, taxis and wine in the past. Salvestrini manages ‘Boca Crece’ (Boca Grows), the company that handles the marketing arm of the club.

“The club will give its image rights and its name, and will receive between 15% and 20% of the profits in exchange,” Salvestrini told Argentinian newspaper Ole. New York, Los Angeles, Arizona and Miami are the most likely cities to host a Boca USA team. “The next step would be presenting the project to MLS, looking to earn one of the three new spots they will open for the next season,” Salvestrini added. Source: Soccerex News, 3rd Aug 2007

Elsewhere/General: Platini Says EPL Should Worry over Foreign Ownership

Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, has issued a warning about the dangers of foreign ownership of clubs in English soccer’s top-tier Premier League, in an interview to be broadcast by pay-television’s British Sky Broadcasting tomorrow.

He said: ‘I would be worried if I were English because of all the foreign ownership. They could be rich people coming to help English football and develop it, but they may just want to make money. I fear your clubs will lose identity. If it was in France [Platini’s native country], I would fight it.’

However, responding to concerns over the human rights record of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister who is the new owner of Manchester City, Richard Scudamore, the Premier League’s chief executive, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: ‘Until someone has been tried and found guilty of anything, as is the law in this country, we can’t rule somebody out unless they are convicted…

‘If the UK government say there is no problem with someone, it is not up to us to go around second-guessing.’ Source: Sportcal, 6th Aug 2007