HEADLINE NEWS
Badminton Holds Thomas and Uber Cup Bid Contest after All
The Badminton World Federation has announced a bidding contest to host the Thomas and Uber Cups in 2010, despite earlier apparently saying that the two biennial international competitions, for men and women respectively, would take place in Malaysia. Bid documents are available on the federation’s website at www.internationalbadminton.org, and member associations are asked to submit expressions of interest to Datuk Punch Gunalan, the federation’s executive deputy president, by Sunday.
The federation today assured Sportcal.com that no host had yet been chosen, even though its vice-president Robin Bryant was quoted in June as saying that Malaysia would be the host for both competitions, with Kuala Lumpur staging the men’s event and Ipoh the venue for the women’s competition. The tournaments were to be held in separate cities for the first time since 1984 in a bid to boost the profile of the women’s game, Bryant was quoted as saying. Those interested in bidding must submit their final bid documentation to the federation by November 25. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
WWE Expands Global Operations
In an effort to tap into its strong worldwide appeal, World Wrestling Entertainment has revealed plans to expand its operations into London, Shanghai, Tokyo, São Paulo, Toronto and Sydney. The regional office in London will be led by Andrew Whitaker as the president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Carl DeMarco will continue to focus on expansion through the Toronto office as the president of Canada, Latin America and China. Jonathan Sully will establish WWE’s headquarters in Sydney, Australia, as the president of Asia Pacific.
“Whitaker, DeMarco and Sully will oversee integrated sales, marketing and digital initiatives as well as focus on new and emerging markets,” said Shane McMahon, the executive VP of global media at WWE. “This new structure will allow us to more quickly exploit business opportunities and leverage the strength of the WWE brand.” Source: Worldscreen, 27th Sep 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* The FIH, field hockey’s world governing body, has awarded this year’s Champions Trophy to Malaysia, after the tournament was recently moved from Pakistan because of security concerns. The event will be staged at the national hockey stadium Bukit Jalil, in Kuala Lumpur, the venue for the men’s 2002 World Cup. FIH president Els van Breda Vriesman said: ‘We are happy that the Malaysia Hockey Confederation was able to accept the responsibility to host this important event. The FIH confirmed that, as expected, the tournament would also be expanded from six to eight teams to include hosts Malaysia and Great Britain, which was chosen from a list of reserve countries. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
* The Indian Hockey Federation has denied reports that top Indian hockey players have threatened to go on hunger strike in protest at the alleged preferential treatment awarded to the country’s cricketers, in the wake of India’s victory in the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa. It had been reported that the hockey players were to protest against a $2-million reward that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has offered its players, while they are also being awarded cash rewards and other incentives by state governments. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
* Red Bull is reviewing four PR agencies in a closed-door pitch, as it prepares to promote its Formula One racing teams for next year’s race. Darryl Lim, brand manager of Red Bull Singapore said, “The team will help us manage communications for the brand in Singapore, though the initial focus is on next year’s Formula One event.” Red Bull exclusively owns two F1 racing teams, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. However Lim added that the agency will assist in other Red Bull events, which largely focus on extreme sports. Source: Brand Republic, 27th Sep 2007
* German public-service broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, are close to a deal with Infront Sports and Media for the television rights for skiing’s FIS World Cup events in Germany. SportA, the representative agency of ARD and ZDF, will agree a deal in the ‘next two to three weeks,’ Alfons Hörmann, the president of the DSV, the German skiing association, said. In May, Infront Sports and Media agreed a four-year deal with DSV, agreeing to pay between €12 million ($17 million) and €15 million a year to the DSV to distribute the media rights to FIS World Cup events held in Germany. ARD and ZDF were the host broadcasters during the 2006-07 FIS World Cup events in Germany. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
* Sportfive refuted a German news report that Thomas Röttgermann, managing director of its German operation and executive vice president of the Sportfive Group, is to follow managing director, Robert Müller von Vultejus in leaving the agency. News of the highly-regarded Müller von Vultejus’ decision to step down at the end of the year came earlier this month, just three days after the appointment of Richard Worth as Sportfive’s new chief executive. However, there was no suggestion that Müller von Vultejus’ departure was linked to Worth’s appointment but more the result of events such as the takeover by Lagardère and the structural reorganisation that ensued. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
* The plaudits for this year’s World Twenty20 in South Africa, the first world championship in short-format cricket, have raised hopes that the sport can extend its international footprint, but the governing body is only just setting off on the long road to the Olympic Games. The 14-day Twenty20 showpiece ended in dramatic fashion on Monday with India defeating traditional rivals Pakistan by five runs in the last over of the final in Johannesburg. The on-field and commercial success of the competition, which involved 12 national teams and 27 matches, has stimulated interest in Twenty20, particularly in cricket’s Asian power base where there had been scepticism of the high-tempo, big-hitting format. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
* Superleague Formula, the motor racing championship featuring football club brands, has announced a new round of financing. New investors in the championship include a Spanish and private investors from Asia. AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund, RSC Anderlecht and Flamengo have already licensed their brand to the Barcelona-based organisers. Planning is underway to launch a further five clubs in the next two months. The championship expects feature 20 leading clubs in the series that will use single-seater racing cars built by Elan Motorsports Technologies. The new engine has been purpose-built by Menard Competition Technologies. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcaster: Neo Sports Claims Biggest-ever Line-up of Broadcast Sponsors
Neo Sports today claimed to have signed ‘the largest-ever line-up of broadcast sponsors in the history of sports broadcasting in India,’ beginning with its coverage on Saturday of the Future Cup series of one-day international cricket matches between India and Australia. The line-up of broadcast sponsors includes the Future Group, the diversified Indian business group, which, Neo Sports claimed, ‘may well be the largest ever multi-year broadcast sponsorship deal signed in the history of Indian television.
Future is also the title sponsor of the series. Other broadcast sponsors of Neo Sports’ coverage are Hero Honda, Reliance Mobile and Pidilite (co-presenting) and LG, Intel, Perfetti and S Kumars (associate). Neo Sports, India’s first full-time cricket channel, is available in an estimated 50 per cent of Indian cable and satellite homes and expects to reach 65 per cent next month.
Meanwhile, Nimbus announced a deal to provide exclusive live coverage of the seven one-day international and one Twenty20 matches that make up the series to Fox Sports, the Australian pay-television network. Nimbus acquired the global rights for India’s home matches from the Board of Control for Cricket in India for four years until March 2010. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: French Clubs Talk Up Value of Ligue 1 Rights
Leading officials from French soccer clubs have defended the value of the top-tier Ligue 1 in the face of renewed warnings from Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster, that it will not pay over the odds for a new contract. Jean-Bernard Levy, the chairman of Vivendi, the media group that owns Canal Plus, said this week that cuts had to be made to content acquisitions, including a reduction in the €600 million-($850.2 million-) a year fee paid currently for Ligue 1 rights. Levy also warned that Vivendi would ‘make the seller understand he must sign up with us. Otherwise, the seller risks the competition not being broadcast at all.’
But Jean-Michel Aulas, Pape Diouf and Gervais Martel, the presidents of Lyon, Marseille and Lens respectively, reacted to Canal Plus’ stance by defending the value of the league, with Aulas saying the rights from the 2008-09 season onwards should be worth at least €750 million. Diouf echoed Aulas’ thoughts, telling the official league website that a drop in price was ‘unforeseeable’ and that the loss of Ligue 1 would have dramatic consequences for Canal Plus. He said,’ When you subscribe to Canal Plus, it’s for the football first of all and secondly for the films. Without Ligue 1, Canal Plus is Canal minus.’
Martel described the €600 million as a ‘fair price’ as the number of subscribers had increased noticeably, and also said that nobody had forced Canal Plus to pay that amount. He continued, ‘There is no reason for French football to be weakened because of strategic reasons on the part of our main client.’ The league and its member clubs have been concerned about a possible drop in rights value since Canal Plus' merger with rival TPS reduced competition for the rights. The league even attempted to extend the next rights contract from three years to five to attract new bidders, a plan rejected by France's competition watchdog.
Aulas, Diouf and Martel came together to defend the standard of play in the league, often criticised for a lack of star names and for failing to match the appeal of the top European leagues in England and Spain. Diouf said, ‘Our league is as valuable as any other in Europe’ while Aulas claimed that a match between Manchester United and Chelsea attracts a much lower audience than a mid-table clash in the French league. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Business: Team Marketing to Monitor EM.Sport Media's Moves
Team Marketing, the Switzerland-based agency, has stressed its independence and said that it ‘is monitoring’ plans by EM.Sport Media, the German media group that acquired a 36.4-per-cent stake in Team’s owner, Highlight Communications. EM.Sport Media, the owner of the German sports channel DSF, is set to develop a strategic partnership with Highlight Communications, possibly fusing the two companies under the leadership of a revtalised Leo Kirch, the German media entrepreneur, to create a broadcasting group specialising in sports rights, among other areas.
Team Marketing, which is majority-owned (80 per cent) by Highlight Communications, with the other 20 per cent belonging to Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, today maintained that it would continue to operate independently despite the proposed change of Highlight’s ownership structure and reports of EM.Sport Media's ambitious business plans. Team, whose main commercial activity is the distribution of broadcast and sponsorship rights for European soccer’s top-tier Uefa Champions League and second-tier Uefa Cup, told Sportcal.com that operations were ‘very much business as usual.’ Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007
ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS
Millions turned on by Twenty20 vision
Simon Hughes comments on The Telegraph UK, 28th Sep 2007
Taking place at peak evening viewing time on the subcontinent, Monday's World Twenty20 final between India and Pakistan produced the mother of all television audiences. An estimated 400 million people watched India sneak home by five runs, a result that not only sent their success-starved supporters into paroxysms of ecstasy but also produced a broad smile on the face of Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Indian cricket board (BCCI). Modi is the brains behind his country's new venture, the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 domestic tournament with an international climax, and his mobile was white hot with prospective sponsors following India's triumph.
For over a decade, TV executives have sought a viable alternative to football as the perfectly packaged sporting entertainment. With the IPL — a sort of cricketing Champions League, with an enticing £2.5 million for the winners — Modi thinks he may have found it.
"With four overseas players permitted in each of the eight franchised teams, it will have the best cricketers in the world competing for the biggest prize in the game," Modi said. "We have studied all the best sporting leagues in the world, from the English Premier League to the NBA and the NHL in America, and based our structure on the best elements of those. I believe the IPL could be as successful as any of them."
In essence, it is a throwback to the heady days of the Seventies and Eighties in England and the John Player League. With no international commitments, most of the world's best players congregated here to play county cricket alongside the great and the good of the English game and grounds were invariably packed on Sundays for the 40-over contests. It was high-octane entertainment — immense fun to play in and watch.
For a couple of months next spring, the Indians can replicate this environment, with the added bonus of a billion potential fans. With each of the $50m franchises having overseas players on their books, as well as all the big Indian names, the quality should be guaranteed. The chance of seeing Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag lining up for Mumbai alongside Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist will have the Indian populous in a frenzy.
The announcement of the league was a timely initiative for Indian cricket which, until Monday, had badly needed a lift. Several years of underwhelming performances by the world's richest and most populous cricketing nation had resulted in the sport stagnating and being eclipsed in the television ratings by reality programmes. There are still legions of kids playing cricket on the streets and maidans of the subcontinent but they dream of appearing on lucrative game shows rather than opening the batting for India. Cricket badly needed an injection of foreign expertise and sophistication.
But can a Twenty20 league provide that? Despite the grumblings that it's not cricket but just a beach game, Twenty20 is more than a banal plate of chips. There is some taste and texture to the innings, new strokes have evolved to go with traditional ones and with run rates nudging 10 an over, beleaguered bowlers have had to learn how to cope, with variation and surprise compulsory. It is not an entirely fair contest between bat and ball, but one-day cricket rarely is. And just as the John Player League raised fielding standards 25 years ago, so Twenty20 has spawned new levels of commitment and athleticism. To win the first global trophy for domestic teams will require skill, speed and strength of a high order.
The international dimension of the IPL, whereby the winners of other countries' domestic Twenty20 tournaments will play, is a serious undertaking by a serious man. Modi is determined to galvanise Indian cricket without jeopardising the international game. "One of the IPL's charters requires players to honour their international commitments first," he said, presumably having never met Sir Alex Ferguson.
Modi claims to have more than 50 companies interested in bidding for the eight Indian franchises (including two Sri Lankan teams) and there are already 18 potential venues with floodlights. Now, the television companies are tripping over themselves to buy exclusive rights. Other countries will most likely use the league as a blueprint to galvanise their own domestic competitions. Like many, I still utterly prefer the subtler hues of Test matches to the black-and-white whirr of Twenty20, but there's no doubt its energy is resuscitating an ailing game.
