SPORTS SHORTS
* Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) has appointed RDA TV, to exclusively distribute TV rights on a global basis in a three year agreement, excluding North America. TNA Entertainment, LLC, is the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic producer of wrestling programming, and is rapidly achieving cult status in USA with its unique six-sided ring and high-flying action. RDA TV, whose clients include Real Madrid TV and Traffic Sports Marketing, has a track record in identifying and maximizing the potential of ‘next generation’ media rights. RDA has worked with Ultimate Fighting Championship since 2001, when UFC has emerged as a major powerhouse in sports programming and PPV. Source: Sports e-Media, 18th Sep 2007
* Cumulative shipments of mobile phones capable of receiving terrestrial digital television (1Seg TV broadcasting) topped 11 million units in Japan, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. 1Seg handsets was first available in Japan in April 2006. The exact shipment total amounted to 11,775,000 at the end of July this year. July alone saw shipments rise six times compared to the year before to reach 1.87 million and made up 36.6% of the overall shipment total. According to association officials, the proportion is expected to reach as high as 70-80% in six months as the use of 1Seg handsets is spreading faster than expected. Overall mobile shipments increased 54.6% in July from a year prior to 5.35 million units, surpassing 5 million for the second straight month. Source: Entertainment Asia, 18th Sep 2007
* Google is expanding its online advertising model into mobile phones, launching AdSense for Mobile in markets including China within weeks. AdSense for Mobile will allow existing AdSense partners to earn extra revenue from their mobile websites through targeted placement of mobile text ads. Google announced the program will allow advertisers to access a growing number of mobile publishers and link targeted advertising to mobile content. AdSense for Mobile will be available in 13 country's including the US, UK, Australia, India and China in coming weeks. Source: Marketing HK, 19th Sep 2007
* India’s communications regulator, TRAI, is seeking industry views on the launch of mobile TV. TRAI wants to know views on such issues as preferred technologies, preferences for satellite or terrestrial delivery, spectrum requirements, methodologies for spectrum allocation, license conditions and fees and foreign ownership limits. Comments are invited before September 30 2007. With state broadcaster Doordashan already offering a trial DVB-H mobile TV service, the regulator is again somewhat behind the fast-moving Indian market. TRAI has only just decided how to regulate IPTV, despite services being up-and-running for many months. Source: Rapid TV News, 18th Sep 2007
* Shane Warne, Australian cricket’s iconic spin-bowling star, has put an end to hopes that he could join the breakaway Indian Cricket League by signing instead for the Indian Premier League run by national governing body the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The BCCI hopes that the IPL, due to start in April of next year, will supersede the ICL, an unofficial venture, which begins operations with a Twenty20 tournament, the new, shortened form of the game, in October and November. Warne follows former Australia teammate Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming in joining the IPL. Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
* The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has asked companies to pay between $50 million and $60 million (Rs 200 crore to Rs 240 crore) to own a team featuring in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the tournament it has introduced to counter Zee TV baron Subhash Chandra’s Indian Cricket League (ICL). In return, the BCCI is offering a revenue share from stadium advertising and gate money but not television rights. The team can also be listed on the stock exchanges and buyers have the right to re-sell the team at a premium. However, ground rights for most of the matches are expected to be sold for around Rs 1.5 crore, nearly half of what the BCCI earns from cricket matches. Source: Business Standard, 18th Sep 2007
* Nurdin Halid, the head of Indonesia’s soccer association and a recently-elected member of parliament, was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison for misusing $18 million of staple goods during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Halid became chairman of the Indonesian soccer association in 2003 and later served another prison sentence for smuggling rice to Vietnam, before being freed last year. Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
* Arsenal have signed a six-year deal with Setanta Sports to carry the new Arsenal TV channel. The channel is due to launch in December, becoming the 10th channel on the broadcaster’s Setanta Sports package, available on satellite television. Arsenal’s Setanta deal involves the broadcaster paying a rights fee as it attempts to drive subscriptions to compete with dominant pay-television, British Sky Broadcasting. The broadcaster will keep all subscription revenues, while the club will get revenues derived from any sponsorship and advertising on the channel. Through the channel, Setanta will be able to show delayed coverage of all of the club’s matches in leading competitions. Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
* Sportfive will be in the market for ‘any sports rights that make sense to the business plan,’ says Richard Worth, its new chief executive, whose appointment was officially announced today. Worth is to take over the responsibilities that have recently been handled by Olivier Guiguet and Stephane Schindler, chief executive and chief operating officer, respectively, of Lagardère Sports, the sports arm of France’s Lagardère media group which acquired Sportfive late last year. Sportfive said today that Worth’s appointment was ‘the next major step in the management restructuring Sportfive is undertaking on its path to becoming a worldwide and undisputed leader in the sports industry.’ Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
* Heineken, sponsor of the Rugby World Cup, has ordered the removal of its logos from cafés in France after being threatened with a €1.25 million ($1.73 million) fine by a Paris court. Banners for the beer brand had been placed in and around 250 cafés in France, prompting an angry response from ANPAA, the French association for campaigning against alcoholism. The judge, citing the 1991 Loi Evin, the French alcohol policy law that bans alcohol advertising, ruled that the advertising was unlawful and ordered Heineken to withdraw the banners within 48 hours or be charged €5,000 per infringement, a maximum fine of around €1.25 million. Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
* The Russian city of St Petersburg will host the final stop of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008-09. It will be the first time in the race's 34-year history that the fleet will visit a Russian port. "Russia has made tremendous steps in the last few years in its capacity to host major sporting events and recently won the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi," said Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Glenn Bourke. The race is scheduled to last nearly 10 months, cover more than 39,000 nautical miles and visit up to 12 ports. Russia will also have their own entry in the round-the-world race, backed by St Petersburg businessman Oleg Zherebtsov. Source: Sport Business, 18th Sep 2007
MORE NEWS
Indonesia/Rights: Bowing to Pressure, Astro Seeks to Compromise
Indonesians may be able to watch the English Premier League on local terrestrial television by the end of this month, as PT Astro TV Indonesia -- which holds the exclusive rights to broadcast EPL games in Indonesia, is set to offer out a package that includes the right to air a live EPL match once a week. Speaking on behalf of ESPN Star Sports (ESS), Astro said Monday that the tender for the EPL package would be held before the end of September.
