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