Wednesday, 31st October 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* FG Sport, rights-holder for the Superbike World Championship, announced today that it had extended its contract with Globecast, the content management and delivery company, for worldwide distribution of the television signal for races until the end of 2009. The deal involves Globecast providing SNG trucks and ground staff, and playout, uplink and satellite capacity for live and highlights distribution of the races, together with capacity for an internet feed for all 13 races per season. Source: Sportcal, 18th Oct 2007
* The Action Sports Tour has launched it international expansion effort with the creation of an AST China event, a global skateboarding competition scheduled for Beijing in April 2008. The AST Dew Tour, which, now in ts third year, has five USA tour stops, featuring skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross competitions. This first AST China event represents an alliance between AST, owned by NBC Universal, and Beijing Xingyi New Media Investment Company,the corporate entity of the China New Media Zone in Beijing's Daxing District. The first AST China event will feature skateboarding ‘vert’ and ‘park’ competitions involving skateboarders who will qualify for AST China based upon their 2007 AST Dew Tour performances and point standings. Source: Sport Business, 30th Oct 2007
* Luxe TV, a pioneer high-def broadcaster over Europe, has secured carriage on AsiaSat from Hong Kong. Luxe TV will be carried on AsiaSat 2’s powerful and wide-ranging C-Band beams in both HD and standard definition. Luxe TV, already on air over Europe, the Mid-East and Russia, concentrates on upmarket real estate, boating and jewellery, cars, fashion and watches, and says these products are of keen interest to Asia’s growing economies. The channel went live in June 2006 and says it is the first international TV network dedicated to the world of luxury. Source: Rapid TV News, 30th Oct 2007
* Sportfive has widened its collaboration with CAF and will produce TV coverage for the MTN Africa Cup of Nations, GHANA 2008. Sportfive concluded the agreement for the production of the competition, which takes place from January 20 to February 10, 2008 in Ghana. Under the deal, Sportfive will manage the coverage of 32 matches over four sites. Sportfive also holds the exclusive marketing and media rights, as an agent of CAF from 2009 to 2016. This agreement includes the following competitions: Africa Cup of the Nations (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), CAF Champions’ League (2009 to 2016), Confederation Cup (2008 to 2016) and African Youth Championship (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015). Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 22nd Oct 2007
* FIFA presented its new video archive at the Sportel convention in Monaco. World football’s governing body has grouped together all of its video archive material from various parts of the world in Zug, Switzerland, where the FIFA Films division is located. FIFA Films includes more than 30,000 hours of reels and video tapes dating back to 1930, the year of the first FIFA World Cup in Uruguay. It also includes moving images from all FIFA competitions to date such as the various World Cups at youth level and events for women, futsal and beach soccer. FIFA Films is serviced by Infront Sports & Media. Source: Soccerex Newsletter, 19th Oct 2007
* Turner Sports aims to secure a range of media rights if it takes control of NBA TV, the 24-hour channel of the National Basketball Association. Turner has been in talks about acquiring NBA TV, which offers live regular season and classic games to 12 million subscribers and is targeting rights to the NBA.com website and NBA League Pass, a package for out-of-market viewers. Earlier, TNT and ESPN, signed 8-year renewal deals, worth a total of $7.4 billion running until 2016. ESPN was thought to be interested in NBA TV, but appears to have ceded ground to TNT.NBA League Pass is seen as an attractive proposition as it offers up to 40 games a week to cable and satellite viewers for $179 across the season. Source: Sportcal, 18th Oct 2007
* However, David Stern, the commissioner of North America’s National Basketball Association, has said that the league is not planning to sell NBA TV, its 24-hour television channel, or its digital assets, but is seeking a strategic partnership to enhance their profile. On reports that Turner Sports was looking to acquire the channel to boost its presence in the NBA, Stern said that talks have been taking place which envisaged a relationship in which Turner would merely operate the channel and some digital properties, including the NBA.com website. Stern believes that digital video content, including highlights and player interviews, on the internet and mobile phones will be a significant growth area for the NBA, attracting sponsors gravitating from traditional media. Source: Sportcal, 30th Oct 2007
* Entriq, the broadband delivery for sporting events company, has launched a new platform implementation and broadband service for Infront Sports & Media AG. As a result of the services, Infront Advanced Media Solutions will be able to cover its clients' events using a diverse range of broadband business models such as via pay per view, subscription or advertising supported for live events and on demand viewing. The service will also deliver all the necessary geographic, security, commerce and customer care controls for Infront's secure content sales, Entriq said. Source: Sport Business, 22nd Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Elsewhere/Rights: RTL 'in Agreement' for Formula 1 Rights
RTL, the German commercial network, claims to have agreed terms on an extension of its deal to show motor racing’s Formula 1 World Championship, beginning next season. RTL and Formula One Management, the series’ rights owner, have been in lengthy negotiations about a new deal for the free-to-air rights in Germany, and the pressure on RTL to sign a contract has intensified since Premiere, the pay-television broadcaster, secured multi-platform rights until 2010. Manfred Loppe, RTL’s head of sport, said, ‘We are in agreement, we just don’t have a signature on the contract yet.’
Neither RTL nor FOM has revealed the potential length or value of the deal, but the Hamburger Abendsblatt newspaper reports that a three-year deal will soon be confirmed. RTL pays an annual fee of around €80 million ($114.2 million) for Formula 1 rights under the present deal, although FOM has targeted a €25-million increase on the €125 million a year it has earned from deals in Germany in 2007. FOM has been helped by an increase in Premiere’s annual rights fee to around €70 million a year, aided by the sale of internet and mobile rights to the broadcaster to complement its television coverage.
A deal with RTL, which is not expected to be finalised at this weekend’s season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, would come as a relief to German television advertisers seeking to set out their budgets for next year. However, it is thought that RTL was unwilling to spend more than €80 million a year on the rights, given the fall in ratings the broadcaster has endured since the retirement of Germany’s seven-times world champion Michael Schmuacher.
The broadcaster’s average viewing share for weekend Formula 1 coverage in 2007 has dropped to around 40 per cent, regularly failing to attract more than 6 million viewers. However, Loppe insisted that the fall in ratings was expected and described the share and audiences of just under 6 million as ‘a very good result, considering.’ Source: Sportcal, 19th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Programming: Sunset and Vine in New Two-year Gillette World Sport Deal
Sunset and Vine, the UK-based sports television production company, said today that it had agreed a two-year deal with shaving products manufacturer Gillette to continue producing and distributing the weekly advertiser-funded magazine programme Gillette World Sport. The new deal, which will take the programme into its 25th year, comes in the same month that IMG Media, the media arm of international sports and entertainment agency IMG, decided to axe rival sports magazine programme Trans World Sport after 20 years. IMG’s decision to scrap Trans World Sport came amid a review of activities which no longer contribute to the company’s profits or client relationships.
It is thought that the programme had increasingly struggled to acquire good sports magazine content in recent years, with international sports rights becoming increasingly complex to clear and increasingly expensive to acquire. Gillette World Sport claims to be the world’s most widely watched weekly sports programme, distributed to 220 broadcasters in about 180 countries. The 30-minute programme is ‘a topical mix of the best sporting highlights and specially-shot features from around the world,’ and is set to feature extended features on tennis’ Roger Federer, soccer’s Thierry Henry and golf’s Tiger Woods in 2008. Last year the Television Corporation, Sunset and Vine’s parent company, was the subject of a £36-million ($73-million) takeover by the Wales-based production company Tinopolis. Source: Sportcal, 19th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/New Media: Orange Backs LFP’s Rights Extension Plan and Eyes Mobile Deal
Orange France, the French telecommunications group, wants to bid for mobile rights only, not television rights, for French soccer’s top-tier Ligue 1, and has also backed the league’s bid to increase the length of contracts from three years, a move that looks set to be approved. Patricia Langrand, Orange France’s director of content, said that she ‘considered the extension of rights contracts as a positive move,’ while adding that she would prefer an extension to five- or six-year deals, ‘as four years wouldn’t be enough.’
The LFP, the French professional league, is ‘on the verge of obtaining an increase in the length of the next contracts from three years to four,’ according to France’s Le Monde newspaper, which claims that a decree could be modified after consultation with the government’s Conseil d’Etat and the the Conseil de Concurrence, the body that monitors fair competition in France. In July, the Conseil de Concurrence had rejected the league’s proposal to increase the rights contracts. The league’s move is designed to attract new bidders and freshen up a market dominated at present by Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster that has merged with rival TPS.
The tender for the rights, beginning with the 2008-09 season, is to be issued at the end of November. Meanwhile, Orange France once again ruled itself out of the race for Ligue 1 television rights, preferring to concentrate on a bid for mobile rights only. The telecommunications brand, owned by France Télécom, recently launched a sports channel across television, the internet and mobile phones, but insists that it would not be able to justify a large investment in multi-platform rights, partly because its subscription base is too low. Langrand said that ‘only 10 per cent of our subscribers, around 100,000, would be interested by a football service.’
Canal Plus is the incumbent Ligue 1 rights holder, but has repeatedly warned that it is not willing to match its current €600 million ($856.8 million) -a-year deal for the next rights contract The stance taken by Orange to restrict itself to mobile rights only might, however, prove costly, with Canal Plus said to be considering a bid for rights across all platforms. Orange, which pays €29 million a year for the Ligue 1 mobile rights under the present deal, is hoping that the league will carve out a mobile-only package in the tender. Source: Sportcal, 19th Oct 2007
Tuesday, 30th October 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Taiwanese IPTV operator Taiwan Interactive TV (TITV) has reportedly started trials of a 24-channel offering on the network of Chunghwa Telecom. The offering includes on-demand and real-time content and covers genres including news, sports, arts and music as well as movies and dramas. TITV is targeting 500,000 subs within three years. Taiwan’s communications regulator recently required Chunghwa Telecom to open its multimedia network to any operators wishing to use it, for NT$800,000 per channel per month. TITV is owned by Chinese Satellite Communication Group which already operates four Chinese DTH platforms, C-Sky-Net, I-Sky-Net, A-Sky-Net and 146 Sky-Net, targeted at the Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora. The company also operates four channels – Chinese Stock Channel, Asia Travel Channel, CSTV and Boss Golf. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th Oct 2007
* Filipino cable operators have demanded that the communications regulator stop the country’s major telco from offering mobile TV. The Philippine Cable Television Association said that the service, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co’s (PLDT’s) myTV, violated the broadcasting licence system. Mobile TV has not as yet been brought under any legislative framework. Regulator the National Telecommunications Commission has called the relevant PLDT subsidiaries to a November hearing over myTV. The company will then have an opportunity to lobby for myTV to remain open. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th Oct 2007
* Singapore announced today that it will be developing the motor sports industry by working with the private sector to build a permanent race track located in Changi (eastern part of Singapore) and developing a comprehensive motor sports industry development plan. Said Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: “The government will contribute to sports development and the economy in Singapore. Industry players shared that the development of a permanent racetrack is critical for us to develop a comprehensive motor sports industry. The project will be fully funded by the private sector.” A Request for Proposal for the racetrack, located on a 20-hectare plot with a tenure of 30 years, is expected in May 2008. The racetrack is expected to be completed by end 2010 / early 2011. Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
* Hockey’s new Euro Hockey League has secured a series of TV rights deals. The new competition kicks off this weekend and the Pro Sport agency has signed a number of live, delayed and highlights rights deals across Europe and Asia. Negotiations are still underway in some territories but agreements have been reached in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Russia and South-East Asia (ESPN Star Sports) as well as coverage of one live match per venue on Eurosport. It has also secured highlights in the UK and Belgium and highlights are freely available from the EHL website. Coverage for the Euro Hockey League will be produced centrally from all venues and events by an independent international production company, Eyeworks, in 16x9 HD format, with between 11 and 16 cameras for every match. Source: Sport Business, 23rd Oct 2007
* French public-service broadcaster, France Télévisions, is interested in acquiring selected live rights to French soccer’s top-tier Ligue 1. The broadcaster, which this year acquired the highlights rights for the 2007-08 season for around €25 million ($35.6 million), believes live coverage would significantly enhance its offering. The LFP, the French professional league, is set to launch a tender for the rights from 2008-09 onwards and has yet to reveal the different packages available to broadcasters. Pay-television, Canal Plus, the regarded as favourite to acquire majority of the rights, but has warned that it is not willing to match the €600 million-a-year deal for the live rights from 2005-06 to 2007-08. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Oct 2007
* Germany is still without a broadcaster of the Italian Serie A two months into the new season after pay-TV, Premiere decided against a bid for the rights. MP & Silva, the agency with rights to the home matches of AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, Fiorentina, Inter Milan and Torino, issued a press release to advertise the fact that Serie A remained without a German broadcaster partner. The agency said that it is ‘currently holding talks with potential licensees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.’ Arena, the pay-television channel, held a package of Serie A rights in 2006-07 but decided against an option to renew its contract in 2007-08 after reducing its activities following the loss of its flagship German Bundesliga rights to rival Premiere. Premiere has also previously broadcast Serie A but is understood to have no plans to revive its interest in the league. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Oct 2007
* Fifa, as expected, scrapped its continental rotation policy for hosting the World Cup, introduced in 2000. However, allocation of the World Cup host country will still be subject to a condition that countries belonging to continental confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments are barred from applying. The first bidding process to which the new rules will apply will decide the host country for the 2018 event. Fifa introduced the rotation system to ensure that previously marginalised continents would get the opportunity to stage the World Cup. The 2010 tournament will take place in South Africa, while Brazil is the only country from South America to have submitted a bid for the 2014 event. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Mid-East/Rights: Deadlock as ASBU Refuses to Pay Pan-Arab Games Asking Price
The Arab States Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of national broadcasters in the region, has reached deadlock in negotiations with the organising committee of next month’s Pan-Arab Games in Egypt over television rights for the event. The ASBU is refusing to pay the asking price for the rights, which have traditionally been distributed free of charge. One ASBU source today told Sportcal.com that it was ‘completely taken by surprise’ by the demands of a private company distributing the rights on behalf of the organising committee.
He described the demands as ‘not acceptable,’ adding that time is running out for it to consult its members and resolve the impasse before the games start on November 11. He said that the rights-holder was now attempting to by-pass the ASBU and approach its members directly to agree rights deals, but insisted that none of them had agreed to a deal.