Thursday, 27th September 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Thailand’s Shin Satellite is reportedly gearing up to launch direct-to-home satellite TV platforms in southeast and south Asia, if talks with a “few” governments prove fruitful. A report in the Bangkok Post said that Shin Sat, a subsidiary of Shin Corp, would need to invest between US$5 million and US$10 million in satellite uplink and studio facilities if the DTH platforms went ahead. An un-named Shin Sat executive said that the company was expecting to enter into two partnerships with governments “by early next year”. Source: Rapid TV News, Asia Media, 26th Sep 2007
* India has been chosen to host golf’s Johnnie Walker Classic in 2008. The event, which is co-sanctioned by the European, Asian and Australasian Tours, will take place at the DLF Golf and Country Club near New Delhi from February 28 to March 2. The Johnnie Walker Classic has been staged in seven countries since its launch in 1990. South Africa’s Anton Haig won this year’s tournament held in Phuket, Thailand. Golf is becoming an increasingly popular sport in India and this is reflected in the European Tour’s decision to launch the $2.5-million Indian Masters in New Delhi in early February. Source: Sportcal, 26th Sep 2007
* German Bundesliga is ‘heading towards a pay-tv structure’ but seeking to broadcast free-to-air highlights before 8pm. Christian Seifert, DFL's chief executive, said that a timeslot before 8pm on Saturday nights for free-to-air highlights was ‘essential’. The league is set to issue its tender for rights at the end of this year for the 2009-10 season onwards. Sportschau, the Bundesliga highlights programme broadcast by ARD, the public-service broadcaster, is presently shown at 6.30pm, just over an hour after the afternoon matches conclude. The league generates around €420 million ($593.2 million) a year in broadcast revenue. Source: Sportcal, 26th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcaster: NDTV to launch more channels
News and lifestyle channel broadcaster New Delhi Television (NDTV) is looking at launching more television channels, both domestically and internationally. Speaking at the launch of MetroNation, NDTV’s fifth channel in the country, Prannoy Roy, chairman, said, “By this year, or financial year end, there will be more channels from NDTV. The channel is targeted at the five-million Delhi citizens that read English language newspapers. NDTV operates five channels within the country, including NDTV 24x7, NDTV India, NDTV Profit, NDTV Good Times and NDTV MetroNation. It has launched its channels in Indonesia, Malaysia and Dubai, through collaborations.
The broadcaster was looking to increase its presence in news-cum-entertainment channels across emerging markets such as North Africa, West Asia and south east Asia, Roy added. NDTV’s Bahasa Indonesia language channel in Indonesia, launched in 2006 in a joint venture with Astro All Asia, has broken even and even started making money. It launched NDTV Arabia earlier this month with a focus on Dubai and UAE. It has also launched a Bahasa Malaysia language channel in Malaysia, in partnership with Astro All Asia. Within India, the company launched its lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, which has a branding tie-up with UB Group’s Kingfisher.
NDTV will launch city channels focused on Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai, under the brand NDTV MetroNation, similar to the channel launched in New Delhi, Chief Executive K V L Narayan Rao said. More than 100 new TV channels are scheduled to be launched in India, the world’s third-largest cable TV market, over the next 12 months. Source: The Business Standard, 26th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Business: Kirch Back in Business
Leo Kirch, the German entrepreneur whose media empire collapsed in 2002, has made a dramatic comeback by acquiring an 11.5-per-cent stake in EM.Sport Media, the German media company, in a strategic move that also alters the ownership of the Team Marketing sports agency. Kirch, now aged 80, has won shares in EM.Sport Media by selling the company up to 36.4 per cent of his holding in Highlight Communications, the media group that owns 80 per cent of Team Marketing, the agency responsible for distributing the media rights of European soccer’s top-tier Uefa Champions League. Kirch's shares in Highlight, held through a private bank in Frankfurt, have only now been officially revealed.
The strategic partnership between EM.Sport Media, the owner of the German sports channel DSF, and Highlight Communications could pave the way for a merger of the two to create a broadcasting group specialising in sports rights, among other areas. The prospects of a Kirch-led group returning to the forefront of the German sports rights market have been improved further by the reported recruitment of Dagmar Brandenstein, the managing director of SportA, the sports rights agency of public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF. SportA announced in May that Brandenstein, a well-known German sports industry figure, was to leave after little more than three years.
In 2003, KirchMedia sold DSF to EM.TV, the precursor to EM.Sport Media, with retailer KarstadtQuelle and Swiss investor Hans-Dieter Cleven also taking stakes. As the owner of DSF, EM.Sport Media already has an outlet for sports broadcasting, with a licence for both free-to-air and pay-television. The fusion of EM.Sport Media and Highlight Communications to create an independent broadcasting group with no ties to RTL or ProSiebenSat.1, the country's dominant commercial broadcasting groups, would be unlikely to meet with any regulatory resistance, it is understood. Kirch’s deal with EM.Sport Media was achieved through KF 15, his financial holding group formed in 2003 after the insolvency of KirchMedia in 2002.
EM.Sport Media this week acquired a five per cent share in Premiere Star, the pay-television satellite brand of Premiere. As part of the agreement, Premiere has agreed to work with Plazamedia, the television production company and new media provider, until the end of 2013, while DSF received a package of non-exclusive rights to English soccer's top-tier Premier League. The rights acquired by DSF are free-to-air, pay-television and IPTV until the end of the 2009-10 season, suggesting a possible use of them through Kirch's new broadcasting vehicle. Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV News, 26th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Business: Scudamore Turns the Tables on Uefa in Money Debate
Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of English soccer’s top-tier Premier League, has played down concerns about commercialism in the domestic game, but says that measures are necessary to prevent the league’s media rights being infringed on. Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, recently wrote to the heads of state in all 27 European Union countries to express his fears about the growing influence of money in sport and calling on them to help change the European Commission’s white paper to provide more safeguards. However, UK prime minister Gordon Brown has already indicated that he will not intervene in the issue.
The Premier League has generated £2.7 billion from the sale of domestic and international television rights for three seasons, beginning this year, but Scudamore believes it is fair in its dealings with the clubs. In an interview with the UK’s Financial Times newspaper, he said: ‘The [Uefa] Champions League is more rampantly commercial than the Premier League. I have a formula which redistributes money far more widely, equitably and evenly than Uefa does, and we retain far less here with far more modest offices. Uefa as an edifice is huge.
In his letter, Platini had called for governments to become involved to combat threat posed to soccer by ‘the malign and ever-present influence of money.’ However, Scudamore believes that the flow of cash into the game has been largely positive, saying: ‘Twenty years ago, there was no TV deal, the grounds were awful, the game was in a complete state. It is investment that has made it how it is. What was Mr Brown supposed to do? Stop investment?’ He added that soccer was experiencing ‘a golden age,’ adding that it is ‘hard to imagine interest in football waning.’
Scudamore told the Daily Telegraph recently that there was potential for further growth in television rights revenue, particularly in the international market, which now makes up 28 per cent of the league’s income, up from 10 per cent before. He believes that this figure could rise to 50 per cent in the next rights period, from 2010 to 2013. One of Scudamore’s main concerns is the use of Premier League clips, which news agencies claim they should be able to show for free under news access provisions. Source: Sportcal, The Sports Economist, 26th Sep 2007
* Thailand’s Shin Satellite is reportedly gearing up to launch direct-to-home satellite TV platforms in southeast and south Asia, if talks with a “few” governments prove fruitful. A report in the Bangkok Post said that Shin Sat, a subsidiary of Shin Corp, would need to invest between US$5 million and US$10 million in satellite uplink and studio facilities if the DTH platforms went ahead. An un-named Shin Sat executive said that the company was expecting to enter into two partnerships with governments “by early next year”. Source: Rapid TV News, Asia Media, 26th Sep 2007
* India has been chosen to host golf’s Johnnie Walker Classic in 2008. The event, which is co-sanctioned by the European, Asian and Australasian Tours, will take place at the DLF Golf and Country Club near New Delhi from February 28 to March 2. The Johnnie Walker Classic has been staged in seven countries since its launch in 1990. South Africa’s Anton Haig won this year’s tournament held in Phuket, Thailand. Golf is becoming an increasingly popular sport in India and this is reflected in the European Tour’s decision to launch the $2.5-million Indian Masters in New Delhi in early February. Source: Sportcal, 26th Sep 2007
* German Bundesliga is ‘heading towards a pay-tv structure’ but seeking to broadcast free-to-air highlights before 8pm. Christian Seifert, DFL's chief executive, said that a timeslot before 8pm on Saturday nights for free-to-air highlights was ‘essential’. The league is set to issue its tender for rights at the end of this year for the 2009-10 season onwards. Sportschau, the Bundesliga highlights programme broadcast by ARD, the public-service broadcaster, is presently shown at 6.30pm, just over an hour after the afternoon matches conclude. The league generates around €420 million ($593.2 million) a year in broadcast revenue. Source: Sportcal, 26th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcaster: NDTV to launch more channels
News and lifestyle channel broadcaster New Delhi Television (NDTV) is looking at launching more television channels, both domestically and internationally. Speaking at the launch of MetroNation, NDTV’s fifth channel in the country, Prannoy Roy, chairman, said, “By this year, or financial year end, there will be more channels from NDTV. The channel is targeted at the five-million Delhi citizens that read English language newspapers. NDTV operates five channels within the country, including NDTV 24x7, NDTV India, NDTV Profit, NDTV Good Times and NDTV MetroNation. It has launched its channels in Indonesia, Malaysia and Dubai, through collaborations.
The broadcaster was looking to increase its presence in news-cum-entertainment channels across emerging markets such as North Africa, West Asia and south east Asia, Roy added. NDTV’s Bahasa Indonesia language channel in Indonesia, launched in 2006 in a joint venture with Astro All Asia, has broken even and even started making money. It launched NDTV Arabia earlier this month with a focus on Dubai and UAE. It has also launched a Bahasa Malaysia language channel in Malaysia, in partnership with Astro All Asia. Within India, the company launched its lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, which has a branding tie-up with UB Group’s Kingfisher.
NDTV will launch city channels focused on Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai, under the brand NDTV MetroNation, similar to the channel launched in New Delhi, Chief Executive K V L Narayan Rao said. More than 100 new TV channels are scheduled to be launched in India, the world’s third-largest cable TV market, over the next 12 months. Source: The Business Standard, 26th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Business: Kirch Back in Business
Leo Kirch, the German entrepreneur whose media empire collapsed in 2002, has made a dramatic comeback by acquiring an 11.5-per-cent stake in EM.Sport Media, the German media company, in a strategic move that also alters the ownership of the Team Marketing sports agency. Kirch, now aged 80, has won shares in EM.Sport Media by selling the company up to 36.4 per cent of his holding in Highlight Communications, the media group that owns 80 per cent of Team Marketing, the agency responsible for distributing the media rights of European soccer’s top-tier Uefa Champions League. Kirch's shares in Highlight, held through a private bank in Frankfurt, have only now been officially revealed.
The strategic partnership between EM.Sport Media, the owner of the German sports channel DSF, and Highlight Communications could pave the way for a merger of the two to create a broadcasting group specialising in sports rights, among other areas. The prospects of a Kirch-led group returning to the forefront of the German sports rights market have been improved further by the reported recruitment of Dagmar Brandenstein, the managing director of SportA, the sports rights agency of public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF. SportA announced in May that Brandenstein, a well-known German sports industry figure, was to leave after little more than three years.
In 2003, KirchMedia sold DSF to EM.TV, the precursor to EM.Sport Media, with retailer KarstadtQuelle and Swiss investor Hans-Dieter Cleven also taking stakes. As the owner of DSF, EM.Sport Media already has an outlet for sports broadcasting, with a licence for both free-to-air and pay-television. The fusion of EM.Sport Media and Highlight Communications to create an independent broadcasting group with no ties to RTL or ProSiebenSat.1, the country's dominant commercial broadcasting groups, would be unlikely to meet with any regulatory resistance, it is understood. Kirch’s deal with EM.Sport Media was achieved through KF 15, his financial holding group formed in 2003 after the insolvency of KirchMedia in 2002.
EM.Sport Media this week acquired a five per cent share in Premiere Star, the pay-television satellite brand of Premiere. As part of the agreement, Premiere has agreed to work with Plazamedia, the television production company and new media provider, until the end of 2013, while DSF received a package of non-exclusive rights to English soccer's top-tier Premier League. The rights acquired by DSF are free-to-air, pay-television and IPTV until the end of the 2009-10 season, suggesting a possible use of them through Kirch's new broadcasting vehicle. Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV News, 26th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Business: Scudamore Turns the Tables on Uefa in Money Debate
Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of English soccer’s top-tier Premier League, has played down concerns about commercialism in the domestic game, but says that measures are necessary to prevent the league’s media rights being infringed on. Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, recently wrote to the heads of state in all 27 European Union countries to express his fears about the growing influence of money in sport and calling on them to help change the European Commission’s white paper to provide more safeguards. However, UK prime minister Gordon Brown has already indicated that he will not intervene in the issue.
The Premier League has generated £2.7 billion from the sale of domestic and international television rights for three seasons, beginning this year, but Scudamore believes it is fair in its dealings with the clubs. In an interview with the UK’s Financial Times newspaper, he said: ‘The [Uefa] Champions League is more rampantly commercial than the Premier League. I have a formula which redistributes money far more widely, equitably and evenly than Uefa does, and we retain far less here with far more modest offices. Uefa as an edifice is huge.