"The tender will be completed as soon as possible. The expectation is that by the end of September, non-paying viewers will be able to watch (EPL) games on terrestrial TV," Astro vice president for corporate affairs Halim Mahfudz told The Jakarta Post. Singapore-based ESS is a joint venture between ESPN and STAR TV -- owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation -- which offers 15 customized television feeds to 25 countries throughout Asia including live and recorded broadcasts of EPL matches.
In Indonesia, ESS, which initially gave live broadcasting rights to all pay TV operators and a local terrestrial TV station, has halted all EPL feeds since the beginning of August and given exclusive live broadcasting rights to Astro TV. Astro TV itself is run by PT Direct Vision, of which 20 percent is owned by Malaysia's Astro All Asia Networks. Halim said that the EPL package that was being put on the table included one live and two recorded matches per week for one TV station. "To my knowledge, so far, four local TV operators have submitted bids," he said.
ESS's decision to hold the tender comes in response to pressure from the government to hive off part of the broadcasting rights to other TV operators. On top of that, both ESS and Astro TV are also facing an investigation by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) after three local pay TV operators filed a complaint with the commission last week.
The local operators, PT Indosat Mega Media (IM2 Pay TV), PT Indonusa Telemedia (Telkomvision) and PT MNC Sky Vision (Indovision), said that they had not been given the same opportunities to bid for the exclusive EPL live broadcast rights by ESS. The operators argued that the procedures that had led to Astro TV getting the exclusive rights were unfair and violated Indonesia's law on unfair business practices. Halim argued that the monopoly allegation was baseless as the EPL broadcasts were categorized as intellectual property, which was excluded by the antimonopoly law.
Indosat M2 corporate secretary Andri Asian said that the upcoming tender was probably a ruse to curb the growing pressure from the public against the EPL monopoly. "The tender is not related to the KPPU case. With or without it, ESS was unfair in giving the exclusive rights to Astro," he said. Source: Jakarta Post, 19th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: M6 to Study French Ligue 1 Rights Packages
M6, the French commercial broadcaster, could bid to broadcast French soccer's top-tier Ligue 1 and will examine the different television rights on offer, according to Nicolas de Tavernost, group chief executive. M6 is to have a close look at the ‘allocation of packages’ when the French league launches the tender for the next three seasons from 2008-09, de Tavernost told France’s Les Echos newspaper.
However, de Tavernost warned that the rights fees would have to drop for M6 to make a bid. He said, ‘Today, the league matches are set at prices that make it difficult to break even. We are not interested at the current price. Having said that, we will have a look at the breakdown of packages.’ Canal Plus, the French pay-television broadcaster, currently pays around €600 million ($832.2 million) a year for its deal for live rights until the end of the 2007-08 campaign. Meanwhile, M6 will not be a contender for the Ligue 1 new media rights on offer, said de Tavernost, 'if they are not in synergy with our television offer.’ Source: Sportcal, 18th Sep 2007
Elsewhere/General: 7 Cities Apply for 2016 Olympics
The International Olympics Committee has listed the seven cities that want to host the 31st Olympiad, 2016 Olympic Games.
The cities, with comments, are: Baku (Azerbaijan, a rank outsider); Chicago (USA, strong contender given the value of US television rights); Doha (Qatar, successful host city of the Asian games, but heat a major worry); Madrid, (Spain, might be too soon after 1992 in Barcelona); Prague (Czech Rep, strong contender); Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil, very strong contender and a Southern Hemisphere city – last was Sydney in 2000) and Tokyo (Japan, must be a favourite considering Japan hasn’t hosted an Olympics since 1964).
These announced cities – and it is always the city that wins the games, not the country – will now have to complete questionnaires and detailed examinations and the “Candidate City” finalist will be announced in Copenhagen in October 2009. Source: Rapid TV News, 18th Sep 2007
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