This is not the first time that organising committees have attempted to charge for the rights for the Pan Arab Games, after being assured by private companies that they are too valuable to give away. Organisers of the 1999 games in Jordan also tried such a strategy, unsuccessfully, according to the source. The ASBU will continue to insist that the terrestrial rights, at least, are distributed free of charge, even if a charge is made for satellite rights.
The games, which are scheduled for November 11 to 25, will take place in Cairo, Giza, Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan and North Sinai. About 7,000 athletes and officials from 22 Arab countries are expected to compete. The games were first held in Alexandria in 1953, but plans to hold them every four years thereafter have been disrupted by political turmoil and instability in the region. Next month’s games will be the 11th, with the most recent having been held in Algiers, Algeria in 2004.
Egypt won the right to stage the games last year in a vote taken at a meeting of Arab youth and sports ministers, beating off a rival bid from Lebanon by 12 votes to 10. The games budget was expected to be E£25 million ($4.5 million). Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
China/Programming: CCTV, Puerto Rico’s SportsNow! in Olympic Deal
CCTV Sports Promotion, a division of the Chinese state broadcaster, and Puerto Rico’s SportsNow! International have struck an agreement to jointly produce and distribute worldwide the series Who's Who (The Rivals), featuring a selection of the world’s top athletes as they prepare for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. This is the first time that CCTV Sports has partnered with an international sports company to develop and produce a sports series for worldwide distribution in all media.
Who's Who (The Rivals) will consist of 50 episodes of 24 minutes each, featuring exclusive interviews with the top 50 Chinese Olympic Gold-medal contenders and the top 50 international athletes from the rest of the world. The series will focus on 50 disciplines with video from the most recent competitions of the top six to eight athletes. It will concentrate on the top two to three athletes in each discipline, covering their preparations for the Olympics, their on-camera comments about their competitors, their forecasts as to what they expect in their respective events, as well as presenting biographical material and interviews with their trainers, family and friends. In all, more than 350 of the world’s top elite athletes will be featured in exclusive interviews and recent competitions.
Hector Figueroa, the director of SportsNow! International, commented: “The Chinese are the world’s future superstars and yet they are largely unknown outside China and have not been easily accessible to the world media. The key point of interest for the international broadcaster or sponsor will be access to CCTV’s exclusive interviews of these top Chinese athletes. No other pre-Olympic series has ever offered so complete a picture of elite athletes in preparation for an Olympic Games.” Source: Worldscreen, 22nd Oct 2007
India/General: Australian Stars Attracted to Indian Premier League
The profile of the Indian Premier League, a new Twenty20 competition being organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is said to have been boosted by the recruitment of a host of players from the Australian national team. Captain Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Michael Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden and Mitchell Johnson have all signed up for the inaugural tournament in April, according to Australia’s Sun-Herald newspaper. The BCCI is reported to have forked out A$2 million ($1.8 million) to secure the services of the World Cup winners. However, there are concerns that the competition will clash with Australia’s tour of Pakistan next year.
Other Australians to have committed themselves to the IPL include retired internationals Shane Warne, Justin Langer and Glenn McGrath and out-of-favour players Simon Katich and Jason Gillespie. The league will also feature top Indian players and foreign stars such as Pakistan’s Mohammed Yousuf and Shoaib Akhtar, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene, South Africa’s Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock, New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori and Scott Styris and the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The IPL will involve eight franchise teams competing for $3 million in prize money. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: BSkyB and Setanta Go Head to Head for Football League
Arch-rivals British Sky Broadcasting and Setanta, the pay-television operators, are reported to be going head to head in bidding for the television rights for English soccer’s second-tier Football League, with a decision set to be made this week. Six rights packages, including three live packages, are on offer for three seasons beginning with the 2009-10 season, with the league said to be confident of exceeding the £37.5 million ($76.9 million) a year it receives from BSkyB under the present contract.
Setanta, which was unsuccessful in bidding for the present contract, has since snapped up the rights to 46 live matches per season in England’s top-tier Premier League to add to its comprehensive coverage of the Scottish Premier League. BSkyB, which retains the rights to 92 live Premier League matches per season, has been the main broadcasting partner of the Football League since 2002 when it stepped in to fill the breach left by the collapse of ITV Digital, which previously held the live rights. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
* Taiwanese IPTV operator Taiwan Interactive TV (TITV) has reportedly started trials of a 24-channel offering on the network of Chunghwa Telecom. The offering includes on-demand and real-time content and covers genres including news, sports, arts and music as well as movies and dramas. TITV is targeting 500,000 subs within three years. Taiwan’s communications regulator recently required Chunghwa Telecom to open its multimedia network to any operators wishing to use it, for NT$800,000 per channel per month. TITV is owned by Chinese Satellite Communication Group which already operates four Chinese DTH platforms, C-Sky-Net, I-Sky-Net, A-Sky-Net and 146 Sky-Net, targeted at the Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora. The company also operates four channels – Chinese Stock Channel, Asia Travel Channel, CSTV and Boss Golf. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th Oct 2007
* Filipino cable operators have demanded that the communications regulator stop the country’s major telco from offering mobile TV. The Philippine Cable Television Association said that the service, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co’s (PLDT’s) myTV, violated the broadcasting licence system. Mobile TV has not as yet been brought under any legislative framework. Regulator the National Telecommunications Commission has called the relevant PLDT subsidiaries to a November hearing over myTV. The company will then have an opportunity to lobby for myTV to remain open. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th Oct 2007
* Singapore announced today that it will be developing the motor sports industry by working with the private sector to build a permanent race track located in Changi (eastern part of Singapore) and developing a comprehensive motor sports industry development plan. Said Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: “The government will contribute to sports development and the economy in Singapore. Industry players shared that the development of a permanent racetrack is critical for us to develop a comprehensive motor sports industry. The project will be fully funded by the private sector.” A Request for Proposal for the racetrack, located on a 20-hectare plot with a tenure of 30 years, is expected in May 2008. The racetrack is expected to be completed by end 2010 / early 2011. Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
* Hockey’s new Euro Hockey League has secured a series of TV rights deals. The new competition kicks off this weekend and the Pro Sport agency has signed a number of live, delayed and highlights rights deals across Europe and Asia. Negotiations are still underway in some territories but agreements have been reached in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Russia and South-East Asia (ESPN Star Sports) as well as coverage of one live match per venue on Eurosport. It has also secured highlights in the UK and Belgium and highlights are freely available from the EHL website. Coverage for the Euro Hockey League will be produced centrally from all venues and events by an independent international production company, Eyeworks, in 16x9 HD format, with between 11 and 16 cameras for every match. Source: Sport Business, 23rd Oct 2007
* French public-service broadcaster, France Télévisions, is interested in acquiring selected live rights to French soccer’s top-tier Ligue 1. The broadcaster, which this year acquired the highlights rights for the 2007-08 season for around €25 million ($35.6 million), believes live coverage would significantly enhance its offering. The LFP, the French professional league, is set to launch a tender for the rights from 2008-09 onwards and has yet to reveal the different packages available to broadcasters. Pay-television, Canal Plus, the regarded as favourite to acquire majority of the rights, but has warned that it is not willing to match the €600 million-a-year deal for the live rights from 2005-06 to 2007-08. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Oct 2007
* Germany is still without a broadcaster of the Italian Serie A two months into the new season after pay-TV, Premiere decided against a bid for the rights. MP & Silva, the agency with rights to the home matches of AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, Fiorentina, Inter Milan and Torino, issued a press release to advertise the fact that Serie A remained without a German broadcaster partner. The agency said that it is ‘currently holding talks with potential licensees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.’ Arena, the pay-television channel, held a package of Serie A rights in 2006-07 but decided against an option to renew its contract in 2007-08 after reducing its activities following the loss of its flagship German Bundesliga rights to rival Premiere. Premiere has also previously broadcast Serie A but is understood to have no plans to revive its interest in the league. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Oct 2007
* Fifa, as expected, scrapped its continental rotation policy for hosting the World Cup, introduced in 2000. However, allocation of the World Cup host country will still be subject to a condition that countries belonging to continental confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments are barred from applying. The first bidding process to which the new rules will apply will decide the host country for the 2018 event. Fifa introduced the rotation system to ensure that previously marginalised continents would get the opportunity to stage the World Cup. The 2010 tournament will take place in South Africa, while Brazil is the only country from South America to have submitted a bid for the 2014 event. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Mid-East/Rights: Deadlock as ASBU Refuses to Pay Pan-Arab Games Asking Price
The Arab States Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of national broadcasters in the region, has reached deadlock in negotiations with the organising committee of next month’s Pan-Arab Games in Egypt over television rights for the event. The ASBU is refusing to pay the asking price for the rights, which have traditionally been distributed free of charge. One ASBU source today told Sportcal.com that it was ‘completely taken by surprise’ by the demands of a private company distributing the rights on behalf of the organising committee.
He described the demands as ‘not acceptable,’ adding that time is running out for it to consult its members and resolve the impasse before the games start on November 11. He said that the rights-holder was now attempting to by-pass the ASBU and approach its members directly to agree rights deals, but insisted that none of them had agreed to a deal.
This is not the first time that organising committees have attempted to charge for the rights for the Pan Arab Games, after being assured by private companies that they are too valuable to give away. Organisers of the 1999 games in Jordan also tried such a strategy, unsuccessfully, according to the source. The ASBU will continue to insist that the terrestrial rights, at least, are distributed free of charge, even if a charge is made for satellite rights.
The games, which are scheduled for November 11 to 25, will take place in Cairo, Giza, Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan and North Sinai. About 7,000 athletes and officials from 22 Arab countries are expected to compete. The games were first held in Alexandria in 1953, but plans to hold them every four years thereafter have been disrupted by political turmoil and instability in the region. Next month’s games will be the 11th, with the most recent having been held in Algiers, Algeria in 2004.
Egypt won the right to stage the games last year in a vote taken at a meeting of Arab youth and sports ministers, beating off a rival bid from Lebanon by 12 votes to 10. The games budget was expected to be E£25 million ($4.5 million). Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
China/Programming: CCTV, Puerto Rico’s SportsNow! in Olympic Deal
CCTV Sports Promotion, a division of the Chinese state broadcaster, and Puerto Rico’s SportsNow! International have struck an agreement to jointly produce and distribute worldwide the series Who's Who (The Rivals), featuring a selection of the world’s top athletes as they prepare for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. This is the first time that CCTV Sports has partnered with an international sports company to develop and produce a sports series for worldwide distribution in all media.
Who's Who (The Rivals) will consist of 50 episodes of 24 minutes each, featuring exclusive interviews with the top 50 Chinese Olympic Gold-medal contenders and the top 50 international athletes from the rest of the world. The series will focus on 50 disciplines with video from the most recent competitions of the top six to eight athletes. It will concentrate on the top two to three athletes in each discipline, covering their preparations for the Olympics, their on-camera comments about their competitors, their forecasts as to what they expect in their respective events, as well as presenting biographical material and interviews with their trainers, family and friends. In all, more than 350 of the world’s top elite athletes will be featured in exclusive interviews and recent competitions.
Hector Figueroa, the director of SportsNow! International, commented: “The Chinese are the world’s future superstars and yet they are largely unknown outside China and have not been easily accessible to the world media. The key point of interest for the international broadcaster or sponsor will be access to CCTV’s exclusive interviews of these top Chinese athletes. No other pre-Olympic series has ever offered so complete a picture of elite athletes in preparation for an Olympic Games.” Source: Worldscreen, 22nd Oct 2007
India/General: Australian Stars Attracted to Indian Premier League
The profile of the Indian Premier League, a new Twenty20 competition being organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is said to have been boosted by the recruitment of a host of players from the Australian national team. Captain Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Michael Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden and Mitchell Johnson have all signed up for the inaugural tournament in April, according to Australia’s Sun-Herald newspaper. The BCCI is reported to have forked out A$2 million ($1.8 million) to secure the services of the World Cup winners. However, there are concerns that the competition will clash with Australia’s tour of Pakistan next year.
Other Australians to have committed themselves to the IPL include retired internationals Shane Warne, Justin Langer and Glenn McGrath and out-of-favour players Simon Katich and Jason Gillespie. The league will also feature top Indian players and foreign stars such as Pakistan’s Mohammed Yousuf and Shoaib Akhtar, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene, South Africa’s Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock, New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori and Scott Styris and the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The IPL will involve eight franchise teams competing for $3 million in prize money. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: BSkyB and Setanta Go Head to Head for Football League
Arch-rivals British Sky Broadcasting and Setanta, the pay-television operators, are reported to be going head to head in bidding for the television rights for English soccer’s second-tier Football League, with a decision set to be made this week. Six rights packages, including three live packages, are on offer for three seasons beginning with the 2009-10 season, with the league said to be confident of exceeding the £37.5 million ($76.9 million) a year it receives from BSkyB under the present contract.
Setanta, which was unsuccessful in bidding for the present contract, has since snapped up the rights to 46 live matches per season in England’s top-tier Premier League to add to its comprehensive coverage of the Scottish Premier League. BSkyB, which retains the rights to 92 live Premier League matches per season, has been the main broadcasting partner of the Football League since 2002 when it stepped in to fill the breach left by the collapse of ITV Digital, which previously held the live rights. Source: Sportcal, 29th Oct 2007
Monday, 29th October 2007
WHAT’S THE BUZZ?