In his letter, Platini had called for governments to become involved to combat threat posed to soccer by ‘the malign and ever-present influence of money.’ However, Scudamore believes that the flow of cash into the game has been largely positive, saying: ‘Twenty years ago, there was no TV deal, the grounds were awful, the game was in a complete state. It is investment that has made it how it is. What was Mr Brown supposed to do? Stop investment?’ He added that soccer was experiencing ‘a golden age,’ adding that it is ‘hard to imagine interest in football waning.’
Scudamore told the Daily Telegraph recently that there was potential for further growth in television rights revenue, particularly in the international market, which now makes up 28 per cent of the league’s income, up from 10 per cent before. He believes that this figure could rise to 50 per cent in the next rights period, from 2010 to 2013. One of Scudamore’s main concerns is the use of Premier League clips, which news agencies claim they should be able to show for free under news access provisions. Source: Sportcal, The Sports Economist, 26th Sep 2007
Wednesday, 26th September 2007
HEADLINE NEWS
TSA Distributes More Badminton from Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Badminton Association (HKBA) appointed Total Sports Asia (TSA) as exclusive worldwide media rights distributor for the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open Badminton Super Series 2007. TSA will distribute all television, broadband and mobile platform worldwide rights excluding the territory of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chau Yat Kwong, Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong Badminton Association said: “We are glad to appoint TSA to exclusively distribute the rights to the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open because of TSA’s established networks in the market and the sterling work that they have done to elevate the sport of badminton to greater heights.
Julian Jackson, Senior Vice President of Media in Total Sports Asia said: “This appointment means a lot to TSA because we have been entrusted to bring this top-notch badminton event to fans all over the world. Badminton viewership has shown strong growth over the years and we are confident that we will help the HKBA bring the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open to more viewers around the world than ever before.”
Previously known simply as the Hong Kong Open, this year marks a significance for the HKBA because the event is upgraded to Super Series tournament. The prestigious Super Series attracts a clutch of top international badminton stars like Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, Danish great Peter Gade and Malaysia’s star ace Lee Chong Wei, who will compete for top honours.
The Super Series is a calendar of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and each tournament offers a minimum of US$200,000 in prize money, making it a major draw for top badminton players. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 25th Sep 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* ESPN Star Sports, which gambled an astonishing $1.1-billion to win the ICC rights for the next eight years, has earned Rs200 crore from the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup championship alone. Media buyers say ESS received close to Rs110-115 crore through ad sales alone, which went through the roof for the finals with India playing Pakistan. Of the Rs115-odd crore, Rs 40 crore has been contributed by sponsors, with the rest coming from stand-alone spot sales. ESS sold spots for the India-Pakistan final Twenty20 match at an all-time high of Rs7.5-10 lakh per 10 seconds, the highest rates in the history of Indian TV, with TRPs expected in the range of an astronomical 15-20. Source: Economic Times, 25th Sep 2007
* Neo Sports has sold 65% of advertising inventory for the upcoming India-Australia cricket series, starting September 29, buoyed by India’s success in the Twenty20 World Cup. Earlier this week, Neo Sports officials said they have reached an agreement with InCable Net to carry Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus. InCable Net reaches 4 million viewers across India and adds to the 1 million homes that Neo Sports is now able to reach through Tata Sky. Recently, Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus signed on cable operators in south India, pushing its reach to about 45% of households in the south. Neo Sports has the telecast rights of all international cricket played in India until 2010. Source: Sport Business, Indian Television, Economic Times, 25th Sep 2007
* Neo Sports has announced an agreement with StarHub in Singapore. The agreement ensures live telecast and availability of Neo Sports in Singapore, starting 26 September. With this deal, Neo Sports has spread its footprints deeper across Asia as this announcement comes close on the heels of its recently announced deals with the Middle East Countries and several South East Asian countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Viewers in Singapore will get access to the international and domestic cricket played in India. StarHub will offer Neo Sports on its digital platform, as part of its newly designed Cricket Group comprising Neo Sports and the Cricket Channel. Source: Indian Television, 25th Sep 2007
* Havas Media will open a new sports marketing office in Malaysia with Kuhan Foo, previously head of operations at Total Sports Asia, as its general manager. Foo previously worked on AirAsia’s sponsorship of Manchester United, the partnership which saw Havas Sports appointed to manage the activation work for the deal. In the last 18 months, Havas Media has opened offices in Singapore, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong. Havas Sports is represented in India and China. Source: Sport Business, ADOI!, 25th Sep 2007
* Basketball’s CBA-Euroleague Challenge have secured television deals with Eurosport 2 which will show three of the games between Team China, Sydney Kings, CSKA Moscow and Benetton Basket Tamoil on September 30 and October 1. Meanwhile, CCTV5, the sports channel of state broadcaster China Central Television, will broadcast all Team China games live to an audience of more than 100 million viewers. The CBA-Euroleague Challenge is being promoted by the Chinese Basketball Association, Infront Sports and Media, the Switzerland-based international sports agency which markets basketball in China, and Euroleague Basketball, the top European club competition. Source: Sportcal, 25th Sep 2007
* FIFA have had to pay out more than £50million in severance money to sponsors and staff, such has been the chronic mismanagement within world football's governing body. In addition to the £45m to Mastercard following the fiasco of FIFA's World Cup sponsorship negotiations, it has now emerged that general secretary Urs Linsi received a £4m pay-off when he left Zurich last June having just agreed a new eight-year deal worth an annual £500,000 with his own employee, the head of human resources, two months earlier. Linsi's deputy Michael Schallhart and the human resources boss Jurg Imfeld, who departed with the general secretary, also received £500,000 each, with FIFA haemorrhaging money. Source: Daily Mail, 24th Sep 2007
* European interest in watching mobile television is tiny, a new study shows. Mobile operators hope that mobile TV could encourage users to spend an extra €5-10 a month, compensating for declining revenues from voice calls, but mobile television and video downloads ranked close to the bottom of consumer interest in a Gartner study in Europe. Only about 5% of Europeans expressed interest in watching television or video on their cellphones in the next 12 months, the study said. At the same time some 20% of Asians said they would watch TV on their phone screens. Source: Advanced Television, 25th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
Elsewhere/Premiere Plans 'Less Provocative' Bundesliga Bidding Strategy
Premiere, the German cable and satellite broadcaster, is to adopt a ‘less provocative’ bidding strategy for the rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga in 2009-10. Premiere is seeking to acquire the Bundesliga rights when the German Football League (DFL) issues a tender towards the end of the year, and is to adopt a different approach in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the last auction, when it lost out to cable consortium Unity Media.
Carsten Schmidt, a member of the board responsible for sports and new business at Premiere, told Dow Jones Newswires, that ‘in contrast to last time, we will not bid provocatively any more.’ In December 2005, Premiere was outflanked by Unity Media in the bidding for the rights from 2006 to 2009 after insisting that the Bundesliga’s free-to-air highlights be delayed to offer more exclusivity to pay-television. Premiere later recouped the rights for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons after agreeing a €100-million ($140.9-million) a year sublicensing deal with Arena, Unity Media’s pay-television channel.
Despite saying that it is willing to adopt a more flexible bidding strategy, Premiere still wants highlights to be shown later on German free-to-air television. Sportschau, the highlights programme on ARD, the German public-service broadcaster, currently airs at 6.30pm on Saturdays, just over an hour after the afternoon matches conclude. Source: Sportcal, 25th Sep 2007
TSA Distributes More Badminton from Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Badminton Association (HKBA) appointed Total Sports Asia (TSA) as exclusive worldwide media rights distributor for the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open Badminton Super Series 2007. TSA will distribute all television, broadband and mobile platform worldwide rights excluding the territory of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chau Yat Kwong, Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong Badminton Association said: “We are glad to appoint TSA to exclusively distribute the rights to the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open because of TSA’s established networks in the market and the sterling work that they have done to elevate the sport of badminton to greater heights.
Julian Jackson, Senior Vice President of Media in Total Sports Asia said: “This appointment means a lot to TSA because we have been entrusted to bring this top-notch badminton event to fans all over the world. Badminton viewership has shown strong growth over the years and we are confident that we will help the HKBA bring the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open to more viewers around the world than ever before.”
Previously known simply as the Hong Kong Open, this year marks a significance for the HKBA because the event is upgraded to Super Series tournament. The prestigious Super Series attracts a clutch of top international badminton stars like Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, Danish great Peter Gade and Malaysia’s star ace Lee Chong Wei, who will compete for top honours.
The Super Series is a calendar of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and each tournament offers a minimum of US$200,000 in prize money, making it a major draw for top badminton players. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 25th Sep 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* ESPN Star Sports, which gambled an astonishing $1.1-billion to win the ICC rights for the next eight years, has earned Rs200 crore from the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup championship alone. Media buyers say ESS received close to Rs110-115 crore through ad sales alone, which went through the roof for the finals with India playing Pakistan. Of the Rs115-odd crore, Rs 40 crore has been contributed by sponsors, with the rest coming from stand-alone spot sales. ESS sold spots for the India-Pakistan final Twenty20 match at an all-time high of Rs7.5-10 lakh per 10 seconds, the highest rates in the history of Indian TV, with TRPs expected in the range of an astronomical 15-20. Source: Economic Times, 25th Sep 2007
* Neo Sports has sold 65% of advertising inventory for the upcoming India-Australia cricket series, starting September 29, buoyed by India’s success in the Twenty20 World Cup. Earlier this week, Neo Sports officials said they have reached an agreement with InCable Net to carry Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus. InCable Net reaches 4 million viewers across India and adds to the 1 million homes that Neo Sports is now able to reach through Tata Sky. Recently, Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus signed on cable operators in south India, pushing its reach to about 45% of households in the south. Neo Sports has the telecast rights of all international cricket played in India until 2010. Source: Sport Business, Indian Television, Economic Times, 25th Sep 2007
* Neo Sports has announced an agreement with StarHub in Singapore. The agreement ensures live telecast and availability of Neo Sports in Singapore, starting 26 September. With this deal, Neo Sports has spread its footprints deeper across Asia as this announcement comes close on the heels of its recently announced deals with the Middle East Countries and several South East Asian countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Viewers in Singapore will get access to the international and domestic cricket played in India. StarHub will offer Neo Sports on its digital platform, as part of its newly designed Cricket Group comprising Neo Sports and the Cricket Channel. Source: Indian Television, 25th Sep 2007
* Havas Media will open a new sports marketing office in Malaysia with Kuhan Foo, previously head of operations at Total Sports Asia, as its general manager. Foo previously worked on AirAsia’s sponsorship of Manchester United, the partnership which saw Havas Sports appointed to manage the activation work for the deal. In the last 18 months, Havas Media has opened offices in Singapore, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong. Havas Sports is represented in India and China. Source: Sport Business, ADOI!, 25th Sep 2007
* Basketball’s CBA-Euroleague Challenge have secured television deals with Eurosport 2 which will show three of the games between Team China, Sydney Kings, CSKA Moscow and Benetton Basket Tamoil on September 30 and October 1. Meanwhile, CCTV5, the sports channel of state broadcaster China Central Television, will broadcast all Team China games live to an audience of more than 100 million viewers. The CBA-Euroleague Challenge is being promoted by the Chinese Basketball Association, Infront Sports and Media, the Switzerland-based international sports agency which markets basketball in China, and Euroleague Basketball, the top European club competition. Source: Sportcal, 25th Sep 2007
* FIFA have had to pay out more than £50million in severance money to sponsors and staff, such has been the chronic mismanagement within world football's governing body. In addition to the £45m to Mastercard following the fiasco of FIFA's World Cup sponsorship negotiations, it has now emerged that general secretary Urs Linsi received a £4m pay-off when he left Zurich last June having just agreed a new eight-year deal worth an annual £500,000 with his own employee, the head of human resources, two months earlier. Linsi's deputy Michael Schallhart and the human resources boss Jurg Imfeld, who departed with the general secretary, also received £500,000 each, with FIFA haemorrhaging money. Source: Daily Mail, 24th Sep 2007
* European interest in watching mobile television is tiny, a new study shows. Mobile operators hope that mobile TV could encourage users to spend an extra €5-10 a month, compensating for declining revenues from voice calls, but mobile television and video downloads ranked close to the bottom of consumer interest in a Gartner study in Europe. Only about 5% of Europeans expressed interest in watching television or video on their cellphones in the next 12 months, the study said. At the same time some 20% of Asians said they would watch TV on their phone screens. Source: Advanced Television, 25th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
Elsewhere/Premiere Plans 'Less Provocative' Bundesliga Bidding Strategy
Premiere, the German cable and satellite broadcaster, is to adopt a ‘less provocative’ bidding strategy for the rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga in 2009-10. Premiere is seeking to acquire the Bundesliga rights when the German Football League (DFL) issues a tender towards the end of the year, and is to adopt a different approach in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the last auction, when it lost out to cable consortium Unity Media.
