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
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