Leo Kirch’s DFL Deal
(Latest News first)
* A group of German sports sponsors has formed an association, S20 – The Sponsors’ Voice, aimed at representing their interests in negotiations with rights owners and broadcasters. A spokesman for the group said: ‘Sponsors pay, but have no voice. This has to change’. The group includes Bayerische Hypo- and Veriensbank, Adidas, Allianz, Veltins, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Deutsche Post and Postbank, Deutsche Telekom, RWE and Siemens. Its top priority will to be ensure that sponsors’ voices are heard in the distribution of television rights for the German Bundesliga, after the German football league, signed a 6-year, €3-billion ($4.26-billion) deal with Leo Kirch, the re-born German media mogul, for the distribution of the rights from 2009. The sponsors are concerned that any new domestic television rights deal might favour pay-television, at the expense of free-to-air television. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Leo Kirch is reported to be in talks with Germany’s second-biggest bank, about obtaining a bank guarantee to support his six-year, €3-billion ($4.26-billion) deal with the German football league, to distribute rights for the top-tier Bundesliga. The guarantee is required by the DFL, and the talks come despite the spectacular collapse in 2002 of Kirch’s media empire, with debts of about €6.5 million. The rights are to be distributed via Sirius, a joint venture 51% owned by KF15, Kirch’s financial holding group, with the DFL owning the remainder. The six-year deal is due to begin in 2009. German press reports suggest that Kirch stands to profit handsomely from the DFL arrangement, with KF15 receiving 90% of the first €100 million over and above the €500 million a season that Kirch has agreed to pay for the rights. Kirch then stands to earn 51% of any further profits each season. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Heinrich Schmidhuber, the DFB’s treasurer, said he was shocked at the DFL's six-year, €3-billion ($4.27-billion) deal with Kirch for the production and distribution rights to German soccer's top-tier Bundesliga from 2009-10 onwards. He told the Passauer Neuen Presse, a German regional newspaper, that he was ‘surprised that you could do this deal with Kirch again,’ adding that the league had ‘not had the best experiences with Kirch in the past.’ He also claimed that ‘money had played a special role’ in the deal. Schmidhuber also vented his oppostion to possible plans to delay free-to-air Bundesliga highlights until late on Saturday evenings to give more exclusivity to pay-television, saying: ‘That would be a great disadvantage for our schoolchildren and the youth.' Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* The Sportsman Media Group, the agency responsible for selling the rights to the German Bundesliga, has said that it would like to rekindle a working relationship even though the league has announced it is to form its own unit to distribute the rights worldwide. At the time of the German Football League’s confirmation of a tie-up with media entrepreneur Leo Kirch to market and produce the Bundesliga rights for six years from 2009-10, it said that would create its own agency abroad in 2008 to handle the international rights for the next two contract periods. The Sportsman Media Group appears to be losing the rights to its flagship property unless it retains some involvement in the planned agency. Sirius, a production and distribution group set up by Kirch and the DFL, is to market the Bundesliga to broadcasters in Germany from the spring of 2008. Source: Sportcal, 17th Oct 2007
* The DFL said that it could not comment on the distribution of international rights from 2009-10 onwards, over and above the statement made at the time of the Kirch deal. As a result of the partnership with the Sportsman Media Group, the Bundesliga has grown its international viewership across television, internet and mobile platforms. During the 2006-07 season, the first year of the Sportsman contract, extensive Bundesliga coverage, consisting of live or delayed matches and highlights, was available in 144 countries. The share of deals that included live coverage was around 94 per cent. For the 2007-08 season, the Sportsman has increased the number of territories with Bundesliga coverage (not including short highlights or news access deals) to around 167, with the amount of live coverage also on the increase. Source: Sportcal, 17th Oct 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Ten Sports acquired the rights for all international cricket matches played in South Africa and Zimbabwe for markets in Asia, including India and Pakistan, and the Middle East. Ten already holds the rights for all international cricket played in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Chris McDonald, CEO, Taj Television, said, “By acquiring the rights for South Africa and Zimbabwe, Ten Sports has significantly added to its broadcast of the world’s best live cricket action. Our line-up of international cricket now extends through the end of the decade.” Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* Qatar launched its campaign to bring the 2016 Olympics to Doha, aiming to host the games in an Arab country for the first time with a key message that an Olympics in Qatar would promote understanding between the Middle East and the rest of the world. Qatar, with a population of 300,000, faces competition from Baku, Chicago, Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Bid chairman Hassan Ali Bin Ali said that the competition will be tough but Doha was ‘more suited’ to stage the games ‘because it embodies the dreams of millions of young people in the Middle East.’ The first key date for the bid cities is January 14, the deadline for the submission of bid questionnaires to the International Olympic Committee. The cities will then be trimmed down to a shortlist in June next year. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Mahesh Samat has been appointed as the managing director of The Walt Disney Company (India), coordinating all of its efforts in the key Asian market. Based in Mumbai and reporting to Andy Bird, the president of Walt Disney International, Samat will be responsible for driving the company’s Indian strategy, coordinating all Disney business efforts in the market, including overseeing Disney global franchises, expanding existing businesses and seeking out new business opportunities. He will manage all of the existing Disney businesses in India, except the ESPN/Star Sports joint venture, with all local business segments reporting into him. Source: Worldscreen, 25th Oct 2007
* Uday Shankar and Jadgish Kumar have been upped to the roles of CEO and COO of STAR India, respectively, effective immediately. Reporting to STAR’s CEO, Paul Aiello, Shankar will assume the position of CEO of STAR India, responsible for the company’s overall business in the region. Shankar joined STAR India as COO in May, following a stint as CEO of STAR joint venture MCCS. Kumar, who is currently based in Hong Kong, will join STAR India as COO. Kumar will report to Shankar and work closely with him in optimizing operational efficiencies and driving the company’s growth agenda. Source: Worldscreen, 25th Oct 2007
* IMG has reached a global distribution agreement for broadcasts of the Stanford 20/20 tournament, the growing Caribbean cricket competition. Coverage of the single-elimination knockout competition featuring teams from several Caribbean territories will be produced by Century TV. Stanford Financial Group already works with IMG on other signature sports events the company sponsors including the Memphis PGA TOUR stop, the Stanford St. Jude Championship, and the Sony Ericsson Grand Slam tennis tournament. In addition, Stanford Financial Group works with IMG to manage its PGA TOUR player ambassador agreements with Vijay Singh and Camilo Villegas. Source: Sport Business, 26th Oct 2007
* The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has signed three-year extension of its strategic partnership deal with Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks. The deal maintains Spike TV as the basic cable home to the UFC through 2011 and includes three seasons of the ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality TV show, 12 live fight cards and 30 one-hour episodes of ‘UFC Unleashed’. According to Spike TV, seven live UFC fights on Spike TV in 2007 averaged more young men in the 18-34 demographic (869,000) on cable than the more established American sports of basketball, baseball, football, hockey and NASCAR. Source: Sport Business, Worldscreen, 26th Oct 2007
* SNRT, the Moroccan free-to-air broadcasting group, has won the rights to the Morocco's top soccer league and the international team’s home matches in a three-year, $28.4 million deal. Live coverage will be spread across three SNRT channels, with the bulk of the games on sports channel Arriadya and one per week on 2M and Al Oula. Arriadya will also offer full coverage of all league games on delay. SNRT is to pay the FRMF, the Moroccan Football Federation, around $8.8 million in the first year of the contract, $9.5 million in the second year and $10.1 million in the final year, according to Moroccan news portal Yabiladi. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* The International Tennis Federation has launched a beach tennis tour, which will be introduced to the calendar next year. The move follows a year of research into participation and interest in the offshoot sport, which merges facets of tennis with volleyball and is contested between doubles teams. While it admits that only a small number of countries, notably the USA, are currently active in beach tennis, the ITF believes there is considerable potential. The 2008 calendar will consist of tournaments organised or sanctioned by national associations and offer international ranking points. The ITF Beach Tennis Tour becomes the sixth circuit to be sanctioned by the international federation, joining the ITF Junior Circuit, ITF Men's Circuit, ITF Women's Circuit, ITF Seniors Circuit and NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* French authorities are set to allow the French football league, Ligue de Football Professionnel, to sell its TV rights over a four-year period in order to help it solicit more competition from the market. The LFP has since then lobbied the French competition authority and the government to allow it to sell its rights for four-year contracts, so as to entice potential new players to enter the market, in the knowledge that they would have time to develop an offering. Although the country’s competition authorities initially rejected the league’s proposal, it is understood that the law will be amended after being agreed by ministers and will then be published in the Official Journal. The league is expected to launch a rights tender at the end of November. Source: Sport Business, 24th Oct 2007
* Manchester United joint chairman Joel Glazer ruled out a breakaway from the Premier League over the way clubs negotiate their TV rights. Glazer said: "I think the collective TV rights model is working very well. It's a major reason why the Premier League is the most popular league in the world. All games are competitive and it, of course, attracts the world's top players.” Some in the game had speculated that the club might try and split from the collective deal. But Glazer said that had never been the case. "We're very supportive of the current model. It's something we've said from the outset." Source: Sport Business, 26th Oct 2007
* The NFL American football game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants in London, England on Sunday is to be televised in 215 countries. The National Football League said yesterday that 39 broadcast partners will carry coverage of the first regular season game to be held outside North America. In the USA, the game will be televised on a regional basis by national network Fox, while in the UK, pay-television operator BSkyB will provide live coverage, with public-service broadcaster the BBC to offer delayed highlights. The game at Wembley Stadium will be watched by an 86,000 sell-out crowd. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* Fans will have access to every match from current and forthcoming tournaments on the men’s Professional Squash Association Tour via the PSA’s specialist internet channel, PSALIVE.TV, offering live coverage of the Saudi International, which started this week, and November’s Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open and Endurance World Open Bermuda 2007. Full tournament packages are available for £25 ($51), while packages covering the quarter-finals onwards cost £10. Individual matches can also be watched online. Meanwhile, the World Squash Federation has announced that there will be free live streaming of the Women’s World Open Squash Championship at www.worldsquash.org from the quarter-finals on Thursday through to the final on Sunday. The event takes place in Madrid and matches can be watched via the internet for a month after its conclusion. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* Technology finance outfit Smartfundit.com and Wi-Fi TV Inc. have launched an initiative to see Wi-Fi television become more widespread – and ‘on air’ for $1000 a month. California-based Wi-Fi TV is already “broadcasting” hundreds of web-channels from its site, but has developed Social Internet TV which it describes as “a new generation TV delivery platform” that can take programming around the world and at the same time permit on-screen chat, news and add in “free” online phone calls (see www.wi-fitv.com for more). Smartfundit is an on-line financing facility for technology companies, and claims to have helped fund $680m of IT-based purchases over the past two years. The business was launched in January 2006 and has offices in Surrey (UK) and San Francisco. The company says that technology financing for Wi-Fi television projects is now available. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* A technical study confirms that WiMax signals can cause “severe interference” to satellite reception. WiMax, the so-called 4G wireless system, has already suffered criticism from some countries for causing interference on satellite reception. Satellite operations in Australia, Bolivia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa have been negatively affected. The problem occurs where telcos implement 3G or 4G Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems in or close to C-Band satellite transmissions. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* Microsoft has paid a staggering $240m for a fractional stake in networking site Facebook. Facebook’s value, on the strength of the Microsoft purchase, is a colossal $15bn. Microsoft’s miniscule 1.6% stake cements its relationship with the social networking site, and – one assumes – closes out bids from the industry’s other big hitters (notably Google, AOL, YouTube and DoubleClick, all of which have been reportedly sniffing around Facebook). Microsoft, which already had a “partnership” deal with Facebook as its ad-platform in the US, now extends that relationship world wide. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* Australia will not host a round of the World Rally Championship until 2009 at the earliest. The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) confirmed an Australia round would not now host the 2008 event planned for Queensland in September. CAMS asked the FIA, the world governing body of motor sport, to postpone the planned 2008 round until 2009 following a request from i-METT Queensland Group Pty Ltd. A delay in government approval for construction was cited as the reason for the postponement. Source: Sport Business, 25th Oct 2007
* Chelsea Football Club has appointed Pitch PR to oversee a trade and consumer PR campaign. Pitch has been engaged with the aim of promoting key areas of Chelsea FC’s non-football business. It will be handling announcements of the club’s image rights deals, raising the profile of the events and hospitality divisions of Chelsea, as well as running consumer campaigns for the Stamford Bridge stadium tours and ‘True Blue’ membership scheme. The agency will also oversee the launch next month of ‘Chelsea +’, Chelsea’s new broadband internet offering. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 25th Oct 2007
* IMG today dismissed a report that it could axe up to 130 jobs at TWI, its television production and distribution division, following the shock news earlier this month of a decision to scrap its Trans World Sport magazine programme. IMG described the redundancies report as 'very wide off the mark.' IMG plans to axe Trans World Sport, its iconic, 20-year-old weekly sports magazine programme, and Futbol Mundial, its 15-year-old soccer magazine programme, from the end of this year, with the possible loss of up to 40 jobs. Some observers claim the changes are part of a strategy aimed at increasing profitability ahead of a sale of the agency by Ted Forstmann who acquired IMG in 2004 for $750 million. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Singapore/New Media: Broadband Service WOWtv Launches
WOWtv, a broadband entertainment service offering more than 50 streaming channels of programming across all genres, including movie blockbusters, Asian dramas and sports, has debuted in Singapore. WOWtv’s broadband channels can be accessed via four different platforms: web, set-top box, portable media player and 3G. The channels of programming include movie blockbusters, Asian dramas and variety shows, travel, lifestyle, fashion, edutainment, sports and more. WOWtv has established content agreements with distributors such as Sony Pictures Television International, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Videofashion Network.
It will also unveil Singapore’s first-ever Web Jockey, who will introduce viewers to the latest movies and series shown on WOWtv. Aside from programming, online games and e-commerce services are also available. All subscribers to WOWtv have instant access to more than 25 channels of entertainment across genres on the Free tier. Premium programming is also available to subscribers in 2 different membership tiers: the Basic tier, which allows members to access an additional 16 channels at S$40 a year and Value tier, which consists of a host of a la carte channels and current premium pay-per-view movies.
To date, WOWtv has more than 20,000 registered subscribers, achieved over an eight-week soft-launch period. WOWtv’s bouquet of entertainment services is set to launch in more Asia-Pacific markets by year’s end. Source: Worldscreen, 26th Oct 2007
Hong Kong/New Media: More mobile HD
Hong Kong mobile operator Smartone-Vodafone has launched its “high-definition” 3G mobile TV service with a dig at other operators’ “rehashed free terrestrial TV programmes”. QVGA streaming will allow a form of “high-def” viewing and follows launch of the technology by rival mobile operator PCCW earlier in the year. Smartone’s new FoneTV service on its HSPA network also includes the “i-Console” split-screen viewing tool which allows simultaneous TV viewing and channel selection as well as interactive features such as online transactions and voting. “With the iConsole, customers can buy related music content such as connecting tone and full track at the click of a button while watching MV,” said Smartone.
Fone TV will offer 12 channels including news and finance, music, cartoons and live traffic cams. Programming will be in the form of “snack size” shows “ideal for those moments in the day when you have some down time or traveling to and from work.” Each channel is available for a flat monthly fee, or HK$88 a month for all 12. Channels include Animax, BBC World, Bloomberg TV, Chinese News, CNBC and CNN International, as well as Cartoon Network cartoons and a movie news channel. Other operators offering 3G mobile TV services in Hong Kong include PCCW, Hutchison and CSL New World. Hong Kong’s government is examining provision of true mobile TV services but has made no decision on the issue. PCCW is also conducting a trial of Qualcomm’s MediaFLO system. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
Singapore/General: Formula One Green Lights Night Race
Formula One officials confirmed that the streets of Singapore will host the series’ first ever night race in 2008. The World Motor Sport Council, which met in Paris, approved the race as well as an extended 18-race 2008 calendar. Marina Bay Singapore will serve as a backdrop for the historic race, which will take place on September 28. It was also confirmed that the Canada Grand Prix will be part of the 2008 calendar and a daytime street race would be held in Valencia. Spyker’s request to change its team name to Force India has been accepted and it was announced that there will also be a total freeze on engine development for a period of 10 years from 2008.