Carsten Schmidt, a member of the board responsible for sports and new business at Premiere, told Dow Jones Newswires, that ‘in contrast to last time, we will not bid provocatively any more.’ In December 2005, Premiere was outflanked by Unity Media in the bidding for the rights from 2006 to 2009 after insisting that the Bundesliga’s free-to-air highlights be delayed to offer more exclusivity to pay-television. Premiere later recouped the rights for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons after agreeing a €100-million ($140.9-million) a year sublicensing deal with Arena, Unity Media’s pay-television channel.
Despite saying that it is willing to adopt a more flexible bidding strategy, Premiere still wants highlights to be shown later on German free-to-air television. Sportschau, the highlights programme on ARD, the German public-service broadcaster, currently airs at 6.30pm on Saturdays, just over an hour after the afternoon matches conclude. Source: Sportcal, 25th Sep 2007
Tuesday, 25th September 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Telekom Malaysia has signed up as a major sponsor of soccer’s Malaysian Super League for a further three years. Telekom Malaysia announced the deal yesterday and confirmed it would be withdrawing its team, Telekom Malaysia FC, from the competition. Telekom Malaysia replaced Dunhill as the league’s main sponsor in 2005 following the introduction of a ban on tobacco companies sponsoring sports event. The initial deal was worth M$8.5 million ($2.5 million) a year. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* More details have been released of Bharti Airtel’s proposed Indian DTH platform, including a Rs 1.5 billion (US$38 billion) initial infrastructure investment. Tandberg Television will be the major beneficiary of the investment, with Bharti already having said that it would use a range of Tandberg TV solutions, including MPEG-4 AVC standard definition encoders and the iSIS 8000 IP head-end. Bharti Telemedia, the subsidiary of telco Bharti Airtel which will operate the platform, will use transponders on Insat’s 4CR bird, launched earlier in September. Commercial launch of the sevice is scheduled for prior to the second quarter of next year. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Sep 2007
* The Indian Cricket League, an unofficial venture which is due to commence operations with a Twenty20 competition this year, have delayed its launch until mid-November. The Twenty20 tournament was scheduled to take place in October, but has been moved to enable more international players to take part, according to ICL executive board chairman Kapil Dev. He added that November 17 was the target date for the start of the event. The ICL has been overshadowed by the launch of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition backed by the Board of Control for Cricket India, which is due to be held for the first time in April of next year. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* Duisburg in Germany, the city that hosted the World Games in 2005, will bid to host them again in 2013 after the city council agreed to a plan to send a letter of intent to the International World Games Association. Letters of intent, including a host city questionnaire, must be must be received by the association by the end of this month. The next World Games are due to be held in Taiwan in 2009. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
* France Telecom has launched Orange Sports TV, an IPTV service that will feature sports news broadcast on television via the internet and direct to Orange mobile 3G subscribers. Orange already has existing rights agreements for events such as the French Open and the Tour de France. However, it is reported Orange will not compete for IPTV rights for French first and second division soccer matches, available in November. Orange is the French first division title sponsor, and will only re-bid for the mobile rights to League One and Two games, valued at €29m. Orange is the major brand of France Telecom, and has two thirds of France Telecom's 163 million customers in five continents. Source: Sport Business, 24th Sep 2007
* The International Olympic Committee has downed the prospect of skateboarding being included in the 2012 Olympic Games, saying that its addition at this stage would be ‘premature.’ The IOC has however opened the door for BMX Freestyle to be included for the first time at the London games. BMX Racing is making its Olympic debut in Beijing next year. However, following a review of the feasibility study conducted by the UCI, the IOC informed the federation that ‘the way it is presented at present looks premature’ for the discipline to gain Olympic recognition. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* A total of 111 broadcasters from 230 countries will carry NFL American football programming during the 2007 season, amounting to nearly 200,000 hours of programming (excluding the NFL’s own NFL Network), the league has said. Broadcasters include China’s CCTV, the state broadcaster, which will broadcast regular-season and playoff games, including the Super Bowl. The NFL Network will be broadcast by 30 partners to more than 5 million subscribers worldwide. Meanwhile, ESPN and Fox have renewed their international partnerships with the NFL until the end of the 2009 season, offering global distribution across Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* Floyd Landis lost his appeal against a two-year ban for doping during the 2006 Tour de France and will also forfeit his tour title. The ban was upheld by the American Arbitration Association, which voted by two to one to uphold the sanction imposed by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Landis now has a month to decide whether to take his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone after the 17th stage of the 2006 Tour de France. The cyclist’s legal team has questioned the practices of the Paris laboratory which tested his sample. Landis called the appeal panel ruling ‘a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
China/Rights: Row over Online Olympic Rights Rumbles on
A dispute among Chinese websites over the rights acquired by Sohu.com as an official sponsor of the games organising committee is rumbling on, with other websites, including Sohu’s arch-rival Sina.com, continuing to carry Olympic imagery, despite Sohu’s claim of exclusivity. Sina is planning comprehensive coverage of the games, using a 450-strong team to cover them in Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic.
Sohu likens Sina’s plans to those of ‘a small band of guerrillas,’ according to the China Daily, and claims that it will have easy access to Olympic coverage when interviewing officials and athletes. However, the International Olympic Committee today rejected a claim by Sohu.com that it would get preferential access to report on the games for its own commercial use.
The IOC told Sportcal.com: ‘The Olympic Games are covered by a number of media outlets. Being a BOCOG [organising committee] partner does not grant exclusive or special editorial rights to cover the Beijing games. Currently the new media and mobile rights to show live or highlight footage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have not been granted in mainland China.’ The deadline for Chinese companies to bid for internet and mobile phone rights for the games elapsed in April. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
India/Broadcaster: Pay-TV Industry Set to Turn Over $10bn by 2010
The pay-television market in India could net annual turnover of $10 billion by 2010 thanks to increased penetration and the deployment of digital cable delivery systems. The market, which is set to generate a turnover of $4.2 billion during the current financial period, will benefit from an increase in pay-television cable and satellite household reach from 61 per cent at present to 84 per cent by 2011, according to a survey performed by Media Partners Asia, the Hong Kong-based media research and consultancy group.
The report also predicted that over 90 per cent of Indian homes will have pay-television by 2015, over a third of which will have digital set-top boxes. It is also forecast that there will be around 107 million cable homes in India within three years, and that the number of digital cable subscribers will grow from around 1.35 million in December this year to 12.2 million by 2010 and 22.6 million by 2015.
Media Partners Asia’s report also found that an estimated 1.2 million new subscribers signed up for digital pay-television during the first quarter of 2007, boosted by the increased digitalization of the cable delivery system. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
India/Broadcaster: New Deals for Neo Sports Channel
Neo Sports, the Indian pay-television channel featuring international cricket, has today expanded its presence in southern India via a distribution deal with leading cable network Asianet. The deal covers the state of south-western state of Kerala and means that Neo Sports can now be accessed in 50 per cent of cable and satellite homes in India. The channel recently agreed deals with Tata Sky, India’s leading direct-to-home platform, and Amogh Broadband Services, the multi-system operator which is the leading cable network in the southern state of Karnataka.
Forthcoming attractions on Neo Sports include India’s home one-day international series against Australia, which begins later this month, and Pakistan’s tour of India. Neo Sports is owned by Nimbus Sport, the sports marketing company which holds the rights to India’s home matches until March 2010. Sister channel Neo Sports Plus features other sports including soccer, motor racing and badminton. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Neo Sports, the Indian pay-television channel which televises the Indian cricket team’s home internationals, has significantly increased its reach by signing a deal with InCable, the country’s largest cable network. Under the terms of the agreement, InCable subscribers will be able to watch Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, the sister channel which showcases sports other than cricket. Deals have already been agreed with Tata Sky, India’s leading direct-to-home platform, Amogh Broadband Services, the leading cable network in the state of Karnataka, and Asianet, another cable network with a major presence in the south of the country.
Meanwhile, a long-term agreement has been reached with StarHub, the leading pay-television provider in Singapore, to enable Neo Sports to be watched in the island nation. Neo Sports is owned by Nimbus Sport, the sports marketing company which holds the rights to India’s home matches until March 2010, and will feature next month’s one-day international series against Australia and Pakistan’s tour of India in November and December. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
Singapore/Broadcaster: StarHub to Launch New Sports Channels
StarHub Digital Cable will roll out two new sports channels in Singapore, with the 24-hour cricket channel Neo Sports due to launch September 26, and the Golf Channel on October 16. Neo Sports will feature all home matches by the Indian and Bangladesh cricket teams, as well as Indian domestic tournaments. The channel will also showcase various cricket-related programming including interviews with top cricketers and analyses.
The programming on Neo Sports will complement StarHub’s current cricket offering, Cricket Channel, which offers international “live” cricket matches by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and home matches by the Australia and England cricket teams. Neo Sports will be bundled with the Cricket Channel, to form the new Cricket Group with a monthly subscription of S$30. From now till end March 2008, customers can enjoy the Cricket Group at a discounted price of S$25 monthly.
The Golf Channel is a 24-hour channel featuring tournaments played around the world including news, instructional and original productions. The channel will air over 60 hours of “live” and delayed coverage of all the golf happenings around the world each week, and these include U.S. PGA Tour, European PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour. Golf Channel will be available at no additional cost, to all Sports Group customers using the digital set-top box, HubStation or HD set-top box. The other Sports Group channels are ESPN, Football Channel, Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2, STAR Sports, SuperSports and SuperSports Plus.
Additionally, StarHub has acquired the broadcast rights for the current season of National Football League (NFL), to be aired over Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2. Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2 will carry two “live” NFL games each week, and the weekly magazine show NFL Game Day, from September to January 2008. “The new Cricket Group, comprising Neo Sports and Cricket Channel, will provide an enhanced value for our cricket customers as they will enjoy a double dose of their favorite sport,” said Patrick Lim, StarHub’s VP of cable TV services. “We hope that our cricket customers will be thrilled with this news and with StarHub’s extensive cricket content.” Source: Worldscreen, 24th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: SCP Secures Partners for 2010 South American World Cup Qualifiers
SCP Worldwide, the New York based sports, media and entertainment company has secured pay-per-view, cable, internet TV and closed circuit distribution agreements for the South American World Cup 2010 Qualifying matches. SCP worldwide owns the exclusive multi-platform rights to the qualifiers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.
The exclusive residential pay-per-view rights which will be broadcast through the DISH Networksatellite TV service; GolTV will be the official cable television distributor and the home of the official highlights show; JumpTV will be the exclusive internet distribution and marketing partner of the live pay-per-view games on www.jumptv.com; and Integrated Sports Media will be the exclusive commercial establishment distributor.
"Soccer has seen unprecedented ratings success this summer with some of the international games and tournaments that have been played," said David W. Checketts, chairman of SCP Worldwide. "As evidenced by our multiple distribution agreements with these premiere media partners this is a valuable property with high demand." The tournament plays 20 games across four rounds this October and November and will feature the 10 South American Federations. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Audiovisual Sport Calls Meeting to Discuss Rights Row
Audiovisual Sport, the rights-holder the Primera Liga, will hold a board meeting on Thursday to discuss a continuing broadcasting rights feud with Mediapro. The meeting was called after pressure from Catalan broadcaster TV3, which still has a 20% stake in Audiovisual, according to the El Economista newspaper, with Sogecable owning the remainder. Mediapro claims that the deal for the league’s domestic broadcasting rights is void because of a feud over the ownership of Audiovisual, the league’s rights-holder until the end of the 2008-09 season.
Earlier this month, Sogecable filed a €200-million ($281-million) lawsuit against Mediapro, claiming that commercial broadcaster La Sexta, which is partly owned by Mediapro, had aired three matches illegally on the first weekend of the season. Earlier this week, Mediapro said that it had agreed to a proposal by Audiovisual managing director Daniel Margalef to temporarily return to last season’s system in which one match per weekend is available free-to-air (to be aired by Mediapro’s La Sexta channel), one on pay-television (Sogecable’s Canal Plus channel), and the rest on pay-per-view (Sogecable’s Digital Plus platform). Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Spanish soccer rights holder Audiovisual Sport was this weekend blocked from entering the Nou Camp stadium to cover the match between Barcelona and Sevilla, leaving rival broadcasters to show it on free-to-air television. The action marks the latest chapter in the ongoing row over the rights to the top-tier La Liga, which are claimed by Audiovisual Sport and media rights agency Mediapro. Barcelona’s decision to exclude Audiovisual Sport were backed by Mediapro, whose free-to-air commercial channel La Sexta did air the match.