CALENDAR - 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship
16/3 Australia 11/5 Turkey 6/7 Great Britain 7/9 Belgium 19/10 China
23/3 Malaysia 25/5 Monaco 20/7 Germany 14/9 Italy 02/11 Brazil
6/4 Bahrain 8/6 Canada 3/8 Hungary 28/9 Singapore
27/4 Spain 22/6 France 24/8 Europe 12/10 Japan
Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
Asia/Rights: EHF Marketing GmbH Take First Steps to Break Into Asian Market
EHF Marketing GmbH, the marketing arm of the European Handball Federation (EHF), has taken first steps to place elite European handball, and in particular the EHF Champions League, on the strong Asian market. EHF Marketing has met a 3-year agreement with a longstanding EHF Champions League partner, Global MMK, to strategically plan and realise the marketing of the EHF Champions League TV Rights in Asia. Global MMK will initially focus on the Chinese market, to utilise and then build-on the synergies that the forthcoming Olympic Games will bring with them.
Global MMK has much experience within the Asian market and with its expertise in building and implementing marketing strategies to open up this important market for handball, EHF Marketing Director, Peter Vargo, is confident that the EHF Champions League will soon be on offer to Asian sport fans. Global MMK will work directly with its division in Peking, initially working to establish handball on the Chinese market and then moving on to such countries as Korea and Japan.
Marc Rapparlie, Managing Director of Global MMK confirmed, “The potential for “new” sports in China is huge….our office in Peking is “on site” to identify strategically important partners who are already operating in this area. The pre-Olympic period is crucial to establish a marketing concept which will capture the interest of the sport fanatics in China.” Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: EBU Wants Clear Calendar Before Renewing UCI Deal
The European Broadcasting Union today warned that it wanted a ‘harmonised calendar’ in professional cycling before agreeing to extend its television rights deal with the UCI, cycling’s world governing body. Jean Reveillon, the EBU’s director-general said that members of the EBU, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters, are ‘a little annoyed’ by a rift between the UCI and the organisers of the sport’s so-called ‘grand tours’ – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana – and want a ‘reunification of the family.’ Reveillon was speaking in the wake of the EBU issuing a release calling for the calendar of international cycling events to ‘quickly be harmonised in consultations between the parties, in particular the UCI and the ‘major tours’.’
The release coincides with negotiations between the two bodies over a recently-launched tender for the television rights for the UCI’s top events. The EBU, which holds the rights under the present contract, is understood to be vying with several international sports agencies, including IMG, for a new deal. Although the ‘grand tours’ do not form part of the contract, the suggestion that the EBU might withdraw from the bidding if the calendar is not ‘harmonised’ in the way demanded by the EBU, is likely to be regarded as serious blow by the UCI.
However, one UCI source today told Sportcal.com: ‘I don’t think that this is a threat. I just think that they want the calendar to be more stable so that they can make deals.’ The EBU, in its release, draws a parallel with an accord reached this week between the UCI and its former antagonist the World Anti-Doping Agency over the introduction of anti-doping ‘passports’ for riders. The tender, which covers annual world championships in road, track, mountain bike and cyclo-cross cycling, is for four years, beginning in 2009 and running until 2012, when the UCI’s existing deal with the EBU expires. The tender also covers the annual track and cyclo-cross World Cup series. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Euroleague Seeks Internet Audience while Respecting Rights Holders
There will be strong demand for Euroleague.TV, the new online broadcast platform featuring live coverage of games from European basketball’s top clubs competition, despite geo-blocking in some countries to protect television rights contracts, the league’s chief executive Jordi Bertomeu has claimed. Euroleague Basketball launched the subscription service this week to coincide with the start of the 2007-08 season and hopes to build on the success of the internet coverage of last season’s Final Four competition which was made available in 37 different countries.
He added that the league had had to be 'careful' not to undermine existing deals with broadcasters, particularly those in the pay-television market, and said that it was achieving this through selective geo-blocking of live games in certain countries. However, it is estimated that on average, 80% of the games will be available, as they take place, to users of the internet platform. Bertomeu believes the timing is right for the launch of the service as it is two years since Euroleague began distributing its commercial rights in-house and it now has the know-how to embrace different platforms.
The league has opted for a subscription service, as opposed to an advertiser-funded model, on the recommendation of Infront, the international sports agency, which is providing the technological platform and handling the payment system. The two parties first worked together during this year’s CBA-Euroleague Challenge in China, a challenge series involving teams from China, Europe and Australia. The experience was described as ‘very positive’ and the agency has been entrusted with the technical responsibilities for the internet service, while the league is ‘more in charge of the promotion.’ Source: Sportcal, Sport Business, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/New Media: 3 Italia plans DTT
3 Italia, the mobile telecommunications operator owned by Chinese group Hutchinson Whampoa, is aiming to become an "integrated TV publisher" on different platforms rather than just a mobile telephone operator. The television project - explained CEO of 3 Italia Vincenzo Novari – has so far absorbed EUR280 million of investment in the transmission network. By 2010 the network will be 50% dedicated to mobile TV broadcasting on DVB-H and 50% dedicated to digital-terrestrial television (DTT) channel transmission. It will have the capacity to broadcast a total of four TV channels, two of which will be high definition.
3 Italia has a total of 770,000 mobile customers that own a tivufonino (a neologism that stands for "mobile TV phone") 40% of which use it to access - at least once per week - to a variety of TV channels and premium video services. H3G Italia, the company that runs the business under the brand "3 Italia", finished the first six months of 2007 with revenues of approximately EUR997 million (down four per cent from previous year) and is still a loss making company. According to some rumors published in the UK press, the main shareholder of Hutchinson Whampoa, Li Ka Shing, has started the process of sale of the Italian mobile operator, a company that could be worth EUR10 billion. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: England's FA Could Double Value of International Rights
A tender issued in August by the Football Association, English soccer’s governing body, for international media rights for England’s home games and the FA Cup top-tier knockout competition, is on target to bring in £80 million ($164 million) over four years, double the value of the present deal. The tender is for a four-year period beginning with the 2008-09 season. The extra money would help to offset the losses faced by the FA if England fail to qualify for next year’s Euro 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. England lie second in their qualifying group but are relying on other teams’ results to ensure their passage to the competition.
The majority of the rights are distributed by Sportfive, the international sports agency, under the present deal. The rights cover the annual FA Cup competition, England matches, England Under-21 matches, and the FA Community Shield, the traditional ‘curtain-raiser’ to the English season. A domestic deal worth £425 million has already been agreed with commercial broadcaster ITV and pay-television operator Setanta. The deadline for submissions of bids for the international rights was September 28. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: French League Urged to Review TV Rights Money Distribution
The LFP, the French professional soccer league, has been urged to review its distribution of television money by Francis Decourrière, the president of the French top-tier club Valenciennes. Decourrière, told france2.fr that the handouts must be adjusted to reward France’s smaller clubs more, even if the LFP is unable to secure a new deal matching the €600 million ($852.2 million) per year it receives at present from Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster.
He said, ‘Whatever happens, first of all the television rights must be distributed in an equal manner. In England, which we always take as an example, the first-placed team gets €75 million and the last-placed team gets €45 million. For us, the first-placed team gets €46 million and the last-placed team gets €13 million. The difference is 4 to 1 while in England it is 2 to 1.’
Decourrière also hit out at France’s bigger clubs for forming a elite body of seven last week. The organisation has been christened ‘Football Avenir Professional’ (Future Professional Football) and Lyon chief Jean-Michel Aulas is its president. Decourrière said the creation of the new body ‘made him very sad and scared.’ He added: ‘Ten days ago, all the clubs were united under the presidency of Gervais Martel, the president of the UCPF (the union of professional clubs), saying that we will go forward completely united. ‘And then, we notice that there have been secret meetings in hotels to join together only the clubs who have big shareholders.’
The Valenciennes president also complained that Canal Plus had only broadcast his team’s matches twice this season, and that Le Mans, another of the smaller clubs in the top division, had only been televised once despite being third in the table. He added: ‘Marseille have been televised 10 times, Paris Saint Germain nine times and Lens six. I didn’t think there was a real difference between Lens and Valenciennes.’ Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Spain Heads List of Countries Without Euro 2008 TV Deal
Spain heads a list of markets that are still to agree a broadcasting deal for soccer’s 2008 European Championships, seven and a half months before the tournament kicks off in Austria and Switzerland. No deal has yet been agreed in Spain despite lengthy negotiations between Sportfive, the international sports agency marketing the Euro 2008 broadcast rights, and broadacsters in the country, the only market in Europe’s five major territories yet to agree a contract. Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, has targeted at least €600 million ($852.4 million) from the sale of European broadcast rights by Sportfive, with around €410 million already generated in France, Germany, Italy and the UK alone.
Italy was the first of the major European markets to sign a deal, after Rai, the Italian public-service broadcaster, agreed an exclusive deal worth an estimated €120 million in July 2006. Deals in France and Germany were subject to lengthy negotiations between Sportfive and broadcasters, particularly in Germany where SportA, the rights acquisition agency of public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, eventually signed a deal worth around €115 million for 27 of the 31 games, subject to confirmation by Uefa.
Sportfive was originally said to be targeting between €150 million and €160 million from the German market, but a lack of exclusivity on offer to pay-television meant that the expected bidding war did not materialise. A package of four second-choice final group phase fixtures is still available to free-to-air and pay-television broadcasters in Germany.
In the UK, free-to-air broadcasters BBC and ITV announced in June of this year that they had won the rights in a joint deal, after Sportfive was frustrated in its efforts to persuade them to bid separately. As members of the European Broadcasting Union, the BBC and ITV are used to bidding together for rights to major soccer tournaments, and avoiding driving up the price by competing directly against one another. Consequently, a joint deal worth in excess of £50 million was reported to have been signed, around £40 million less than the target set by Uefa.
A lengthy stand-off in France was ended after TF1 and M6, the commercial broadcasters, agreed to pay around €50 million each to share the rights to the tournament. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/New Media: France Télévisions Wants 'At Least Four Mobile Channels'
France Télévisions, the French public-service broadcaster, has targeted a minimum of four mobile channels when new technology is rolled out in France next year. With the advent of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) technology in 2008, France Télévisions is hoping to be allocated at least one-fifth of the 20 available channels. Laurent Souloumiac, the director general of France Télévisions Interactive, said that the broadcaster is ‘calling for the acquisition of four channels for France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 5, and we are asking about France Ô (the multicultural channel).’
Speaking at a conference in Paris to discuss audiovisual convergence, Souloumiac said that market research had shown that the consumers want to see the ‘big television channels’ on the new mobile service. France’s Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel, the country’s broadcasting watchdog, is set to launch a tender for the 20 mobile channels, although the government could spare France Télévisions this process given its status as a public-service broadcaster.