More surprisingly, Mediapro was backed by TV3, the free-to-air regional broadcaster in Catalunya. TV3 is said to retain a 20-per-cent share in Audiovisual Sport, although the ownership of the company is disputed. TV3 also screened the game, sharing its signal with La Sexta. TV3’s five-year deal to show Barcelona matches expires at the end of this season. Mediapro claims that the deal for the league’s domestic broadcasting rights is void because of a continuing feud over the ownership of Audiovisual Sport, the rights holder until the end of the 2008-09 season. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* Telekom Malaysia has signed up as a major sponsor of soccer’s Malaysian Super League for a further three years. Telekom Malaysia announced the deal yesterday and confirmed it would be withdrawing its team, Telekom Malaysia FC, from the competition. Telekom Malaysia replaced Dunhill as the league’s main sponsor in 2005 following the introduction of a ban on tobacco companies sponsoring sports event. The initial deal was worth M$8.5 million ($2.5 million) a year. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* More details have been released of Bharti Airtel’s proposed Indian DTH platform, including a Rs 1.5 billion (US$38 billion) initial infrastructure investment. Tandberg Television will be the major beneficiary of the investment, with Bharti already having said that it would use a range of Tandberg TV solutions, including MPEG-4 AVC standard definition encoders and the iSIS 8000 IP head-end. Bharti Telemedia, the subsidiary of telco Bharti Airtel which will operate the platform, will use transponders on Insat’s 4CR bird, launched earlier in September. Commercial launch of the sevice is scheduled for prior to the second quarter of next year. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Sep 2007
* The Indian Cricket League, an unofficial venture which is due to commence operations with a Twenty20 competition this year, have delayed its launch until mid-November. The Twenty20 tournament was scheduled to take place in October, but has been moved to enable more international players to take part, according to ICL executive board chairman Kapil Dev. He added that November 17 was the target date for the start of the event. The ICL has been overshadowed by the launch of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition backed by the Board of Control for Cricket India, which is due to be held for the first time in April of next year. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* Duisburg in Germany, the city that hosted the World Games in 2005, will bid to host them again in 2013 after the city council agreed to a plan to send a letter of intent to the International World Games Association. Letters of intent, including a host city questionnaire, must be must be received by the association by the end of this month. The next World Games are due to be held in Taiwan in 2009. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
* France Telecom has launched Orange Sports TV, an IPTV service that will feature sports news broadcast on television via the internet and direct to Orange mobile 3G subscribers. Orange already has existing rights agreements for events such as the French Open and the Tour de France. However, it is reported Orange will not compete for IPTV rights for French first and second division soccer matches, available in November. Orange is the French first division title sponsor, and will only re-bid for the mobile rights to League One and Two games, valued at €29m. Orange is the major brand of France Telecom, and has two thirds of France Telecom's 163 million customers in five continents. Source: Sport Business, 24th Sep 2007
* The International Olympic Committee has downed the prospect of skateboarding being included in the 2012 Olympic Games, saying that its addition at this stage would be ‘premature.’ The IOC has however opened the door for BMX Freestyle to be included for the first time at the London games. BMX Racing is making its Olympic debut in Beijing next year. However, following a review of the feasibility study conducted by the UCI, the IOC informed the federation that ‘the way it is presented at present looks premature’ for the discipline to gain Olympic recognition. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* A total of 111 broadcasters from 230 countries will carry NFL American football programming during the 2007 season, amounting to nearly 200,000 hours of programming (excluding the NFL’s own NFL Network), the league has said. Broadcasters include China’s CCTV, the state broadcaster, which will broadcast regular-season and playoff games, including the Super Bowl. The NFL Network will be broadcast by 30 partners to more than 5 million subscribers worldwide. Meanwhile, ESPN and Fox have renewed their international partnerships with the NFL until the end of the 2009 season, offering global distribution across Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
* Floyd Landis lost his appeal against a two-year ban for doping during the 2006 Tour de France and will also forfeit his tour title. The ban was upheld by the American Arbitration Association, which voted by two to one to uphold the sanction imposed by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Landis now has a month to decide whether to take his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone after the 17th stage of the 2006 Tour de France. The cyclist’s legal team has questioned the practices of the Paris laboratory which tested his sample. Landis called the appeal panel ruling ‘a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
China/Rights: Row over Online Olympic Rights Rumbles on
A dispute among Chinese websites over the rights acquired by Sohu.com as an official sponsor of the games organising committee is rumbling on, with other websites, including Sohu’s arch-rival Sina.com, continuing to carry Olympic imagery, despite Sohu’s claim of exclusivity. Sina is planning comprehensive coverage of the games, using a 450-strong team to cover them in Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic.
Sohu likens Sina’s plans to those of ‘a small band of guerrillas,’ according to the China Daily, and claims that it will have easy access to Olympic coverage when interviewing officials and athletes. However, the International Olympic Committee today rejected a claim by Sohu.com that it would get preferential access to report on the games for its own commercial use.
The IOC told Sportcal.com: ‘The Olympic Games are covered by a number of media outlets. Being a BOCOG [organising committee] partner does not grant exclusive or special editorial rights to cover the Beijing games. Currently the new media and mobile rights to show live or highlight footage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have not been granted in mainland China.’ The deadline for Chinese companies to bid for internet and mobile phone rights for the games elapsed in April. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
India/Broadcaster: Pay-TV Industry Set to Turn Over $10bn by 2010
The pay-television market in India could net annual turnover of $10 billion by 2010 thanks to increased penetration and the deployment of digital cable delivery systems. The market, which is set to generate a turnover of $4.2 billion during the current financial period, will benefit from an increase in pay-television cable and satellite household reach from 61 per cent at present to 84 per cent by 2011, according to a survey performed by Media Partners Asia, the Hong Kong-based media research and consultancy group.
The report also predicted that over 90 per cent of Indian homes will have pay-television by 2015, over a third of which will have digital set-top boxes. It is also forecast that there will be around 107 million cable homes in India within three years, and that the number of digital cable subscribers will grow from around 1.35 million in December this year to 12.2 million by 2010 and 22.6 million by 2015.
Media Partners Asia’s report also found that an estimated 1.2 million new subscribers signed up for digital pay-television during the first quarter of 2007, boosted by the increased digitalization of the cable delivery system. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
India/Broadcaster: New Deals for Neo Sports Channel
Neo Sports, the Indian pay-television channel featuring international cricket, has today expanded its presence in southern India via a distribution deal with leading cable network Asianet. The deal covers the state of south-western state of Kerala and means that Neo Sports can now be accessed in 50 per cent of cable and satellite homes in India. The channel recently agreed deals with Tata Sky, India’s leading direct-to-home platform, and Amogh Broadband Services, the multi-system operator which is the leading cable network in the southern state of Karnataka.
Forthcoming attractions on Neo Sports include India’s home one-day international series against Australia, which begins later this month, and Pakistan’s tour of India. Neo Sports is owned by Nimbus Sport, the sports marketing company which holds the rights to India’s home matches until March 2010. Sister channel Neo Sports Plus features other sports including soccer, motor racing and badminton. Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Neo Sports, the Indian pay-television channel which televises the Indian cricket team’s home internationals, has significantly increased its reach by signing a deal with InCable, the country’s largest cable network. Under the terms of the agreement, InCable subscribers will be able to watch Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, the sister channel which showcases sports other than cricket. Deals have already been agreed with Tata Sky, India’s leading direct-to-home platform, Amogh Broadband Services, the leading cable network in the state of Karnataka, and Asianet, another cable network with a major presence in the south of the country.
Meanwhile, a long-term agreement has been reached with StarHub, the leading pay-television provider in Singapore, to enable Neo Sports to be watched in the island nation. Neo Sports is owned by Nimbus Sport, the sports marketing company which holds the rights to India’s home matches until March 2010, and will feature next month’s one-day international series against Australia and Pakistan’s tour of India in November and December. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
Singapore/Broadcaster: StarHub to Launch New Sports Channels
StarHub Digital Cable will roll out two new sports channels in Singapore, with the 24-hour cricket channel Neo Sports due to launch September 26, and the Golf Channel on October 16. Neo Sports will feature all home matches by the Indian and Bangladesh cricket teams, as well as Indian domestic tournaments. The channel will also showcase various cricket-related programming including interviews with top cricketers and analyses.
The programming on Neo Sports will complement StarHub’s current cricket offering, Cricket Channel, which offers international “live” cricket matches by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and home matches by the Australia and England cricket teams. Neo Sports will be bundled with the Cricket Channel, to form the new Cricket Group with a monthly subscription of S$30. From now till end March 2008, customers can enjoy the Cricket Group at a discounted price of S$25 monthly.
The Golf Channel is a 24-hour channel featuring tournaments played around the world including news, instructional and original productions. The channel will air over 60 hours of “live” and delayed coverage of all the golf happenings around the world each week, and these include U.S. PGA Tour, European PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour. Golf Channel will be available at no additional cost, to all Sports Group customers using the digital set-top box, HubStation or HD set-top box. The other Sports Group channels are ESPN, Football Channel, Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2, STAR Sports, SuperSports and SuperSports Plus.
Additionally, StarHub has acquired the broadcast rights for the current season of National Football League (NFL), to be aired over Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2. Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2 will carry two “live” NFL games each week, and the weekly magazine show NFL Game Day, from September to January 2008. “The new Cricket Group, comprising Neo Sports and Cricket Channel, will provide an enhanced value for our cricket customers as they will enjoy a double dose of their favorite sport,” said Patrick Lim, StarHub’s VP of cable TV services. “We hope that our cricket customers will be thrilled with this news and with StarHub’s extensive cricket content.” Source: Worldscreen, 24th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: SCP Secures Partners for 2010 South American World Cup Qualifiers
SCP Worldwide, the New York based sports, media and entertainment company has secured pay-per-view, cable, internet TV and closed circuit distribution agreements for the South American World Cup 2010 Qualifying matches. SCP worldwide owns the exclusive multi-platform rights to the qualifiers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.
The exclusive residential pay-per-view rights which will be broadcast through the DISH Networksatellite TV service; GolTV will be the official cable television distributor and the home of the official highlights show; JumpTV will be the exclusive internet distribution and marketing partner of the live pay-per-view games on www.jumptv.com; and Integrated Sports Media will be the exclusive commercial establishment distributor.
"Soccer has seen unprecedented ratings success this summer with some of the international games and tournaments that have been played," said David W. Checketts, chairman of SCP Worldwide. "As evidenced by our multiple distribution agreements with these premiere media partners this is a valuable property with high demand." The tournament plays 20 games across four rounds this October and November and will feature the 10 South American Federations. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Audiovisual Sport Calls Meeting to Discuss Rights Row
Audiovisual Sport, the rights-holder the Primera Liga, will hold a board meeting on Thursday to discuss a continuing broadcasting rights feud with Mediapro. The meeting was called after pressure from Catalan broadcaster TV3, which still has a 20% stake in Audiovisual, according to the El Economista newspaper, with Sogecable owning the remainder. Mediapro claims that the deal for the league’s domestic broadcasting rights is void because of a feud over the ownership of Audiovisual, the league’s rights-holder until the end of the 2008-09 season.
Earlier this month, Sogecable filed a €200-million ($281-million) lawsuit against Mediapro, claiming that commercial broadcaster La Sexta, which is partly owned by Mediapro, had aired three matches illegally on the first weekend of the season. Earlier this week, Mediapro said that it had agreed to a proposal by Audiovisual managing director Daniel Margalef to temporarily return to last season’s system in which one match per weekend is available free-to-air (to be aired by Mediapro’s La Sexta channel), one on pay-television (Sogecable’s Canal Plus channel), and the rest on pay-per-view (Sogecable’s Digital Plus platform). Source: Sportcal, 21st Sep 2007
Spanish soccer rights holder Audiovisual Sport was this weekend blocked from entering the Nou Camp stadium to cover the match between Barcelona and Sevilla, leaving rival broadcasters to show it on free-to-air television. The action marks the latest chapter in the ongoing row over the rights to the top-tier La Liga, which are claimed by Audiovisual Sport and media rights agency Mediapro. Barcelona’s decision to exclude Audiovisual Sport were backed by Mediapro, whose free-to-air commercial channel La Sexta did air the match.