Concerning the financing of the mobile channels, Souloumiac said that ‘obviously France Télévisions is more orientated towards free coverage, as a public-service broadcaster, but this network will cost money and we need partnerships with the operators.’ Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV News, 24th Oct 2007
Leo Kirch’s DFL Deal
(Latest News first)
* A group of German sports sponsors has formed an association, S20 – The Sponsors’ Voice, aimed at representing their interests in negotiations with rights owners and broadcasters. A spokesman for the group said: ‘Sponsors pay, but have no voice. This has to change’. The group includes Bayerische Hypo- and Veriensbank, Adidas, Allianz, Veltins, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Deutsche Post and Postbank, Deutsche Telekom, RWE and Siemens. Its top priority will to be ensure that sponsors’ voices are heard in the distribution of television rights for the German Bundesliga, after the German football league, signed a 6-year, €3-billion ($4.26-billion) deal with Leo Kirch, the re-born German media mogul, for the distribution of the rights from 2009. The sponsors are concerned that any new domestic television rights deal might favour pay-television, at the expense of free-to-air television. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Leo Kirch is reported to be in talks with Germany’s second-biggest bank, about obtaining a bank guarantee to support his six-year, €3-billion ($4.26-billion) deal with the German football league, to distribute rights for the top-tier Bundesliga. The guarantee is required by the DFL, and the talks come despite the spectacular collapse in 2002 of Kirch’s media empire, with debts of about €6.5 million. The rights are to be distributed via Sirius, a joint venture 51% owned by KF15, Kirch’s financial holding group, with the DFL owning the remainder. The six-year deal is due to begin in 2009. German press reports suggest that Kirch stands to profit handsomely from the DFL arrangement, with KF15 receiving 90% of the first €100 million over and above the €500 million a season that Kirch has agreed to pay for the rights. Kirch then stands to earn 51% of any further profits each season. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Heinrich Schmidhuber, the DFB’s treasurer, said he was shocked at the DFL's six-year, €3-billion ($4.27-billion) deal with Kirch for the production and distribution rights to German soccer's top-tier Bundesliga from 2009-10 onwards. He told the Passauer Neuen Presse, a German regional newspaper, that he was ‘surprised that you could do this deal with Kirch again,’ adding that the league had ‘not had the best experiences with Kirch in the past.’ He also claimed that ‘money had played a special role’ in the deal. Schmidhuber also vented his oppostion to possible plans to delay free-to-air Bundesliga highlights until late on Saturday evenings to give more exclusivity to pay-television, saying: ‘That would be a great disadvantage for our schoolchildren and the youth.' Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* The Sportsman Media Group, the agency responsible for selling the rights to the German Bundesliga, has said that it would like to rekindle a working relationship even though the league has announced it is to form its own unit to distribute the rights worldwide. At the time of the German Football League’s confirmation of a tie-up with media entrepreneur Leo Kirch to market and produce the Bundesliga rights for six years from 2009-10, it said that would create its own agency abroad in 2008 to handle the international rights for the next two contract periods. The Sportsman Media Group appears to be losing the rights to its flagship property unless it retains some involvement in the planned agency. Sirius, a production and distribution group set up by Kirch and the DFL, is to market the Bundesliga to broadcasters in Germany from the spring of 2008. Source: Sportcal, 17th Oct 2007
* The DFL said that it could not comment on the distribution of international rights from 2009-10 onwards, over and above the statement made at the time of the Kirch deal. As a result of the partnership with the Sportsman Media Group, the Bundesliga has grown its international viewership across television, internet and mobile platforms. During the 2006-07 season, the first year of the Sportsman contract, extensive Bundesliga coverage, consisting of live or delayed matches and highlights, was available in 144 countries. The share of deals that included live coverage was around 94 per cent. For the 2007-08 season, the Sportsman has increased the number of territories with Bundesliga coverage (not including short highlights or news access deals) to around 167, with the amount of live coverage also on the increase. Source: Sportcal, 17th Oct 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* Ten Sports acquired the rights for all international cricket matches played in South Africa and Zimbabwe for markets in Asia, including India and Pakistan, and the Middle East. Ten already holds the rights for all international cricket played in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Chris McDonald, CEO, Taj Television, said, “By acquiring the rights for South Africa and Zimbabwe, Ten Sports has significantly added to its broadcast of the world’s best live cricket action. Our line-up of international cricket now extends through the end of the decade.” Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* Qatar launched its campaign to bring the 2016 Olympics to Doha, aiming to host the games in an Arab country for the first time with a key message that an Olympics in Qatar would promote understanding between the Middle East and the rest of the world. Qatar, with a population of 300,000, faces competition from Baku, Chicago, Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Bid chairman Hassan Ali Bin Ali said that the competition will be tough but Doha was ‘more suited’ to stage the games ‘because it embodies the dreams of millions of young people in the Middle East.’ The first key date for the bid cities is January 14, the deadline for the submission of bid questionnaires to the International Olympic Committee. The cities will then be trimmed down to a shortlist in June next year. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
* Mahesh Samat has been appointed as the managing director of The Walt Disney Company (India), coordinating all of its efforts in the key Asian market. Based in Mumbai and reporting to Andy Bird, the president of Walt Disney International, Samat will be responsible for driving the company’s Indian strategy, coordinating all Disney business efforts in the market, including overseeing Disney global franchises, expanding existing businesses and seeking out new business opportunities. He will manage all of the existing Disney businesses in India, except the ESPN/Star Sports joint venture, with all local business segments reporting into him. Source: Worldscreen, 25th Oct 2007
* Uday Shankar and Jadgish Kumar have been upped to the roles of CEO and COO of STAR India, respectively, effective immediately. Reporting to STAR’s CEO, Paul Aiello, Shankar will assume the position of CEO of STAR India, responsible for the company’s overall business in the region. Shankar joined STAR India as COO in May, following a stint as CEO of STAR joint venture MCCS. Kumar, who is currently based in Hong Kong, will join STAR India as COO. Kumar will report to Shankar and work closely with him in optimizing operational efficiencies and driving the company’s growth agenda. Source: Worldscreen, 25th Oct 2007
* IMG has reached a global distribution agreement for broadcasts of the Stanford 20/20 tournament, the growing Caribbean cricket competition. Coverage of the single-elimination knockout competition featuring teams from several Caribbean territories will be produced by Century TV. Stanford Financial Group already works with IMG on other signature sports events the company sponsors including the Memphis PGA TOUR stop, the Stanford St. Jude Championship, and the Sony Ericsson Grand Slam tennis tournament. In addition, Stanford Financial Group works with IMG to manage its PGA TOUR player ambassador agreements with Vijay Singh and Camilo Villegas. Source: Sport Business, 26th Oct 2007
* The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has signed three-year extension of its strategic partnership deal with Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks. The deal maintains Spike TV as the basic cable home to the UFC through 2011 and includes three seasons of the ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality TV show, 12 live fight cards and 30 one-hour episodes of ‘UFC Unleashed’. According to Spike TV, seven live UFC fights on Spike TV in 2007 averaged more young men in the 18-34 demographic (869,000) on cable than the more established American sports of basketball, baseball, football, hockey and NASCAR. Source: Sport Business, Worldscreen, 26th Oct 2007
* SNRT, the Moroccan free-to-air broadcasting group, has won the rights to the Morocco's top soccer league and the international team’s home matches in a three-year, $28.4 million deal. Live coverage will be spread across three SNRT channels, with the bulk of the games on sports channel Arriadya and one per week on 2M and Al Oula. Arriadya will also offer full coverage of all league games on delay. SNRT is to pay the FRMF, the Moroccan Football Federation, around $8.8 million in the first year of the contract, $9.5 million in the second year and $10.1 million in the final year, according to Moroccan news portal Yabiladi. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* The International Tennis Federation has launched a beach tennis tour, which will be introduced to the calendar next year. The move follows a year of research into participation and interest in the offshoot sport, which merges facets of tennis with volleyball and is contested between doubles teams. While it admits that only a small number of countries, notably the USA, are currently active in beach tennis, the ITF believes there is considerable potential. The 2008 calendar will consist of tournaments organised or sanctioned by national associations and offer international ranking points. The ITF Beach Tennis Tour becomes the sixth circuit to be sanctioned by the international federation, joining the ITF Junior Circuit, ITF Men's Circuit, ITF Women's Circuit, ITF Seniors Circuit and NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* French authorities are set to allow the French football league, Ligue de Football Professionnel, to sell its TV rights over a four-year period in order to help it solicit more competition from the market. The LFP has since then lobbied the French competition authority and the government to allow it to sell its rights for four-year contracts, so as to entice potential new players to enter the market, in the knowledge that they would have time to develop an offering. Although the country’s competition authorities initially rejected the league’s proposal, it is understood that the law will be amended after being agreed by ministers and will then be published in the Official Journal. The league is expected to launch a rights tender at the end of November. Source: Sport Business, 24th Oct 2007
* Manchester United joint chairman Joel Glazer ruled out a breakaway from the Premier League over the way clubs negotiate their TV rights. Glazer said: "I think the collective TV rights model is working very well. It's a major reason why the Premier League is the most popular league in the world. All games are competitive and it, of course, attracts the world's top players.” Some in the game had speculated that the club might try and split from the collective deal. But Glazer said that had never been the case. "We're very supportive of the current model. It's something we've said from the outset." Source: Sport Business, 26th Oct 2007
* The NFL American football game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants in London, England on Sunday is to be televised in 215 countries. The National Football League said yesterday that 39 broadcast partners will carry coverage of the first regular season game to be held outside North America. In the USA, the game will be televised on a regional basis by national network Fox, while in the UK, pay-television operator BSkyB will provide live coverage, with public-service broadcaster the BBC to offer delayed highlights. The game at Wembley Stadium will be watched by an 86,000 sell-out crowd. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
* Fans will have access to every match from current and forthcoming tournaments on the men’s Professional Squash Association Tour via the PSA’s specialist internet channel, PSALIVE.TV, offering live coverage of the Saudi International, which started this week, and November’s Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open and Endurance World Open Bermuda 2007. Full tournament packages are available for £25 ($51), while packages covering the quarter-finals onwards cost £10. Individual matches can also be watched online. Meanwhile, the World Squash Federation has announced that there will be free live streaming of the Women’s World Open Squash Championship at www.worldsquash.org from the quarter-finals on Thursday through to the final on Sunday. The event takes place in Madrid and matches can be watched via the internet for a month after its conclusion. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
* Technology finance outfit Smartfundit.com and Wi-Fi TV Inc. have launched an initiative to see Wi-Fi television become more widespread – and ‘on air’ for $1000 a month. California-based Wi-Fi TV is already “broadcasting” hundreds of web-channels from its site, but has developed Social Internet TV which it describes as “a new generation TV delivery platform” that can take programming around the world and at the same time permit on-screen chat, news and add in “free” online phone calls (see www.wi-fitv.com for more). Smartfundit is an on-line financing facility for technology companies, and claims to have helped fund $680m of IT-based purchases over the past two years. The business was launched in January 2006 and has offices in Surrey (UK) and San Francisco. The company says that technology financing for Wi-Fi television projects is now available. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* A technical study confirms that WiMax signals can cause “severe interference” to satellite reception. WiMax, the so-called 4G wireless system, has already suffered criticism from some countries for causing interference on satellite reception. Satellite operations in Australia, Bolivia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa have been negatively affected. The problem occurs where telcos implement 3G or 4G Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems in or close to C-Band satellite transmissions. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* Microsoft has paid a staggering $240m for a fractional stake in networking site Facebook. Facebook’s value, on the strength of the Microsoft purchase, is a colossal $15bn. Microsoft’s miniscule 1.6% stake cements its relationship with the social networking site, and – one assumes – closes out bids from the industry’s other big hitters (notably Google, AOL, YouTube and DoubleClick, all of which have been reportedly sniffing around Facebook). Microsoft, which already had a “partnership” deal with Facebook as its ad-platform in the US, now extends that relationship world wide. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
* Australia will not host a round of the World Rally Championship until 2009 at the earliest. The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) confirmed an Australia round would not now host the 2008 event planned for Queensland in September. CAMS asked the FIA, the world governing body of motor sport, to postpone the planned 2008 round until 2009 following a request from i-METT Queensland Group Pty Ltd. A delay in government approval for construction was cited as the reason for the postponement. Source: Sport Business, 25th Oct 2007
* Chelsea Football Club has appointed Pitch PR to oversee a trade and consumer PR campaign. Pitch has been engaged with the aim of promoting key areas of Chelsea FC’s non-football business. It will be handling announcements of the club’s image rights deals, raising the profile of the events and hospitality divisions of Chelsea, as well as running consumer campaigns for the Stamford Bridge stadium tours and ‘True Blue’ membership scheme. The agency will also oversee the launch next month of ‘Chelsea +’, Chelsea’s new broadband internet offering. Source: Sport Business, Sports e-Media, 25th Oct 2007
* IMG today dismissed a report that it could axe up to 130 jobs at TWI, its television production and distribution division, following the shock news earlier this month of a decision to scrap its Trans World Sport magazine programme. IMG described the redundancies report as 'very wide off the mark.' IMG plans to axe Trans World Sport, its iconic, 20-year-old weekly sports magazine programme, and Futbol Mundial, its 15-year-old soccer magazine programme, from the end of this year, with the possible loss of up to 40 jobs. Some observers claim the changes are part of a strategy aimed at increasing profitability ahead of a sale of the agency by Ted Forstmann who acquired IMG in 2004 for $750 million. Source: Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Singapore/New Media: Broadband Service WOWtv Launches
WOWtv, a broadband entertainment service offering more than 50 streaming channels of programming across all genres, including movie blockbusters, Asian dramas and sports, has debuted in Singapore. WOWtv’s broadband channels can be accessed via four different platforms: web, set-top box, portable media player and 3G. The channels of programming include movie blockbusters, Asian dramas and variety shows, travel, lifestyle, fashion, edutainment, sports and more. WOWtv has established content agreements with distributors such as Sony Pictures Television International, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Videofashion Network.
It will also unveil Singapore’s first-ever Web Jockey, who will introduce viewers to the latest movies and series shown on WOWtv. Aside from programming, online games and e-commerce services are also available. All subscribers to WOWtv have instant access to more than 25 channels of entertainment across genres on the Free tier. Premium programming is also available to subscribers in 2 different membership tiers: the Basic tier, which allows members to access an additional 16 channels at S$40 a year and Value tier, which consists of a host of a la carte channels and current premium pay-per-view movies.
To date, WOWtv has more than 20,000 registered subscribers, achieved over an eight-week soft-launch period. WOWtv’s bouquet of entertainment services is set to launch in more Asia-Pacific markets by year’s end. Source: Worldscreen, 26th Oct 2007
Hong Kong/New Media: More mobile HD
Hong Kong mobile operator Smartone-Vodafone has launched its “high-definition” 3G mobile TV service with a dig at other operators’ “rehashed free terrestrial TV programmes”. QVGA streaming will allow a form of “high-def” viewing and follows launch of the technology by rival mobile operator PCCW earlier in the year. Smartone’s new FoneTV service on its HSPA network also includes the “i-Console” split-screen viewing tool which allows simultaneous TV viewing and channel selection as well as interactive features such as online transactions and voting. “With the iConsole, customers can buy related music content such as connecting tone and full track at the click of a button while watching MV,” said Smartone.
Fone TV will offer 12 channels including news and finance, music, cartoons and live traffic cams. Programming will be in the form of “snack size” shows “ideal for those moments in the day when you have some down time or traveling to and from work.” Each channel is available for a flat monthly fee, or HK$88 a month for all 12. Channels include Animax, BBC World, Bloomberg TV, Chinese News, CNBC and CNN International, as well as Cartoon Network cartoons and a movie news channel. Other operators offering 3G mobile TV services in Hong Kong include PCCW, Hutchison and CSL New World. Hong Kong’s government is examining provision of true mobile TV services but has made no decision on the issue. PCCW is also conducting a trial of Qualcomm’s MediaFLO system. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
Singapore/General: Formula One Green Lights Night Race
Formula One officials confirmed that the streets of Singapore will host the series’ first ever night race in 2008. The World Motor Sport Council, which met in Paris, approved the race as well as an extended 18-race 2008 calendar. Marina Bay Singapore will serve as a backdrop for the historic race, which will take place on September 28. It was also confirmed that the Canada Grand Prix will be part of the 2008 calendar and a daytime street race would be held in Valencia. Spyker’s request to change its team name to Force India has been accepted and it was announced that there will also be a total freeze on engine development for a period of 10 years from 2008.
CALENDAR - 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship
16/3 Australia 11/5 Turkey 6/7 Great Britain 7/9 Belgium 19/10 China
23/3 Malaysia 25/5 Monaco 20/7 Germany 14/9 Italy 02/11 Brazil
6/4 Bahrain 8/6 Canada 3/8 Hungary 28/9 Singapore
27/4 Spain 22/6 France 24/8 Europe 12/10 Japan
Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
Asia/Rights: EHF Marketing GmbH Take First Steps to Break Into Asian Market
EHF Marketing GmbH, the marketing arm of the European Handball Federation (EHF), has taken first steps to place elite European handball, and in particular the EHF Champions League, on the strong Asian market. EHF Marketing has met a 3-year agreement with a longstanding EHF Champions League partner, Global MMK, to strategically plan and realise the marketing of the EHF Champions League TV Rights in Asia. Global MMK will initially focus on the Chinese market, to utilise and then build-on the synergies that the forthcoming Olympic Games will bring with them.