More surprisingly, Mediapro was backed by TV3, the free-to-air regional broadcaster in Catalunya. TV3 is said to retain a 20-per-cent share in Audiovisual Sport, although the ownership of the company is disputed. TV3 also screened the game, sharing its signal with La Sexta. TV3’s five-year deal to show Barcelona matches expires at the end of this season. Mediapro claims that the deal for the league’s domestic broadcasting rights is void because of a continuing feud over the ownership of Audiovisual Sport, the rights holder until the end of the 2008-09 season. Source: Sportcal, 24th Sep 2007
Friday, 21st September 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Real Madrid is the ranked top of Top 25 Ranking of Europe's Most Valuable Football Associations according to research from BDO Consulting. With a brand value of €1,063 million, Real Madrid is the only association with a brand value which exceeds €1 billion. Second place, with a brand value of €948 millions, is FC Barcelona and third is Manchester United. The ranking is based on research, which determines brand value using current and future income flow and expert opinion. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* ESPN Star Sports today won an injunction in the Delhi High Court preventing cable operators in India from unauthorised carriage of the broadcaster’s coverage of the ICC World Twenty20. The broadcaster had claimed that cable operators were practising ‘rampant piracy’ of the signal for the competition, for which it holds exclusive rights. The lawsuit named 22 cable operators. Meanwhile, the ICC has dismissed claims that there are problems with the feed of the World Twenty20 being offered by ESPN Star Sports, after South Africa’s SABC suffered a series of blackouts of its coverage. The ICC pointed out that the ESPN Star Sports feed ‘is being broadcast in 100 countries, including China. Good cricket TV is one of our key products and we’ve had not a single complaint from anywhere in the world about the quality of the broadcast.’ Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* The US Ladies Professional Golf Association (USLPGA) and Sports Marketing Japan Co. Ltd. (SMJ) will launch the USLPGA Official Japanese Website and Mobile Site, “LPGA Ladies Golf” on all three major mobile carriers in order to engage the USLPGA’s growing Japanese fan base. Starting Sept. 3, 2007 (Sept. 6 for KDDI au), fans will be able to enjoy news and real-time scoring of 2007 season USLPGA tournaments, as well as video interviews with popular players including Ai Miyazato, Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa and Paula Creamer via both the PC Web site and mobile site in Japan. Additional content such as downloadable wallpapers, player directory and statistics, ranking information, and special columns will be regularly available. Source: Sports e-Media, 20th Sep 2007
* East-West Center and Sports Marketing Japan Co. Ltd. announced the inaugural EAST WEST SPORTS SUMMIT, an international conference focusing on sports and the sports industry in the Asia Pacific Region and United States. The East West Sports Summit (EWSS) is designed for business, government, federation and media leaders of the Asia Pacific region and the United States who wish to acquire expertise and influence national and regional Asia Pacific sports issues. The first EWSS will take place on November 7 to 9, 2007 at the East-West Center's Imin International Conference Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i which is the most appropriate location given its position as a geographic and cultural meeting place between the United States and the Asia Pacific region. Source: Sports e-Media, 20th Sep 2007
* Insurance group Aviva is sponsoring two cars, driven by Colin Turkington and Duncan Huisman, in the last two rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Macau. The drivers will be in a BMW 320si E90, the same model which Andy Priaulx drove to win the WTCC driver's championship last year, for the races at the four-mile street circuit in downtown Macau. Aviva aims to develop awareness of its brand across the globe through the comprehensive TV rights deal that the WTCC has, with coverage in more than 30 countries. Huisman is a previous winner of a WTCC round, having won the second race of the 2005 season. Source: Brand Republic, 20th Sep 2007
* Uganda will host its first international badminton event next year after succeeding in a bid to attract a world-ranking tournament. The Uganda International Badminton Championship will take place on January 25-27 next year and cost USh18 million ($10,400) to organise. National badminton coordinator Simon Mugabi told Ugandan newspaper New Vision: ‘Our bid to host the world ranking tournament has been granted by Badminton World Federation. The USh8.5-million prize money will be shared among the men and women singles winners, the doubles and mixed doubles. The event will be held at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala, with Roofings Uganda as the tournament sponsor. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* Adidas is to invest £100 million ($200 million) in the 2012 Olympic Games in London after being confirmed today as the third of nine top-tier partners of the event. The company will be the official sportswear partner of the games, receiving marketing and licensing rights, and provide clothing for officials, staff, volunteers and runners in the Olympic torch relay. Adidas will have exclusive licensing rights for branded and unbranded sportswear at London 2012 venues and stores and expects to provide the largest amount of merchandise revenue of any licensee or sponsor. The firm joins UK bank Lloyds TSB and French energy group EDF Energy as a tier one partner of the games. Source: Sportcal, Brand Republic, 20th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
US Open: Records Set at US Open but Drop in TV Viewing
Tennis’ US Open earlier this month attracted record attendances, website traffic, concession sales and sponsorship activity, according to the US Tennis Association. However, television viewing figures were down, with over 75 million people watching all or part of the tournament on US television, compared with 95 million last year. CBS, the national network, and cable channel USA Networks, televised the event, with more than 45 million people watching all or part of CBS’s coverage, including nearly 17 million who watched the men’s final, won by Roger Federer.
The fall in viewing figures is perhaps explained by the fact that there were no US players in either the men’s or women’s finals this year, with Switzerland’s Federer beating Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, while Belgium’s Justine Henin beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the women’s final. Last year, USA’s Andy Roddick lost to Federer in the men’s final, while the women’s final was won by Russia’s Maria Sharapova, who beat Henin. Attendances exceeded 700,000 at 715,587 for the first time in the event’s history, this year, surpassing the previous record figure 659,538 set in 2005.
Meanwhile, traffic to the official website, USOpen.org, increased by 11 per cent over the 2006 total to 30 million visits. The site registered 7.3 million unique users, compared with 7 million in 2006. Concession sales exceeded the previous record by more than 20 per cent, with more than 75,000 US Open caps being sold, while more than 20 sponsors supported the event. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Malaysia/New Media: Enter a New 3G Operator
Local mobile operator U Mobile has officially unveiled plans to launch its 3G mobile services, expected to go live within the next two months. Speaking to the media at the official launch and re-branding of the company, Kenneth Chang, executive director of U Mobile, said its 3G mobile network is up and running and currently available in the Klang Valley and other major cities across the country.
Formerly known as MiTV Networks, U Mobile received its license to operate a 3G network from its parent company MiTV, in March 2006. 3G licenses in the country are issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). MiTV and another local player TTdotCom, beat out then-leading contender, DiGi Telecommunication, in a hotly contested 3G spectrum license bidding exercise.
Asked how many 3G subscribers U Mobile is targeting to bag in the next 12 months, Chang said: "It's too premature to announce this, but we are targeting segments which we believe are currently untapped. The surveys we've done show that consumers are looking for a new player to offer them new services, and we know what they need and how to price it," he said. Chang also revealed that U Mobile has signed a domestic roaming agreement with Celcom, which launched its 3G services in May 2005. Domestic roaming allows subscribers from one network to select another when there is no network coverage available in the location they are currently at.
"This agreement allows our subscribers to roam onto Celcom's network [in areas where] there is no U Mobile network coverage," Chang explained. "However, this does not preclude U Mobile [expanding] our own network as we will be busy improving our coverage. Our service is very close to being launched commercially," he said. "We have already completed our interconnection with Celcom and we're now waiting to finish up with Maxis and DiGi, after which we will be fully ready to go live."
However, new entrants such as U Mobile, will face significant challenges in its bid to capture Malaysia's 3G market, according to some industry analysts. "The situation for 3G is very different now to what it was two years ago, as costs are much lower and 3G handsets are no longer a major barrier," Nathan Burley, research analyst at Ovum, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview. [New market] entrants need to build scale, and few have managed to gain significant market share following launches in established markets [in the region]," Burley noted.
Janice Chong, ICT practice telecom research manager at research house Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, said U Mobile is expected to face significant challenges in building its subscriber base from scratch. "Amid Malaysia's high mobile penetration rate, acquiring a customer base would prove to be a costly exercise, particularly when constrained by limited network coverage, diseconomies of scale and the lack of financial flexibility compared to the [other] major mobile carriers," Chong said in an e-mail interview.
She added that without a proven track record, U Mobile is expected to face teething problems such as network coverage and interoperability issues, billing issues, and readiness to address customer complaints in an effective and timely manner. According to Frost & Sullivan, the number of 3G subscribers in Malaysia grew from 431,000 in December 2006 to 700,000 in June 2007. Chang declined to reveal how much U Mobile has invested in its 3G and mobile TV networks, noting only that the company has "invested hundreds of millions of ringgit into our networks". Source: ZDNet, 18th Sep 2007
Asia/Broadcaster: ESS will Broadcast Sport at Any Time, via Any Pipe
ESPN Star Sports’ huge, $1.1-billion, eight-year media rights deal with the International Cricket Council has got off to a good start, according to the broadcaster’s managing director Manu Sawhney, with the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 being shown in over 110 countries. These include countries in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Cyprus and Mauritius and, for the first time, China.
In an exclusive interview with Sportcal.com, following the announcement yesterday of his promotion to managing director, Sawhney said that ESPN Star Sports is ‘committed to serving the Asian sports fan by creating and distributing the best sports programming: any time, any place via any pipe and any device and thus making ESPN and STAR Sports a core part of his or her daily life.’ Asked how the broadcaster would recoup its massive investment in the ICC rights, he claimed that, with respect to its ICC World Twenty20 coverage, ‘We have received extremely positive feedback from our sponsors on both the tournament format and coverage… as they see a huge positive impact on their brands from the innovative coverage presented around this tournament.’
Sawhney said that growth over the next few years would come from ESPN Star Sports ‘investing in programming and partnerships through a healthy mix of acquired and original content, thus expanding opportunities to connect with the audience across the region.’ He added that digital media would also form a focus for growth, claiming to have had ‘significant success in the mobile platform with mobileESPN and online medium through our multi-lingual sites such as espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw across Asia.’
Challenges for the broadcaster include ‘escalating acquisition costs, government regulations and policies, changing audience preferences’ and others, Sawhney said. He also admitted that ESPN Star Spots faces growing competition from new entrants into the Asian broadcasting market. These include Ten Sports, Zee Telefims, Sony and Nimbus Sport. However, he dismissed any suggestion that the broadcaster had been damaged by its recent loss of the rights to show English soccer’s top-tier Premier League in key territories such as Singapore, China and Thailand.
He said: ‘Loss of a single property in a few specific markets does not have a large impact on our business. We have a robust business model that is not dependent on one particular sport. We bring the best of the international sporting action from around the world to over 310 million sports viewers across Asia.’
Sawhney pointed out that ESPN Star Sports’ line-up includes: soccer’s Uefa Champions League, FA Cup and England home games; motor sport’s Formula 1, A1 Grand Prix, MotoGP and World Rally Championship; Wimbledon and ATP Masters tennis; golf’s US Masters, British Open and US Open; plus the Rugby World Cup presently under way in France, NBA basketball and international cricket matches of both England and Australia.
Sawhney added: ‘Competition is a reality in today’s dynamic business scenario and it is healthy for the industry as it helps in increasing the overall pie of the industry and we welcome the competition positively.’
Asked whether it still make sense from both a programming and advertising point of view for a broadcaster to take a pan-continental approach to such a diverse market as Asia, Sawhney replied: ‘As a leader in sports broadcasting in Asia, we are continuously evolving with our audience learning their preferences and changing viewing habits. Today, ESPN STAR Sports has 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localized to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers.
‘We continue to serve our traditional “die hard” fans with in-depth analysis, data and information through our live action and programming and have been working towards growing this traditional fan base through a slew of interactive activities and programs. In addition, we are expanding the demographic base of our fans by targeting younger audience and female segment by creating content that is specifically designed for their needs and is presented in a lighter and more entertaining manner.’
Sawhney, who joined ESPN Star Sports in 1996 and played a leading role in the broadcaster’s growth in India, is stepping up from his present role as executive vice president of programming and marketing. He replaces Jamie Davis, who has resigned from the company, but will continue to act as a consultant. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Sportfive Heads Kentaro in Marketing Clubs’ Uefa Cup TV Rights
Sportfive tops the list of broadcast rights distributors for clubs in soccer’s Uefa Cup first round, ahead of Kentaro, the Switzerland-based sports rights agency. Independent research by Sportcal.com has found that Sportfive is distributing the broadcast rights for the home matches of 35 of the 80 clubs competing in the Uefa Cup first round, while Kentaro is second with 10 clubs. Some 38 first-leg games are to be played this evening.
The 35 clubs represented by Sportfive in the first round span 20 countries, with a strong representation from France, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Russia in particular. However, the agency does not market the international rights for any of the competing teams from England, Spain or the Netherlands. In some cases, more than one agency is involved in the distribution of rights for the home matches of a particular club, such as when one company sells the ‘second-party rights’ (the rights in the away team’s territory) and another company sells the ‘third-party rights’ (the rights outside the two teams’ respective territories). The rights in the home club’s territory (‘the first-party rights’) are often sold by the clubs themselves.
Clubs competing in the Uefa Cup own the broadcast rights to their home matches until the quarter-final stage of the competition, when the rights are sold centrally by the Team Marketing agency on behalf of Uefa. Kentaro has enhanced its portfolio of soccer rights in recent years (it now includes the friendly matches of Brazil and Argentina). Its 10 Uefa Cup first-round matches include all five Swedish participants and two Swiss sides. Global Sportnet, the Germany-based sports marketing agency, and the IMG Media agency follow closely with seven teams each, although one of Global Sportnet’s deals is restricted to second-party rights only.
Infront Sports and Media (including Infront Italy, its Italian arm) is marketing the rights of three clubs, albeit only for the first round in the case of Germany’s Bayern Munich. Thereafter, the club will sell the international rights itself. Pitch International, the sport rights agency founded by former senior executives at Octagon CSI, has the rights for the home games of the English duo of Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. Eight more agencies have one club each, while seven teams are distributing the rights themselves, among them the Spanish trio of Athletico Madrid, Getafe and Real Zaragoza.
In terms of market share by country, Sportfive would appear to have a strong hold on its two home markets of France and Germany, with four of the five competing French clubs and three of the four German clubs. IMG Media Netherlands enjoys a monopoly of the Dutch market with all five teams under contract, while the Italian market would appear to be more fractured, with each of the four clubs involved with a different agency. In England, rights for the four participants are shared among Pitch International, Kentaro and Global Sportnet, while in Spain the clubs have opted mainly to market their own rights. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Cable to sue over Copa America broadcast
Jamaica’s RJR Communication Group, through its cable company TVJ Sports Network (TVJ-SN) will be dragged before the courts for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights by regional sports cable giant, SportsMax. Highly-placed Observer sources indicate that Attorney Kwame Gordon of Frater, Ennis and Gordon will be filing documents with the Supreme Court in Kingston today on behalf of SportsMax against the RJR Group.
The breaches relate to alleged unauthorised broadcast of an international friendly match between England and Brazil in June, and the COPA America (South American Football Championships) in June and July on TVJ-SN. When contacted about the matter late last evening, president and CEO of SportsMax, Oliver McIntosh, confirmed that his company will today begin court proceedings against Jamaica's largest listed media conglomerate. McIntosh explained that the decision to take the matter to court was prompted by the RJR Group's alleged repeated infringement on his company's exclusive broadcast rights.
It is understood that the suit alleges that TVJ-SN broadcast content that belongs to SportsMax without authorisation, including the 2007 Copa America finals; which SportsMax is alleging was taken from an illegal feed of United States football broadcaster GOL-TV. The regional cable company is also alleging that TVJ-SN broadcast the 2007 international friendly between Brazil and England which SportsMax assumes was taken from Fox Soccer Channel. SportsMax, which is the rights holder of Fox Soccer Channel in Jamaica, is also the exclusive rights holder for the COPA America and England national football team home matches, through its parent company International Media Content. Source: Jamaica Observer, 19th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Programming: ImaginAsian TV to Premiere MMA
ImaginAsian TV which promotes Asian American culture to mainstream America has announced that it will premiere a weekly mixed martial arts showcase, Pancrase Legends of Mixed Martial Arts, on 7 November, 2007. Mixed martial arts (MMA) heavyweight and current King of Pancrase Open Weight Champion Josh Barnett will provide expert knowledge of the action inside the ring as host of the new cable series. The outspoken Barnett – who made history in 2002 when he defeated Randy Couture and became the youngest UFC Heavyweight Champion at the age of 24 – will share commentary of classic Pancrase fights featuring such notable competitors as Sebastian “Bas” Rutten, Frank and Ken Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, Yuki Kondo and others.
ImaginAsian TV senior VP production and programming David Chu says, “Mixed martial arts is a unique sport that combines the world’s most exciting combat disciplines and is growing in popularity everyday. “We are thrilled to bring these legendary fights to our viewers, showcasing Pancrase’s top fighters, many of whom are among the top-ranked in the world and have also been champions in UFC or Pride.”
The series features some of the greatest MMA fighters to grace the ring since Pancrase was formed in 1993 by Funaki, Suzuki and others . The name Pancrase comes from pankration, an ancient sport introduced in the Greek Olympic games in the 7th Century B.C., and the name of the organization and original rules were inspired by the shoot fighting style and philosophy of wrestling legend Karl Gotch. Champions in eight weight classes are referred to as “King of Pancrase,” and the first King of Pancrase Open Weight Champion – the title now held by Barnett – was UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock. Source: Indian Television, 20th Sep 2007
ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS
Despite Imbalance, Rugby World Cup Cashes In
Brian Milner Comments on The Globe & Mail, 19th Sep 2007
Anyone doubting money does the talking in big-time sports need only cast an eye on the Rugby World Cup, which has come a long way since its inception 20 years ago. The 6th championship, now under way mainly in France, has yet to reach the halfway point of its six-week schedule and is still featuring too many games between a handful of legitimate contenders and a large number of outmatched also-rans. But despite the competitive imbalance and an early hiccup caused by an aborted media boycott, it is already an unqualified financial success thanks to record ticket sales and a huge increase in television revenue and sponsorship dollars, as broadcasters and marketers tap into the sport's growing appeal.
That might come as a surprise in Canada and the United States, where rugby is still a minor sport, but it is a big and increasingly lucrative draw in Europe and Asia, and not only in such hotbeds as Britain, France, New Zealand and South Africa. Networks and sponsors like it because it delivers loyal audiences of largely affluent young males. McDonald's France, one of the sponsors, is forecasting a 10-per-cent increase in sales directly stemming from its promotional tie-in to the event.
Organizers have raked in more than $140-million in TV rights revenue for this year's tournament, up substantially from about $95-million in 2003. British broadcaster ITV alone paid £30-million ($60.9-million), triple its cost for the 2003 event in Australia, although it acquired both in the same package. As recently as 1999, when the cup was staged on its home turf in Wales, ITV's price tag was only £12-million.
Yet ITV and other broadcasters aren't complaining. They expect to reap healthy profits from strong ad sales. Indeed, the British carrier sold out its available ad time more rapidly than for the FIFA World Cup of soccer. The International Rugby Board, which runs the event and derives most of its income from it, forecasts a record gain of its own of more than $180-million. With the marketing success has come the same sort of headaches faced by the much bigger Olympics, the soccer World Cup and other major sports events — namely, how to maintain control over content and squeeze as much money as possible out of it while balancing the interests of rights holders, sponsors and the media.
Rugby officials almost screwed up the juggling act just before the tournament began when a long-simmering dispute with news organizations and photo agencies over strict curbs on coverage boiled over. More than three dozen major news services, newspapers and photo agencies announced a boycott of the sport's highest-profile event. The potential damage hit home for the sponsors when Visa International held a press conference to introduce five rugby stars of yesteryear as its official spokesmen and almost no one showed up. That's not what a sponsor wants to see after forking out more than $7-million (a bargain by the standard of other major global sports events) for marketing rights.
Visa and such other key sponsors and suppliers as Adidas and French mobile phone company Orange quickly intervened. Calls were made, messages were sent, and the French government, which has a big financial stake in the success of the tournament, added its weight. "They made it clear that it was in the sponsors' best interests that all facets of the media be allowed to report," a person familiar with the discussions said. "They're the newcomer on the block and they're working their way through all of this." Needless to say, the sponsors got their way and the restrictions were lifted.
But the fact is that there will be more such confrontations in the future. The stakes are escalating dramatically thanks to the huge licensing fees and new methods of distributing content to consumers. As the rugby officials have discovered, it's all part of doing business when the big money is flowing.
* Real Madrid is the ranked top of Top 25 Ranking of Europe's Most Valuable Football Associations according to research from BDO Consulting. With a brand value of €1,063 million, Real Madrid is the only association with a brand value which exceeds €1 billion. Second place, with a brand value of €948 millions, is FC Barcelona and third is Manchester United. The ranking is based on research, which determines brand value using current and future income flow and expert opinion. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* ESPN Star Sports today won an injunction in the Delhi High Court preventing cable operators in India from unauthorised carriage of the broadcaster’s coverage of the ICC World Twenty20. The broadcaster had claimed that cable operators were practising ‘rampant piracy’ of the signal for the competition, for which it holds exclusive rights. The lawsuit named 22 cable operators. Meanwhile, the ICC has dismissed claims that there are problems with the feed of the World Twenty20 being offered by ESPN Star Sports, after South Africa’s SABC suffered a series of blackouts of its coverage. The ICC pointed out that the ESPN Star Sports feed ‘is being broadcast in 100 countries, including China. Good cricket TV is one of our key products and we’ve had not a single complaint from anywhere in the world about the quality of the broadcast.’ Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* The US Ladies Professional Golf Association (USLPGA) and Sports Marketing Japan Co. Ltd. (SMJ) will launch the USLPGA Official Japanese Website and Mobile Site, “LPGA Ladies Golf” on all three major mobile carriers in order to engage the USLPGA’s growing Japanese fan base. Starting Sept. 3, 2007 (Sept. 6 for KDDI au), fans will be able to enjoy news and real-time scoring of 2007 season USLPGA tournaments, as well as video interviews with popular players including Ai Miyazato, Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa and Paula Creamer via both the PC Web site and mobile site in Japan. Additional content such as downloadable wallpapers, player directory and statistics, ranking information, and special columns will be regularly available. Source: Sports e-Media, 20th Sep 2007
* East-West Center and Sports Marketing Japan Co. Ltd. announced the inaugural EAST WEST SPORTS SUMMIT, an international conference focusing on sports and the sports industry in the Asia Pacific Region and United States. The East West Sports Summit (EWSS) is designed for business, government, federation and media leaders of the Asia Pacific region and the United States who wish to acquire expertise and influence national and regional Asia Pacific sports issues. The first EWSS will take place on November 7 to 9, 2007 at the East-West Center's Imin International Conference Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i which is the most appropriate location given its position as a geographic and cultural meeting place between the United States and the Asia Pacific region. Source: Sports e-Media, 20th Sep 2007
* Insurance group Aviva is sponsoring two cars, driven by Colin Turkington and Duncan Huisman, in the last two rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Macau. The drivers will be in a BMW 320si E90, the same model which Andy Priaulx drove to win the WTCC driver's championship last year, for the races at the four-mile street circuit in downtown Macau. Aviva aims to develop awareness of its brand across the globe through the comprehensive TV rights deal that the WTCC has, with coverage in more than 30 countries. Huisman is a previous winner of a WTCC round, having won the second race of the 2005 season. Source: Brand Republic, 20th Sep 2007
* Uganda will host its first international badminton event next year after succeeding in a bid to attract a world-ranking tournament. The Uganda International Badminton Championship will take place on January 25-27 next year and cost USh18 million ($10,400) to organise. National badminton coordinator Simon Mugabi told Ugandan newspaper New Vision: ‘Our bid to host the world ranking tournament has been granted by Badminton World Federation. The USh8.5-million prize money will be shared among the men and women singles winners, the doubles and mixed doubles. The event will be held at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala, with Roofings Uganda as the tournament sponsor. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
* Adidas is to invest £100 million ($200 million) in the 2012 Olympic Games in London after being confirmed today as the third of nine top-tier partners of the event. The company will be the official sportswear partner of the games, receiving marketing and licensing rights, and provide clothing for officials, staff, volunteers and runners in the Olympic torch relay. Adidas will have exclusive licensing rights for branded and unbranded sportswear at London 2012 venues and stores and expects to provide the largest amount of merchandise revenue of any licensee or sponsor. The firm joins UK bank Lloyds TSB and French energy group EDF Energy as a tier one partner of the games. Source: Sportcal, Brand Republic, 20th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
US Open: Records Set at US Open but Drop in TV Viewing
Tennis’ US Open earlier this month attracted record attendances, website traffic, concession sales and sponsorship activity, according to the US Tennis Association. However, television viewing figures were down, with over 75 million people watching all or part of the tournament on US television, compared with 95 million last year. CBS, the national network, and cable channel USA Networks, televised the event, with more than 45 million people watching all or part of CBS’s coverage, including nearly 17 million who watched the men’s final, won by Roger Federer.
The fall in viewing figures is perhaps explained by the fact that there were no US players in either the men’s or women’s finals this year, with Switzerland’s Federer beating Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, while Belgium’s Justine Henin beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the women’s final. Last year, USA’s Andy Roddick lost to Federer in the men’s final, while the women’s final was won by Russia’s Maria Sharapova, who beat Henin. Attendances exceeded 700,000 at 715,587 for the first time in the event’s history, this year, surpassing the previous record figure 659,538 set in 2005.
Meanwhile, traffic to the official website, USOpen.org, increased by 11 per cent over the 2006 total to 30 million visits. The site registered 7.3 million unique users, compared with 7 million in 2006. Concession sales exceeded the previous record by more than 20 per cent, with more than 75,000 US Open caps being sold, while more than 20 sponsors supported the event. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Malaysia/New Media: Enter a New 3G Operator
Local mobile operator U Mobile has officially unveiled plans to launch its 3G mobile services, expected to go live within the next two months. Speaking to the media at the official launch and re-branding of the company, Kenneth Chang, executive director of U Mobile, said its 3G mobile network is up and running and currently available in the Klang Valley and other major cities across the country.
Formerly known as MiTV Networks, U Mobile received its license to operate a 3G network from its parent company MiTV, in March 2006. 3G licenses in the country are issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). MiTV and another local player TTdotCom, beat out then-leading contender, DiGi Telecommunication, in a hotly contested 3G spectrum license bidding exercise.
Asked how many 3G subscribers U Mobile is targeting to bag in the next 12 months, Chang said: "It's too premature to announce this, but we are targeting segments which we believe are currently untapped. The surveys we've done show that consumers are looking for a new player to offer them new services, and we know what they need and how to price it," he said. Chang also revealed that U Mobile has signed a domestic roaming agreement with Celcom, which launched its 3G services in May 2005. Domestic roaming allows subscribers from one network to select another when there is no network coverage available in the location they are currently at.
"This agreement allows our subscribers to roam onto Celcom's network [in areas where] there is no U Mobile network coverage," Chang explained. "However, this does not preclude U Mobile [expanding] our own network as we will be busy improving our coverage. Our service is very close to being launched commercially," he said. "We have already completed our interconnection with Celcom and we're now waiting to finish up with Maxis and DiGi, after which we will be fully ready to go live."
However, new entrants such as U Mobile, will face significant challenges in its bid to capture Malaysia's 3G market, according to some industry analysts. "The situation for 3G is very different now to what it was two years ago, as costs are much lower and 3G handsets are no longer a major barrier," Nathan Burley, research analyst at Ovum, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview. [New market] entrants need to build scale, and few have managed to gain significant market share following launches in established markets [in the region]," Burley noted.