Global MMK has much experience within the Asian market and with its expertise in building and implementing marketing strategies to open up this important market for handball, EHF Marketing Director, Peter Vargo, is confident that the EHF Champions League will soon be on offer to Asian sport fans. Global MMK will work directly with its division in Peking, initially working to establish handball on the Chinese market and then moving on to such countries as Korea and Japan.
Marc Rapparlie, Managing Director of Global MMK confirmed, “The potential for “new” sports in China is huge….our office in Peking is “on site” to identify strategically important partners who are already operating in this area. The pre-Olympic period is crucial to establish a marketing concept which will capture the interest of the sport fanatics in China.” Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: EBU Wants Clear Calendar Before Renewing UCI Deal
The European Broadcasting Union today warned that it wanted a ‘harmonised calendar’ in professional cycling before agreeing to extend its television rights deal with the UCI, cycling’s world governing body. Jean Reveillon, the EBU’s director-general said that members of the EBU, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters, are ‘a little annoyed’ by a rift between the UCI and the organisers of the sport’s so-called ‘grand tours’ – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana – and want a ‘reunification of the family.’ Reveillon was speaking in the wake of the EBU issuing a release calling for the calendar of international cycling events to ‘quickly be harmonised in consultations between the parties, in particular the UCI and the ‘major tours’.’
The release coincides with negotiations between the two bodies over a recently-launched tender for the television rights for the UCI’s top events. The EBU, which holds the rights under the present contract, is understood to be vying with several international sports agencies, including IMG, for a new deal. Although the ‘grand tours’ do not form part of the contract, the suggestion that the EBU might withdraw from the bidding if the calendar is not ‘harmonised’ in the way demanded by the EBU, is likely to be regarded as serious blow by the UCI.
However, one UCI source today told Sportcal.com: ‘I don’t think that this is a threat. I just think that they want the calendar to be more stable so that they can make deals.’ The EBU, in its release, draws a parallel with an accord reached this week between the UCI and its former antagonist the World Anti-Doping Agency over the introduction of anti-doping ‘passports’ for riders. The tender, which covers annual world championships in road, track, mountain bike and cyclo-cross cycling, is for four years, beginning in 2009 and running until 2012, when the UCI’s existing deal with the EBU expires. The tender also covers the annual track and cyclo-cross World Cup series. Source: Sportcal, 26th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Euroleague Seeks Internet Audience while Respecting Rights Holders
There will be strong demand for Euroleague.TV, the new online broadcast platform featuring live coverage of games from European basketball’s top clubs competition, despite geo-blocking in some countries to protect television rights contracts, the league’s chief executive Jordi Bertomeu has claimed. Euroleague Basketball launched the subscription service this week to coincide with the start of the 2007-08 season and hopes to build on the success of the internet coverage of last season’s Final Four competition which was made available in 37 different countries.
He added that the league had had to be 'careful' not to undermine existing deals with broadcasters, particularly those in the pay-television market, and said that it was achieving this through selective geo-blocking of live games in certain countries. However, it is estimated that on average, 80% of the games will be available, as they take place, to users of the internet platform. Bertomeu believes the timing is right for the launch of the service as it is two years since Euroleague began distributing its commercial rights in-house and it now has the know-how to embrace different platforms.
The league has opted for a subscription service, as opposed to an advertiser-funded model, on the recommendation of Infront, the international sports agency, which is providing the technological platform and handling the payment system. The two parties first worked together during this year’s CBA-Euroleague Challenge in China, a challenge series involving teams from China, Europe and Australia. The experience was described as ‘very positive’ and the agency has been entrusted with the technical responsibilities for the internet service, while the league is ‘more in charge of the promotion.’ Source: Sportcal, Sport Business, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/New Media: 3 Italia plans DTT
3 Italia, the mobile telecommunications operator owned by Chinese group Hutchinson Whampoa, is aiming to become an "integrated TV publisher" on different platforms rather than just a mobile telephone operator. The television project - explained CEO of 3 Italia Vincenzo Novari – has so far absorbed EUR280 million of investment in the transmission network. By 2010 the network will be 50% dedicated to mobile TV broadcasting on DVB-H and 50% dedicated to digital-terrestrial television (DTT) channel transmission. It will have the capacity to broadcast a total of four TV channels, two of which will be high definition.
3 Italia has a total of 770,000 mobile customers that own a tivufonino (a neologism that stands for "mobile TV phone") 40% of which use it to access - at least once per week - to a variety of TV channels and premium video services. H3G Italia, the company that runs the business under the brand "3 Italia", finished the first six months of 2007 with revenues of approximately EUR997 million (down four per cent from previous year) and is still a loss making company. According to some rumors published in the UK press, the main shareholder of Hutchinson Whampoa, Li Ka Shing, has started the process of sale of the Italian mobile operator, a company that could be worth EUR10 billion. Source: Rapid TV News, 25th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: England's FA Could Double Value of International Rights
A tender issued in August by the Football Association, English soccer’s governing body, for international media rights for England’s home games and the FA Cup top-tier knockout competition, is on target to bring in £80 million ($164 million) over four years, double the value of the present deal. The tender is for a four-year period beginning with the 2008-09 season. The extra money would help to offset the losses faced by the FA if England fail to qualify for next year’s Euro 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. England lie second in their qualifying group but are relying on other teams’ results to ensure their passage to the competition.
The majority of the rights are distributed by Sportfive, the international sports agency, under the present deal. The rights cover the annual FA Cup competition, England matches, England Under-21 matches, and the FA Community Shield, the traditional ‘curtain-raiser’ to the English season. A domestic deal worth £425 million has already been agreed with commercial broadcaster ITV and pay-television operator Setanta. The deadline for submissions of bids for the international rights was September 28. Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: French League Urged to Review TV Rights Money Distribution
The LFP, the French professional soccer league, has been urged to review its distribution of television money by Francis Decourrière, the president of the French top-tier club Valenciennes. Decourrière, told france2.fr that the handouts must be adjusted to reward France’s smaller clubs more, even if the LFP is unable to secure a new deal matching the €600 million ($852.2 million) per year it receives at present from Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster.
He said, ‘Whatever happens, first of all the television rights must be distributed in an equal manner. In England, which we always take as an example, the first-placed team gets €75 million and the last-placed team gets €45 million. For us, the first-placed team gets €46 million and the last-placed team gets €13 million. The difference is 4 to 1 while in England it is 2 to 1.’
Decourrière also hit out at France’s bigger clubs for forming a elite body of seven last week. The organisation has been christened ‘Football Avenir Professional’ (Future Professional Football) and Lyon chief Jean-Michel Aulas is its president. Decourrière said the creation of the new body ‘made him very sad and scared.’ He added: ‘Ten days ago, all the clubs were united under the presidency of Gervais Martel, the president of the UCPF (the union of professional clubs), saying that we will go forward completely united. ‘And then, we notice that there have been secret meetings in hotels to join together only the clubs who have big shareholders.’
The Valenciennes president also complained that Canal Plus had only broadcast his team’s matches twice this season, and that Le Mans, another of the smaller clubs in the top division, had only been televised once despite being third in the table. He added: ‘Marseille have been televised 10 times, Paris Saint Germain nine times and Lens six. I didn’t think there was a real difference between Lens and Valenciennes.’ Source: Sportcal, 24th Oct 2007
Elsewhere/Rights: Spain Heads List of Countries Without Euro 2008 TV Deal
Spain heads a list of markets that are still to agree a broadcasting deal for soccer’s 2008 European Championships, seven and a half months before the tournament kicks off in Austria and Switzerland. No deal has yet been agreed in Spain despite lengthy negotiations between Sportfive, the international sports agency marketing the Euro 2008 broadcast rights, and broadacsters in the country, the only market in Europe’s five major territories yet to agree a contract. Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, has targeted at least €600 million ($852.4 million) from the sale of European broadcast rights by Sportfive, with around €410 million already generated in France, Germany, Italy and the UK alone.
Italy was the first of the major European markets to sign a deal, after Rai, the Italian public-service broadcaster, agreed an exclusive deal worth an estimated €120 million in July 2006. Deals in France and Germany were subject to lengthy negotiations between Sportfive and broadcasters, particularly in Germany where SportA, the rights acquisition agency of public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, eventually signed a deal worth around €115 million for 27 of the 31 games, subject to confirmation by Uefa.
Sportfive was originally said to be targeting between €150 million and €160 million from the German market, but a lack of exclusivity on offer to pay-television meant that the expected bidding war did not materialise. A package of four second-choice final group phase fixtures is still available to free-to-air and pay-television broadcasters in Germany.
In the UK, free-to-air broadcasters BBC and ITV announced in June of this year that they had won the rights in a joint deal, after Sportfive was frustrated in its efforts to persuade them to bid separately. As members of the European Broadcasting Union, the BBC and ITV are used to bidding together for rights to major soccer tournaments, and avoiding driving up the price by competing directly against one another. Consequently, a joint deal worth in excess of £50 million was reported to have been signed, around £40 million less than the target set by Uefa.
A lengthy stand-off in France was ended after TF1 and M6, the commercial broadcasters, agreed to pay around €50 million each to share the rights to the tournament. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/New Media: France Télévisions Wants 'At Least Four Mobile Channels'
France Télévisions, the French public-service broadcaster, has targeted a minimum of four mobile channels when new technology is rolled out in France next year. With the advent of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) technology in 2008, France Télévisions is hoping to be allocated at least one-fifth of the 20 available channels. Laurent Souloumiac, the director general of France Télévisions Interactive, said that the broadcaster is ‘calling for the acquisition of four channels for France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 5, and we are asking about France Ô (the multicultural channel).’
Speaking at a conference in Paris to discuss audiovisual convergence, Souloumiac said that market research had shown that the consumers want to see the ‘big television channels’ on the new mobile service. France’s Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel, the country’s broadcasting watchdog, is set to launch a tender for the 20 mobile channels, although the government could spare France Télévisions this process given its status as a public-service broadcaster.
Concerning the financing of the mobile channels, Souloumiac said that ‘obviously France Télévisions is more orientated towards free coverage, as a public-service broadcaster, but this network will cost money and we need partnerships with the operators.’ Source: Sportcal, Rapid TV News, 24th Oct 2007
Friday, 5th October 2007
DID YOU KNOW…?
In Kampala, Uganda, the Saint Joseph's Vocational School (Jovoc) has been closed after the students held a strike on Tuesday, October 2 because the institution has not connected to the new pay television channel GTV. The new pay TV service provider has rights to broadcast 80% of English Premier League matches. Matters came to a head when both Manchester United and Arsenal Champions League games could not be telecast simultaneously. Students rioted, breaking glasses. The school's headmaster,Fr.Bernadict Njunwoha when contacted, was in a crucial meeting but confirmed that they had sent home all the students. Source: All Africa, 4th Oct 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* MP & Silva signed an agreement with Barclays Premier League club, Aston Villa Football Club to distribute Aston Villa Channel programming. The Programming Block is a weekly programme that includes delayed coverage of all of the club’s 38 home and away Premier League matches. The territories covered by this exclusive agreement include Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. MP & Silva has already signed two distribution deals for the current 2007-08 season with Qatar-based television network, Al Jazeera, and Indonesian free-to-air broadcaster, Trans TV (Televisi Transformasi Indonesia). Source: Sport Business, 4th Oct 2007
* The two Koreas are said to have taken a big step forward towards sending a unified team to the Beijing Olympics next year. Reports in Korea suggest the two sides have come close to an agreement following a meeting between South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il. The two sides have discussed the possibility of a joint team on four occasions since December 2005 but have so far failed to reach a compromise. However, South Korea said recently that it would accept the North's proposal of an even number of athletes in several events. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Zee TV USA has launched its sports channel Zee Sports America on EchoStar's satellite service platform Dish Network. The channel was launched on 26 September on the Dish Network on channel 576. The channel will provide coverage of South Asian sports such as Indian football, cricket, golf, and motor sports including Zee's original productions such as the Daily Sports News, Sports Café, Football Café, Sports Sunday, World Motor Sports Magazine, Twenty Two Yards, Cricket Talk and Cricket First. Source: Indian Television, 4th Oct 2007
* UK pay-television operator, British Sky Broadcasting, which provides comprehensive coverage of international cricket, is reported to have renewed its deal to cover international matches played in the Caribbean. The four-year agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board is worth $20 million, according to the Guardian newspaper. The deal is due to come into effect in 2009, when England are due to tour the West Indies for four test matches and five one-day internationals. Under its current deal, which has one year to run, BSkyB acts as the host broadcaster of the West Indies’ home matches and manages the WICB’s international rights. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* UK production company, North One Television, today announced its acquisition of International Sportsworld Communicators, holder of the media and commercial rights for World Rally Championship. North One said that it ‘plans to re-energise the ISC business, especially in the television, licensing and digital arenas.’ Speculation over the future of ISC had increased following its move from west London to North One’s headquarters north of the capital. North One has provided host broadcaster coverage of the WRC since August 2000. Last year, ISC ceded responsibility for securing new television and sponsorship partners for WRC to Sportfive, the international sports agency. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Octagon has today been appointed by CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee, to secure multi-national sponsors for its teams in forthcoming games. Octagon, a division of advertising group Interpublic, will target companies in the influential markets of North America and Asia-Pacific, while assisting Publitalia, the advertising agency which is responsible for selling packages to companies in Italy and the rest of Europe. It is the first time that CONI has employed an agency to assist it in the procurement of sponsors and reflects a need to look far beyond national boundaries for commercial support. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Fifa and the regime of Sepp Blatter are to be the target of BBC’s current affairs programme, Panorama, which will focus on an alleged £4-million ($8.1-million) pay-off awarded to former secretary general Urs Linsi, ousted earlier this year. Linsi was replaced by Jérôme Valcke, the former head of Fifa Marketing and TV, who was one of four officials ‘dismissed’ by Fifa in December last year for their part in a controversial sponsorship deal with Visa. Blatter himself took responsibility for the outcome of the dispute, following Valcke’s reappointment. The dispute cost Fifa $90 million, the price of extricating itself from its relationship with MasterCard, a sponsor of the last four World Cups. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
In Kampala, Uganda, the Saint Joseph's Vocational School (Jovoc) has been closed after the students held a strike on Tuesday, October 2 because the institution has not connected to the new pay television channel GTV. The new pay TV service provider has rights to broadcast 80% of English Premier League matches. Matters came to a head when both Manchester United and Arsenal Champions League games could not be telecast simultaneously. Students rioted, breaking glasses. The school's headmaster,Fr.Bernadict Njunwoha when contacted, was in a crucial meeting but confirmed that they had sent home all the students. Source: All Africa, 4th Oct 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* MP & Silva signed an agreement with Barclays Premier League club, Aston Villa Football Club to distribute Aston Villa Channel programming. The Programming Block is a weekly programme that includes delayed coverage of all of the club’s 38 home and away Premier League matches. The territories covered by this exclusive agreement include Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. MP & Silva has already signed two distribution deals for the current 2007-08 season with Qatar-based television network, Al Jazeera, and Indonesian free-to-air broadcaster, Trans TV (Televisi Transformasi Indonesia). Source: Sport Business, 4th Oct 2007
* The two Koreas are said to have taken a big step forward towards sending a unified team to the Beijing Olympics next year. Reports in Korea suggest the two sides have come close to an agreement following a meeting between South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il. The two sides have discussed the possibility of a joint team on four occasions since December 2005 but have so far failed to reach a compromise. However, South Korea said recently that it would accept the North's proposal of an even number of athletes in several events. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Zee TV USA has launched its sports channel Zee Sports America on EchoStar's satellite service platform Dish Network. The channel was launched on 26 September on the Dish Network on channel 576. The channel will provide coverage of South Asian sports such as Indian football, cricket, golf, and motor sports including Zee's original productions such as the Daily Sports News, Sports Café, Football Café, Sports Sunday, World Motor Sports Magazine, Twenty Two Yards, Cricket Talk and Cricket First. Source: Indian Television, 4th Oct 2007
* UK pay-television operator, British Sky Broadcasting, which provides comprehensive coverage of international cricket, is reported to have renewed its deal to cover international matches played in the Caribbean. The four-year agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board is worth $20 million, according to the Guardian newspaper. The deal is due to come into effect in 2009, when England are due to tour the West Indies for four test matches and five one-day internationals. Under its current deal, which has one year to run, BSkyB acts as the host broadcaster of the West Indies’ home matches and manages the WICB’s international rights. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* UK production company, North One Television, today announced its acquisition of International Sportsworld Communicators, holder of the media and commercial rights for World Rally Championship. North One said that it ‘plans to re-energise the ISC business, especially in the television, licensing and digital arenas.’ Speculation over the future of ISC had increased following its move from west London to North One’s headquarters north of the capital. North One has provided host broadcaster coverage of the WRC since August 2000. Last year, ISC ceded responsibility for securing new television and sponsorship partners for WRC to Sportfive, the international sports agency. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Octagon has today been appointed by CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee, to secure multi-national sponsors for its teams in forthcoming games. Octagon, a division of advertising group Interpublic, will target companies in the influential markets of North America and Asia-Pacific, while assisting Publitalia, the advertising agency which is responsible for selling packages to companies in Italy and the rest of Europe. It is the first time that CONI has employed an agency to assist it in the procurement of sponsors and reflects a need to look far beyond national boundaries for commercial support. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
* Fifa and the regime of Sepp Blatter are to be the target of BBC’s current affairs programme, Panorama, which will focus on an alleged £4-million ($8.1-million) pay-off awarded to former secretary general Urs Linsi, ousted earlier this year. Linsi was replaced by Jérôme Valcke, the former head of Fifa Marketing and TV, who was one of four officials ‘dismissed’ by Fifa in December last year for their part in a controversial sponsorship deal with Visa. Blatter himself took responsibility for the outcome of the dispute, following Valcke’s reappointment. The dispute cost Fifa $90 million, the price of extricating itself from its relationship with MasterCard, a sponsor of the last four World Cups. Source: Sportcal, 4th Oct 2007
Thursday, 4th October 2007
SPORTS SHORTS
* ESPN Star Sports is to launch the US version of ESPN’s well-known SportsCenter sports news programme in south-east Asia, Hong Kong and China. SportsCenter, which claims to have been broadcast over 30,000 times, more than any other show in US television history, covers top US sports such NBA basketball, MLB baseball, NHL ice hockey, NFL American football, Nascar motor racing and NCAA college sports, with news highlights and analysis. ESPN Star Sports already carries Asian, Indian, Malaysian, Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the programme. Source: Sportcal, Worldscreen, 3rd Oct 2007
* Major League Baseball (MLB) has reached an agreement with global broadcast intelligence company, Teletrax, to run a digital watermarking test of its content in order to evaluate the broadcast television usage of all of its post-season games. MLB will test the service, across its satellite, cable and terrestrial stations in all 210 television markets in the United States, until the end of March 2008. Source: Sport Business, 3rd Oct 2007
* The proportion of foreign players in the top five European soccer leagues rose to 38.9% in the 2006-07 season, a 0.5% increase on the previous season, according to the latest Annual Review of European Football Players’ Labour Market. The report, by the International Centre for Sport Studies in Switzerland and French University of Franche-Comte also shows the proportion of players that have been trained by their employer club has fallen from 26.8% to 24.3%. On average, players change teams 3.4 times every 10 years. Brazil supplies the greatest number of foreign players (140). The report surveyed the 98 clubs of the top leagues in England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
* The Argentina rugby union team’s achievement in reaching the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup presently under way in France has been recognised even by the soccer association of a country more usually recognised for the round-ball game. The association has agreed to switch by two hours the kick-off time of the high-profile Buenos Aires derby soccer match between River Plate and Boca Juniors to avoid a clash with Argentina’s rugby quarter-final against Scotland on October 7. The governing body said that it ‘took this measure in order to allow fans to follow the campaign of our remarkable national rugby team which is dazzling at the World Cup in France.’ Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
* Skype’s co-founders have – almost - left the building! Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the co-founders of VoIP service Skype have resigned, and there are signs that all is not well at eBay which paid a mind-numbing pile of cash for Skype. The inventive pair are also the brains behind web-based download service Joost. A report from Ovum suggests that growth at Skype is slowing in terms of overall revenue growth, and total customer growth measured by registered users is also slowing, with Skype’s actual daily usage also weakening. Ovum has said bluntly that eBay “overpaid” for Skype. Source: Rapid TV News, 3rd Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Global/Rights: Sportfive Signs up CAF Competitions for Eight More Years
Sportfive, the international sports marketing agency, said today that it had signed a wide-ranging deal with the Confederation of African Football for the marketing of media and sponsorship rights for all of its competitions for a further eight years, beginning in 2009 and ending in 2016. The new deal is an extension of the existing deal which began in 2001 and ends next year and is thought to be worth about $50 million.
The deal covers four editions of the African Cup of Nations, the biennial national teams competition, in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016, and eight editions of the annual CAF Champions League competition for the continent’s top club teams. It also covers the second-tier annual Confederation Cup competition for clubs, a merger of the former CAF Cup and African Cup Winners Cup competitions, and the African Junior Championship for national teams, scheduled to take place in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The present deal was agreed with the French sports rights agency Groupe Jean-Claude Darmon shortly before it merged with rival agencies Ufa Sports and Sport Plus in 2001 to form Sportfive. ISL, the now-defunct International sports agency, held the marketing rights for the African Cup of Nations until its collapse in 2001, when the rights reverted to CAF. Sportfive took over the rights in 2004.
Ghana will host next year’s African Cup of Nations, with Angola scheduled to stage the event in 2010, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012 and Libya in 2014. Sportfive claimed that last year’s edition of the competition in Egypt attracted a cumulative worldwide television audience of 4.2 billion, making it the third-largest international soccer competition. Sportfive is owned by French media group Lagardère, which agreed a €863-million ($1.21-billion) takeover of the agency in November last year, taking over from Advent International, the private equity group. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/General: Selig Hails 'Golden Age' for MLB as Attendance Records are Smashed
Almost 80 million spectators attended games in the Major League Baseball this year, with eight teams setting franchise records, in one of the most competitive regular seasons ever. The league said yesterday that a total of 79,502,524 fans were present at games this season, a 4.5 per cent increase on last year’s record of 76,042,787. The previous mark was overtaken with a week still to go. An average of 32,785 spectators attended games, beating the record of 31,423 set in 1994.
It is the fourth successive season that a total attendance record has been set. The post-season playoffs begin today. Commenting on the new mark, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said: ‘The immensity of this record is staggering and it serves as a perfect illustration of the passion and excitement for the game that exists across the Major League Baseball landscape. ‘Our sport has reached heights that were unimaginable only a few years ago. By any measure, this is truly a golden age for Major League Baseball. I thank fans everywhere, and I share their enthusiasm for another memorable October.’
Out of the 30 MLB teams, 23 reported increases in 2007 and 10 attracted more than three million spectators. The teams that broke season records were the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees, the most popular MLB team, set a new American League record by pulling in 4,271,083 fans, an average of 52,729 per game. Across the league, nearly 27 million tickets were sold online at MLB.com, another record.
Interest in the league has been sustained by parity with no team winning or losing more than 60 per cent of their games. The Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians led the standings with 96-66 records. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/General: Sportdigital.tv Targets Premiere as Part of Distribution Plan
Sportdigital.tv, the German sports internet portal and television channel with close links to the Sportfive sports agency, has held talks with Premiere, the German pay-television broadcaster, about appearing on its satellite platform. Sportdigital.tv was recently launched as a stand-alone service on satellite television thanks to a tie-up with satellite operator SES Astra, and is now targeting expansion onto Premiere Star.
Gisbert Wundram, Sportdigital.tv’s managing director, told Digital Fernsehen, the German media website, that he had been in ‘intensive negotiations’ with Premiere for some weeks, but that Premiere has now asked to continue the talks in 2008. Wundram said that Sportdigital.tv was also in discussions with Deutsche Telekom, Hansenet and Arcor, the German telecommunications groups, regarding the broadcasting of the service via IPTV.
Maxdome, the sports and entertainment internet portal, is another potential partner that Sportdigital.tv is seeking to work with to broaden its distribution. Sportdigital.tv received a pay-television licence in January when it was launched, but was initially available only as an internet portal. At present, subscribers can watch live action from the top leagues of German basketball, handball and volleyball.
Regarding the possible broadcasting of other sports, Wundram said that Sportdigital.tv ‘could at first always fall back on Sportfive’s stock of rights.’ He added that Sportfive ‘was responsible for all the activities in terms of rights acquisitions and for the marketing of the programming’ and that Sportdigital.tv was merely in charge of the technical delivery and editorial. Wundram also played down recent reports that Sportfive would definitely use Sportdigital.tv to rival Premiere in bidding for rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga from 2009-10 onwards. He stressed Sportfive’s stance that it would first study the tender documents from the DFL, the German soccer league, before deciding on a potential bid.
When asked if Sportdigital.tv saw itself as a direct rival to Premiere, which is largely unchallenged in the German pay-television market following the loss of Bundesliga rights by Arena, its erstwhile competitor, Wundram said that his company performed a different role from that of Premiere. He said: ‘We are completely different to Premiere in that we do not rely upon the exclusive use of the type of sports we have, rather look for co-operations with other broadcasters with the aim of letting an individual sport attain its maximum reach. We see ourselves much more as a complement to the existing television broadcasters in the media sector.’
Sportdigital.tv is targeting a ‘five-figure' subscribtion figure in the short- to medium-term, said Wundram, although subscriptions are not the only revenue source. To generate further income, the channel is also seeking to sub-license rights either nationally or internationally, integrate sponsors and presenting partners into the coverage, develop television advertising revenue and expand the service onto different media platforms. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS
IPTV ops just can't shake off content questions
Editor, Tony Brown comments on Telecoms.com, 19th Sep 2007
In July, Asia Pacific telecoms giant SingTel became only the fourth major operator in the region to launch commercial IPTV services, following in the footsteps of flagship IPTV operator PCCW in Hong Kong, Hanaro Telecom in South Korea and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan. The fact that only three other significant telcos in the region have launched IPTV services since PCCW launched Now Broadband TV in October 2003 indicates the continuing frailties of the IPTV business model, with the biggest problem still centering on content.
In 2003, you could barely open a telecoms publication or go to an industry conference without reading or hearing that IPTV was set to fundamentally change the landscape of the telecoms world and put traditional cable-TV and DTH operators on their collective backsides. But here we are, heading toward late 2007, and apart from PCCW's success in Hong Kong - where it has surpassed former pay-TV-market leader Hong Kong Cable TV in terms of user numbers - the region's pay TV operators are not exactly cowering at the telcos' IPTV offerings.
Even PCCW's success has to be viewed in context: Although the firm had distributed about 850,000 Now Broadband TV settops to subscribers by end-August, only about 575,000 subscribers are paying for the service, with the rest taking the free basic platform. And although ARPU has increased substantially, from its consistent lows of HK$100-120 ($12.80-15.40) in 2H04-1H06 to the HK$166 recorded in 1H07, the increase was won only through the expensive HK$1.6 billion acquisition of English Premier League soccer rights from HKCTV.
PCCW's EPL bid was more than double what HKCTV paid for the previous three-year EPL deal, and the prized soccer content has become the key component of the firm's Mega Sports Pack, which costs HK$218 a month. In contrast, HKCTV is expecting to lose a significant number of the 830,000 subs it had at end-June and has conceded that its ARPU will drop well below the HK$200 mark as it is forced to offer cheaper packages in an effort to prevent churn.
Still, getting involved in price wars for premium content, such as the EPL rights, is the last thing telcos with IPTV aspirations can afford to be doing in an effort to substantially raise ARPU, since content wars have a nasty habit of making for unprofitable TV operations. Moreover, not every telco in the region with IPTV ambitions has the deep pockets of PCCW or is faced with a less-than-stellar competitor. HKCTV had long failed to cement itself as a market leader.
Hanaro Telecom, the second-largest IPTV operator in the region, is already experiencing the problem PCCW had before securing the EPL rights: Subs seem to love the service but are not eager to pay big money for it. In 2Q07, only 60 per cent of Hanaro's half a million IPTV subs were actually paying for the service, which meant that the service's overall ARPU remained in the doldrums, at KRW5,516 ($5.90) a month. Hanaro has ambitions of raising ARPU to KRW20,000 per sub per month by 4Q08 and says it will be able to do so once the government passes legislation that allows it to offer real-time broadcast channels over IPTV, rather than solely via VOD.
But it is a massive leap of faith for Hanaro to suggest that it can quadruple its IPTV ARPU, when you consider that South Korea's cable TV operators are themselves generating ARPU of only about KRW5,000 for their 80- to 100-channel analog platforms. Sure, Hanaro has a substantial VOD platform with which to raise revenues, and its VOD take-up is increasing, albeit at a modest rate, but the firm will not find any content not already being screened by cable operators to miraculously drive ARPU to its target levels.