Janice Chong, ICT practice telecom research manager at research house Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, said U Mobile is expected to face significant challenges in building its subscriber base from scratch. "Amid Malaysia's high mobile penetration rate, acquiring a customer base would prove to be a costly exercise, particularly when constrained by limited network coverage, diseconomies of scale and the lack of financial flexibility compared to the [other] major mobile carriers," Chong said in an e-mail interview.
She added that without a proven track record, U Mobile is expected to face teething problems such as network coverage and interoperability issues, billing issues, and readiness to address customer complaints in an effective and timely manner. According to Frost & Sullivan, the number of 3G subscribers in Malaysia grew from 431,000 in December 2006 to 700,000 in June 2007. Chang declined to reveal how much U Mobile has invested in its 3G and mobile TV networks, noting only that the company has "invested hundreds of millions of ringgit into our networks". Source: ZDNet, 18th Sep 2007
Asia/Broadcaster: ESS will Broadcast Sport at Any Time, via Any Pipe
ESPN Star Sports’ huge, $1.1-billion, eight-year media rights deal with the International Cricket Council has got off to a good start, according to the broadcaster’s managing director Manu Sawhney, with the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 being shown in over 110 countries. These include countries in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Cyprus and Mauritius and, for the first time, China.
In an exclusive interview with Sportcal.com, following the announcement yesterday of his promotion to managing director, Sawhney said that ESPN Star Sports is ‘committed to serving the Asian sports fan by creating and distributing the best sports programming: any time, any place via any pipe and any device and thus making ESPN and STAR Sports a core part of his or her daily life.’ Asked how the broadcaster would recoup its massive investment in the ICC rights, he claimed that, with respect to its ICC World Twenty20 coverage, ‘We have received extremely positive feedback from our sponsors on both the tournament format and coverage… as they see a huge positive impact on their brands from the innovative coverage presented around this tournament.’
Sawhney said that growth over the next few years would come from ESPN Star Sports ‘investing in programming and partnerships through a healthy mix of acquired and original content, thus expanding opportunities to connect with the audience across the region.’ He added that digital media would also form a focus for growth, claiming to have had ‘significant success in the mobile platform with mobileESPN and online medium through our multi-lingual sites such as espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw across Asia.’
Challenges for the broadcaster include ‘escalating acquisition costs, government regulations and policies, changing audience preferences’ and others, Sawhney said. He also admitted that ESPN Star Spots faces growing competition from new entrants into the Asian broadcasting market. These include Ten Sports, Zee Telefims, Sony and Nimbus Sport. However, he dismissed any suggestion that the broadcaster had been damaged by its recent loss of the rights to show English soccer’s top-tier Premier League in key territories such as Singapore, China and Thailand.
He said: ‘Loss of a single property in a few specific markets does not have a large impact on our business. We have a robust business model that is not dependent on one particular sport. We bring the best of the international sporting action from around the world to over 310 million sports viewers across Asia.’
Sawhney pointed out that ESPN Star Sports’ line-up includes: soccer’s Uefa Champions League, FA Cup and England home games; motor sport’s Formula 1, A1 Grand Prix, MotoGP and World Rally Championship; Wimbledon and ATP Masters tennis; golf’s US Masters, British Open and US Open; plus the Rugby World Cup presently under way in France, NBA basketball and international cricket matches of both England and Australia.
Sawhney added: ‘Competition is a reality in today’s dynamic business scenario and it is healthy for the industry as it helps in increasing the overall pie of the industry and we welcome the competition positively.’
Asked whether it still make sense from both a programming and advertising point of view for a broadcaster to take a pan-continental approach to such a diverse market as Asia, Sawhney replied: ‘As a leader in sports broadcasting in Asia, we are continuously evolving with our audience learning their preferences and changing viewing habits. Today, ESPN STAR Sports has 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localized to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers.
‘We continue to serve our traditional “die hard” fans with in-depth analysis, data and information through our live action and programming and have been working towards growing this traditional fan base through a slew of interactive activities and programs. In addition, we are expanding the demographic base of our fans by targeting younger audience and female segment by creating content that is specifically designed for their needs and is presented in a lighter and more entertaining manner.’
Sawhney, who joined ESPN Star Sports in 1996 and played a leading role in the broadcaster’s growth in India, is stepping up from his present role as executive vice president of programming and marketing. He replaces Jamie Davis, who has resigned from the company, but will continue to act as a consultant. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Sportfive Heads Kentaro in Marketing Clubs’ Uefa Cup TV Rights
Sportfive tops the list of broadcast rights distributors for clubs in soccer’s Uefa Cup first round, ahead of Kentaro, the Switzerland-based sports rights agency. Independent research by Sportcal.com has found that Sportfive is distributing the broadcast rights for the home matches of 35 of the 80 clubs competing in the Uefa Cup first round, while Kentaro is second with 10 clubs. Some 38 first-leg games are to be played this evening.
The 35 clubs represented by Sportfive in the first round span 20 countries, with a strong representation from France, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Russia in particular. However, the agency does not market the international rights for any of the competing teams from England, Spain or the Netherlands. In some cases, more than one agency is involved in the distribution of rights for the home matches of a particular club, such as when one company sells the ‘second-party rights’ (the rights in the away team’s territory) and another company sells the ‘third-party rights’ (the rights outside the two teams’ respective territories). The rights in the home club’s territory (‘the first-party rights’) are often sold by the clubs themselves.
Clubs competing in the Uefa Cup own the broadcast rights to their home matches until the quarter-final stage of the competition, when the rights are sold centrally by the Team Marketing agency on behalf of Uefa. Kentaro has enhanced its portfolio of soccer rights in recent years (it now includes the friendly matches of Brazil and Argentina). Its 10 Uefa Cup first-round matches include all five Swedish participants and two Swiss sides. Global Sportnet, the Germany-based sports marketing agency, and the IMG Media agency follow closely with seven teams each, although one of Global Sportnet’s deals is restricted to second-party rights only.
Infront Sports and Media (including Infront Italy, its Italian arm) is marketing the rights of three clubs, albeit only for the first round in the case of Germany’s Bayern Munich. Thereafter, the club will sell the international rights itself. Pitch International, the sport rights agency founded by former senior executives at Octagon CSI, has the rights for the home games of the English duo of Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. Eight more agencies have one club each, while seven teams are distributing the rights themselves, among them the Spanish trio of Athletico Madrid, Getafe and Real Zaragoza.
In terms of market share by country, Sportfive would appear to have a strong hold on its two home markets of France and Germany, with four of the five competing French clubs and three of the four German clubs. IMG Media Netherlands enjoys a monopoly of the Dutch market with all five teams under contract, while the Italian market would appear to be more fractured, with each of the four clubs involved with a different agency. In England, rights for the four participants are shared among Pitch International, Kentaro and Global Sportnet, while in Spain the clubs have opted mainly to market their own rights. Source: Sportcal, 20th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Cable to sue over Copa America broadcast
Jamaica’s RJR Communication Group, through its cable company TVJ Sports Network (TVJ-SN) will be dragged before the courts for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights by regional sports cable giant, SportsMax. Highly-placed Observer sources indicate that Attorney Kwame Gordon of Frater, Ennis and Gordon will be filing documents with the Supreme Court in Kingston today on behalf of SportsMax against the RJR Group.
The breaches relate to alleged unauthorised broadcast of an international friendly match between England and Brazil in June, and the COPA America (South American Football Championships) in June and July on TVJ-SN. When contacted about the matter late last evening, president and CEO of SportsMax, Oliver McIntosh, confirmed that his company will today begin court proceedings against Jamaica's largest listed media conglomerate. McIntosh explained that the decision to take the matter to court was prompted by the RJR Group's alleged repeated infringement on his company's exclusive broadcast rights.
It is understood that the suit alleges that TVJ-SN broadcast content that belongs to SportsMax without authorisation, including the 2007 Copa America finals; which SportsMax is alleging was taken from an illegal feed of United States football broadcaster GOL-TV. The regional cable company is also alleging that TVJ-SN broadcast the 2007 international friendly between Brazil and England which SportsMax assumes was taken from Fox Soccer Channel. SportsMax, which is the rights holder of Fox Soccer Channel in Jamaica, is also the exclusive rights holder for the COPA America and England national football team home matches, through its parent company International Media Content. Source: Jamaica Observer, 19th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Programming: ImaginAsian TV to Premiere MMA
ImaginAsian TV which promotes Asian American culture to mainstream America has announced that it will premiere a weekly mixed martial arts showcase, Pancrase Legends of Mixed Martial Arts, on 7 November, 2007. Mixed martial arts (MMA) heavyweight and current King of Pancrase Open Weight Champion Josh Barnett will provide expert knowledge of the action inside the ring as host of the new cable series. The outspoken Barnett – who made history in 2002 when he defeated Randy Couture and became the youngest UFC Heavyweight Champion at the age of 24 – will share commentary of classic Pancrase fights featuring such notable competitors as Sebastian “Bas” Rutten, Frank and Ken Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, Yuki Kondo and others.
ImaginAsian TV senior VP production and programming David Chu says, “Mixed martial arts is a unique sport that combines the world’s most exciting combat disciplines and is growing in popularity everyday. “We are thrilled to bring these legendary fights to our viewers, showcasing Pancrase’s top fighters, many of whom are among the top-ranked in the world and have also been champions in UFC or Pride.”
The series features some of the greatest MMA fighters to grace the ring since Pancrase was formed in 1993 by Funaki, Suzuki and others . The name Pancrase comes from pankration, an ancient sport introduced in the Greek Olympic games in the 7th Century B.C., and the name of the organization and original rules were inspired by the shoot fighting style and philosophy of wrestling legend Karl Gotch. Champions in eight weight classes are referred to as “King of Pancrase,” and the first King of Pancrase Open Weight Champion – the title now held by Barnett – was UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock. Source: Indian Television, 20th Sep 2007
ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS
Despite Imbalance, Rugby World Cup Cashes In
Brian Milner Comments on The Globe & Mail, 19th Sep 2007
Anyone doubting money does the talking in big-time sports need only cast an eye on the Rugby World Cup, which has come a long way since its inception 20 years ago. The 6th championship, now under way mainly in France, has yet to reach the halfway point of its six-week schedule and is still featuring too many games between a handful of legitimate contenders and a large number of outmatched also-rans. But despite the competitive imbalance and an early hiccup caused by an aborted media boycott, it is already an unqualified financial success thanks to record ticket sales and a huge increase in television revenue and sponsorship dollars, as broadcasters and marketers tap into the sport's growing appeal.
That might come as a surprise in Canada and the United States, where rugby is still a minor sport, but it is a big and increasingly lucrative draw in Europe and Asia, and not only in such hotbeds as Britain, France, New Zealand and South Africa. Networks and sponsors like it because it delivers loyal audiences of largely affluent young males. McDonald's France, one of the sponsors, is forecasting a 10-per-cent increase in sales directly stemming from its promotional tie-in to the event.
Organizers have raked in more than $140-million in TV rights revenue for this year's tournament, up substantially from about $95-million in 2003. British broadcaster ITV alone paid £30-million ($60.9-million), triple its cost for the 2003 event in Australia, although it acquired both in the same package. As recently as 1999, when the cup was staged on its home turf in Wales, ITV's price tag was only £12-million.
Yet ITV and other broadcasters aren't complaining. They expect to reap healthy profits from strong ad sales. Indeed, the British carrier sold out its available ad time more rapidly than for the FIFA World Cup of soccer. The International Rugby Board, which runs the event and derives most of its income from it, forecasts a record gain of its own of more than $180-million. With the marketing success has come the same sort of headaches faced by the much bigger Olympics, the soccer World Cup and other major sports events — namely, how to maintain control over content and squeeze as much money as possible out of it while balancing the interests of rights holders, sponsors and the media.
Rugby officials almost screwed up the juggling act just before the tournament began when a long-simmering dispute with news organizations and photo agencies over strict curbs on coverage boiled over. More than three dozen major news services, newspapers and photo agencies announced a boycott of the sport's highest-profile event. The potential damage hit home for the sponsors when Visa International held a press conference to introduce five rugby stars of yesteryear as its official spokesmen and almost no one showed up. That's not what a sponsor wants to see after forking out more than $7-million (a bargain by the standard of other major global sports events) for marketing rights.
Visa and such other key sponsors and suppliers as Adidas and French mobile phone company Orange quickly intervened. Calls were made, messages were sent, and the French government, which has a big financial stake in the success of the tournament, added its weight. "They made it clear that it was in the sponsors' best interests that all facets of the media be allowed to report," a person familiar with the discussions said. "They're the newcomer on the block and they're working their way through all of this." Needless to say, the sponsors got their way and the restrictions were lifted.
But the fact is that there will be more such confrontations in the future. The stakes are escalating dramatically thanks to the huge licensing fees and new methods of distributing content to consumers. As the rugby officials have discovered, it's all part of doing business when the big money is flowing.