Meanwhile, Chunghwa Telecom is in an almost identical situation. It faces a strong cable market that has long-established ties to the content-production sector, meaning that Chunghwa has found exclusive content hard to come by. The lack of exclusive content, added to the fact that CHT has been bedeviled by a series of regulatory problems, has curtailed subscriber growth and meant that the service has yet to provide any meaningful competition to the established pay TV operators.
And so we come to SingTel's recent launch. Although it faces a relatively benign regulatory landscape, it is hard to see how it is going to escape the problems that beset PCCW for so long and those that continue to dog Chunghwa and Hanaro. SingTel's content lineup looks painfully skinny compared with that on offer at rival cabler StarHub, which has cemented its market leadership in a way that HKCTV failed to do in Hong Kong.
SingTel's IPTV subs will receive settops free of charge but will have no "free" basic package, such as PCCW and Hanaro offer. And they will have to pay at least S$16 ($10.50) a month, with a la carte channels costing S$3.20-12.84 a month. Given that rival StarHub - which had already captured a market share that's fast approaching 50 per cent, with 496,000 subs at end-June - already offers a budget package for just S$24 a month, it is hard to see why people would pay extra for SingTel's IPTV service.
If telcos seriously want to get into the pay TV game, they are going to have to dig deep into their pockets and compete for the best content, whether it be sports, movies or drama. There really is no choice. We have already seen that IPTV subs clearly like getting something for nothing, or at least for very little, but there's no great surprise there. The real challenge is getting viewers to pay serious amounts for content, and they will do that only if they stand to receive premium content they cannot get anywhere else.
So it looks as if the content-rights holders and production giants could be set for a nice windfall if the region's telcos want to get serious in the IPTV game. Some things really do never change.
* ESPN Star Sports is to launch the US version of ESPN’s well-known SportsCenter sports news programme in south-east Asia, Hong Kong and China. SportsCenter, which claims to have been broadcast over 30,000 times, more than any other show in US television history, covers top US sports such NBA basketball, MLB baseball, NHL ice hockey, NFL American football, Nascar motor racing and NCAA college sports, with news highlights and analysis. ESPN Star Sports already carries Asian, Indian, Malaysian, Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the programme. Source: Sportcal, Worldscreen, 3rd Oct 2007
* Major League Baseball (MLB) has reached an agreement with global broadcast intelligence company, Teletrax, to run a digital watermarking test of its content in order to evaluate the broadcast television usage of all of its post-season games. MLB will test the service, across its satellite, cable and terrestrial stations in all 210 television markets in the United States, until the end of March 2008. Source: Sport Business, 3rd Oct 2007
* The proportion of foreign players in the top five European soccer leagues rose to 38.9% in the 2006-07 season, a 0.5% increase on the previous season, according to the latest Annual Review of European Football Players’ Labour Market. The report, by the International Centre for Sport Studies in Switzerland and French University of Franche-Comte also shows the proportion of players that have been trained by their employer club has fallen from 26.8% to 24.3%. On average, players change teams 3.4 times every 10 years. Brazil supplies the greatest number of foreign players (140). The report surveyed the 98 clubs of the top leagues in England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
* The Argentina rugby union team’s achievement in reaching the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup presently under way in France has been recognised even by the soccer association of a country more usually recognised for the round-ball game. The association has agreed to switch by two hours the kick-off time of the high-profile Buenos Aires derby soccer match between River Plate and Boca Juniors to avoid a clash with Argentina’s rugby quarter-final against Scotland on October 7. The governing body said that it ‘took this measure in order to allow fans to follow the campaign of our remarkable national rugby team which is dazzling at the World Cup in France.’ Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
* Skype’s co-founders have – almost - left the building! Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the co-founders of VoIP service Skype have resigned, and there are signs that all is not well at eBay which paid a mind-numbing pile of cash for Skype. The inventive pair are also the brains behind web-based download service Joost. A report from Ovum suggests that growth at Skype is slowing in terms of overall revenue growth, and total customer growth measured by registered users is also slowing, with Skype’s actual daily usage also weakening. Ovum has said bluntly that eBay “overpaid” for Skype. Source: Rapid TV News, 3rd Oct 2007
MORE NEWS
Global/Rights: Sportfive Signs up CAF Competitions for Eight More Years
Sportfive, the international sports marketing agency, said today that it had signed a wide-ranging deal with the Confederation of African Football for the marketing of media and sponsorship rights for all of its competitions for a further eight years, beginning in 2009 and ending in 2016. The new deal is an extension of the existing deal which began in 2001 and ends next year and is thought to be worth about $50 million.
The deal covers four editions of the African Cup of Nations, the biennial national teams competition, in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016, and eight editions of the annual CAF Champions League competition for the continent’s top club teams. It also covers the second-tier annual Confederation Cup competition for clubs, a merger of the former CAF Cup and African Cup Winners Cup competitions, and the African Junior Championship for national teams, scheduled to take place in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The present deal was agreed with the French sports rights agency Groupe Jean-Claude Darmon shortly before it merged with rival agencies Ufa Sports and Sport Plus in 2001 to form Sportfive. ISL, the now-defunct International sports agency, held the marketing rights for the African Cup of Nations until its collapse in 2001, when the rights reverted to CAF. Sportfive took over the rights in 2004.
Ghana will host next year’s African Cup of Nations, with Angola scheduled to stage the event in 2010, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012 and Libya in 2014. Sportfive claimed that last year’s edition of the competition in Egypt attracted a cumulative worldwide television audience of 4.2 billion, making it the third-largest international soccer competition. Sportfive is owned by French media group Lagardère, which agreed a €863-million ($1.21-billion) takeover of the agency in November last year, taking over from Advent International, the private equity group. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/General: Selig Hails 'Golden Age' for MLB as Attendance Records are Smashed
Almost 80 million spectators attended games in the Major League Baseball this year, with eight teams setting franchise records, in one of the most competitive regular seasons ever. The league said yesterday that a total of 79,502,524 fans were present at games this season, a 4.5 per cent increase on last year’s record of 76,042,787. The previous mark was overtaken with a week still to go. An average of 32,785 spectators attended games, beating the record of 31,423 set in 1994.
It is the fourth successive season that a total attendance record has been set. The post-season playoffs begin today. Commenting on the new mark, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said: ‘The immensity of this record is staggering and it serves as a perfect illustration of the passion and excitement for the game that exists across the Major League Baseball landscape. ‘Our sport has reached heights that were unimaginable only a few years ago. By any measure, this is truly a golden age for Major League Baseball. I thank fans everywhere, and I share their enthusiasm for another memorable October.’
Out of the 30 MLB teams, 23 reported increases in 2007 and 10 attracted more than three million spectators. The teams that broke season records were the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees, the most popular MLB team, set a new American League record by pulling in 4,271,083 fans, an average of 52,729 per game. Across the league, nearly 27 million tickets were sold online at MLB.com, another record.
Interest in the league has been sustained by parity with no team winning or losing more than 60 per cent of their games. The Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians led the standings with 96-66 records. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
Elsewhere/General: Sportdigital.tv Targets Premiere as Part of Distribution Plan
Sportdigital.tv, the German sports internet portal and television channel with close links to the Sportfive sports agency, has held talks with Premiere, the German pay-television broadcaster, about appearing on its satellite platform. Sportdigital.tv was recently launched as a stand-alone service on satellite television thanks to a tie-up with satellite operator SES Astra, and is now targeting expansion onto Premiere Star.
Gisbert Wundram, Sportdigital.tv’s managing director, told Digital Fernsehen, the German media website, that he had been in ‘intensive negotiations’ with Premiere for some weeks, but that Premiere has now asked to continue the talks in 2008. Wundram said that Sportdigital.tv was also in discussions with Deutsche Telekom, Hansenet and Arcor, the German telecommunications groups, regarding the broadcasting of the service via IPTV.
Maxdome, the sports and entertainment internet portal, is another potential partner that Sportdigital.tv is seeking to work with to broaden its distribution. Sportdigital.tv received a pay-television licence in January when it was launched, but was initially available only as an internet portal. At present, subscribers can watch live action from the top leagues of German basketball, handball and volleyball.
Regarding the possible broadcasting of other sports, Wundram said that Sportdigital.tv ‘could at first always fall back on Sportfive’s stock of rights.’ He added that Sportfive ‘was responsible for all the activities in terms of rights acquisitions and for the marketing of the programming’ and that Sportdigital.tv was merely in charge of the technical delivery and editorial. Wundram also played down recent reports that Sportfive would definitely use Sportdigital.tv to rival Premiere in bidding for rights to German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga from 2009-10 onwards. He stressed Sportfive’s stance that it would first study the tender documents from the DFL, the German soccer league, before deciding on a potential bid.
When asked if Sportdigital.tv saw itself as a direct rival to Premiere, which is largely unchallenged in the German pay-television market following the loss of Bundesliga rights by Arena, its erstwhile competitor, Wundram said that his company performed a different role from that of Premiere. He said: ‘We are completely different to Premiere in that we do not rely upon the exclusive use of the type of sports we have, rather look for co-operations with other broadcasters with the aim of letting an individual sport attain its maximum reach. We see ourselves much more as a complement to the existing television broadcasters in the media sector.’
Sportdigital.tv is targeting a ‘five-figure' subscribtion figure in the short- to medium-term, said Wundram, although subscriptions are not the only revenue source. To generate further income, the channel is also seeking to sub-license rights either nationally or internationally, integrate sponsors and presenting partners into the coverage, develop television advertising revenue and expand the service onto different media platforms. Source: Sportcal, 3rd Oct 2007
ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS
IPTV ops just can't shake off content questions
Editor, Tony Brown comments on Telecoms.com, 19th Sep 2007
In July, Asia Pacific telecoms giant SingTel became only the fourth major operator in the region to launch commercial IPTV services, following in the footsteps of flagship IPTV operator PCCW in Hong Kong, Hanaro Telecom in South Korea and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan. The fact that only three other significant telcos in the region have launched IPTV services since PCCW launched Now Broadband TV in October 2003 indicates the continuing frailties of the IPTV business model, with the biggest problem still centering on content.
In 2003, you could barely open a telecoms publication or go to an industry conference without reading or hearing that IPTV was set to fundamentally change the landscape of the telecoms world and put traditional cable-TV and DTH operators on their collective backsides. But here we are, heading toward late 2007, and apart from PCCW's success in Hong Kong - where it has surpassed former pay-TV-market leader Hong Kong Cable TV in terms of user numbers - the region's pay TV operators are not exactly cowering at the telcos' IPTV offerings.
Even PCCW's success has to be viewed in context: Although the firm had distributed about 850,000 Now Broadband TV settops to subscribers by end-August, only about 575,000 subscribers are paying for the service, with the rest taking the free basic platform. And although ARPU has increased substantially, from its consistent lows of HK$100-120 ($12.80-15.40) in 2H04-1H06 to the HK$166 recorded in 1H07, the increase was won only through the expensive HK$1.6 billion acquisition of English Premier League soccer rights from HKCTV.
PCCW's EPL bid was more than double what HKCTV paid for the previous three-year EPL deal, and the prized soccer content has become the key component of the firm's Mega Sports Pack, which costs HK$218 a month. In contrast, HKCTV is expecting to lose a significant number of the 830,000 subs it had at end-June and has conceded that its ARPU will drop well below the HK$200 mark as it is forced to offer cheaper packages in an effort to prevent churn.
Still, getting involved in price wars for premium content, such as the EPL rights, is the last thing telcos with IPTV aspirations can afford to be doing in an effort to substantially raise ARPU, since content wars have a nasty habit of making for unprofitable TV operations. Moreover, not every telco in the region with IPTV ambitions has the deep pockets of PCCW or is faced with a less-than-stellar competitor. HKCTV had long failed to cement itself as a market leader.
Hanaro Telecom, the second-largest IPTV operator in the region, is already experiencing the problem PCCW had before securing the EPL rights: Subs seem to love the service but are not eager to pay big money for it. In 2Q07, only 60 per cent of Hanaro's half a million IPTV subs were actually paying for the service, which meant that the service's overall ARPU remained in the doldrums, at KRW5,516 ($5.90) a month. Hanaro has ambitions of raising ARPU to KRW20,000 per sub per month by 4Q08 and says it will be able to do so once the government passes legislation that allows it to offer real-time broadcast channels over IPTV, rather than solely via VOD.
But it is a massive leap of faith for Hanaro to suggest that it can quadruple its IPTV ARPU, when you consider that South Korea's cable TV operators are themselves generating ARPU of only about KRW5,000 for their 80- to 100-channel analog platforms. Sure, Hanaro has a substantial VOD platform with which to raise revenues, and its VOD take-up is increasing, albeit at a modest rate, but the firm will not find any content not already being screened by cable operators to miraculously drive ARPU to its target levels.
Meanwhile, Chunghwa Telecom is in an almost identical situation. It faces a strong cable market that has long-established ties to the content-production sector, meaning that Chunghwa has found exclusive content hard to come by. The lack of exclusive content, added to the fact that CHT has been bedeviled by a series of regulatory problems, has curtailed subscriber growth and meant that the service has yet to provide any meaningful competition to the established pay TV operators.
And so we come to SingTel's recent launch. Although it faces a relatively benign regulatory landscape, it is hard to see how it is going to escape the problems that beset PCCW for so long and those that continue to dog Chunghwa and Hanaro. SingTel's content lineup looks painfully skinny compared with that on offer at rival cabler StarHub, which has cemented its market leadership in a way that HKCTV failed to do in Hong Kong.
SingTel's IPTV subs will receive settops free of charge but will have no "free" basic package, such as PCCW and Hanaro offer. And they will have to pay at least S$16 ($10.50) a month, with a la carte channels costing S$3.20-12.84 a month. Given that rival StarHub - which had already captured a market share that's fast approaching 50 per cent, with 496,000 subs at end-June - already offers a budget package for just S$24 a month, it is hard to see why people would pay extra for SingTel's IPTV service.
If telcos seriously want to get into the pay TV game, they are going to have to dig deep into their pockets and compete for the best content, whether it be sports, movies or drama. There really is no choice. We have already seen that IPTV subs clearly like getting something for nothing, or at least for very little, but there's no great surprise there. The real challenge is getting viewers to pay serious amounts for content, and they will do that only if they stand to receive premium content they cannot get anywhere else.
So it looks as if the content-rights holders and production giants could be set for a nice windfall if the region's telcos want to get serious in the IPTV game. Some things really do never change.