DID YOU KNOW…?
The Stade de France celebrated its 10th birthday on Tuesday and its management has unveiled an innovative scheme to mark the occasion. All children born in 1998 will be provided with a free ticket for an event at the ground, while a further 100,000 tickets for all events have been made available at a price of Eur10. The 80,000-capacity, Eur350 million stadium in Paris was designed as the cornerstone of France's staging of the 1998 FIFA World Cup and was inaugurated perfectly as the national team defeated Brazil 3-0 in the final itself. "The Stade de France has a special place in the heart of every Frenchman, not just because of its spectacular structure but also because of the great memories which we created in 1998," Laurent Blanc, part of the side that won the World Cup. Football Insider, 30th Jan 2008
SPORTS SHORTS
* The Bangladesh Cricket Board is close to a record television rights deal with Nimbus Sport International after adjustments to a five-and-a-half-year deal originally agreed in November 2006. The $57-million deal was suspended after the Bangladesh government questioned its transparency. The deal covered 40 test matches and over 100 one-day internationals that Bangladesh were expected to play at home between late 2006 and the end of March 2012. The rights were previously held by ESPN Star Sports in a five-year deal worth $11.75 million, which expired in April 2006. Sportcal, 30th Jan 2008
* European football fans will soon be able to watch the next Kaka or Ronaldinho in action after Globo TV Sports agreed a deal that will bring Brazilian domestic football to Internet and mobile phone users throughout the continent. Globo will distribute the top games of the 2008 season from the Campeonato Brasileiro and São Paulo state championships. The 82 games from the Brazilian Magic Football package will be transmitted in English and in other local languages to 51 countries throughout Europe. The new agreement means that Globo TV Sports will now be distributing the best of Brazilian football to more than 130 countries around the world in 2008. Football Insider, 30th Jan 2008
* The International Archery Federation (FITA) has made all its videos and archives available on YouTube. All the videos, ranging from the last Meteksan Archery World Cup Final Dubai 2007 to the archives of the World Championships in 1957, have been uploaded to www.youtube.com/archerytv . FITA will continue to upload videos such as 26-minute highlights, medal matches, feature stories or interviews of stars archers. The initiative is designed to "attract millions of fans and the younger generation" to the sport, according to a FITA statement. In 2007, FITA has reached a cumulative 952 million TV viewers. Sports Media, 30th Jan 2008
* SportsDirect Inc. has linked with interactive content provider Horse Racing Simulation (HRS) to develop and launch a new channel. SportsDirect provides sports gaming statistics, odds and news and will offer the new channel through it's premier web property, www.covers.com . HRS will provide the primary content in the form of an educational-entertainment game platform that will allow users to experience horse racing through a virtual 3-D experience. The product will be similar to the one HRS launched for the Breeders' Cup event last year. Users will be able to jockey, train and fictitiously bet on races containing some of the greatest historic horses of all time, as well as upcoming major feature races such as the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Sports Media, 30th Jan 2008
* Eurosport has been named as the most-watched pan-European channel across all genres for the 13th year running. Eurosport topped two league tables published by European Media and Market Surveys, the bi-annual international media consumption report, one which studied households within the top 20% earnings bracket and one which covered the top 3% of earners. The EMS winter poll gave Eurosport a weekly reach of 31.2% among the top 20% earners, ahead of MTV, the music channel, which polled 26.6%. Eurosport topped the top 3% earners table, having polled a weekly reach of 34.2%. The EMS report included all pan-European television channels across news, music, sport, business, documentaries and travel. Eurosport has a reach in Europe of 112 million homes across 59 countries. Sportcal, 30th Jan 2008
MORE NEWS
Singapore/General: Comcast-Spectacor subsidiary in Singapore sports complex venture
Global Spectrum, Comcast-Spectacor's facility management subsidiary, is expanding into Asia through its participation in a consortium to design, finance, build and manage the Singapore Sports Hub.
Philadelphia-based Global Spectrum, which manages about 70 stadiums, arenas and other public meeting venues in North America, is an equity partner in the $1.25 billion project, which will include a 55,000-seat multipurpose stadium with a retractable roof that lights up at night and doubles as a projection screen for special effects.
"After almost two years of a highly competitive process, we're thrilled to have been selected to be a part of the largest public-private partnership for a sports and entertainment complex in the world," said Comcast-Spectacor President and Global Spectrum Chairman Peter Luukko. "This is an incredible project and our company is excited to be working closely with the Singapore government and many partners in building this fabulous multipurpose sports complex for Singapore."
The Singapore Sports Hub will be built on a 87-acre site on the city's waterfront. The complex includes an aquatic center with Olympic and recreational pools; a water sports center for dragon boat racing, rowing, and kayaking; two-multipurpose indoor halls capable of hosting nine different sports simultaneously; a shopping mall; an office building; a sports medical center; a sports museum and library; and the existing Singapore Indoor Stadium, a 12,000-seat arena. It will also include an Olympic and recreational white water rafting course and a 500-room hotel.
The Singapore Sports Hub Consortium is led by Dragages Singapore and includes the HSBC Infrastructure Fund, Singapore asset management company United Premas Pte. Ltd. and Asian sports marketing and management agency World Sport Group. Comcast-Spectacor, which controls the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers and the Wachovia Center arena where the teams play, is planning a mixed use development at the South Philadelphia sports complex. Comcast-Spectacor is a division of cable giant Comcast Corp. Bizjournal.com, 30th Jan 2008
Middle East/TV Rights: All Mid-East TV channels to be licensed
A Cairo top-level Ministerial meeting is about to consider fresh regulations covering broadcasting over the Middle East. The current problem is that in many Mid-East countries there is little or no need to be formally licensed to start broadcasting a satellite channel. A meeting of the Arab world’s Information and Broadcasting Ministers in Cairo on Feb 12-13 will consider a pan-Arab approach to the problem, exacerbated because the responsibility for policing broadcasters is increasingly falling on satellite broadcasters.
Amin Bassouni, chairman of Nilesat is also head of the Permanent Committee for Mass Media, reporting to the Ministerial meeting. He says that a study was started last June to bring regulation to the Middle East. “We decided not to reinvent the wheel and so we collected the various sets of rules that existed elsewhere in the world including America, Canada, Europe and the countries within Europe, and China. Oddly enough the last batch of media legislation that we have looked at is the new legislation given to Iraq.”
He says his sub-committee has now made a series of recommendations. “We very much want to respect freedom of expression, not just in the spoken word but also in art and culture, the theatre and cinema. But we also want to bring about an opportunity to demand that a broadcaster corrects on air something which is incorrect. The good broadcaster does this already. We want to make this a mandatory obligation and for stations to mutually respect not only the home where the station is viewed but a broadcaster’s neighbouring countries and regions.”
Salah Hamza, CEO at Nilesat (pictured, above), says the lack of licensing in some countries places satellite operators in a difficult position. “The lack of regulation means we have to be judge and jury when complaints are made. Moreover we think that proper regulation similar to that in place in Europe and elsewhere under the Television Without Frontiers system will actually be beneficial, not harmful. We think that once people understand the rules and regulations we will have more growth, not less.” RapidTV, 30th Jan 2008
Global/General: IOC Says No On-Screen TV Advertising During Olympic Events
The International Olympic Committee has denied reports that NBC, the US national television network, has been given dispensation to carry advertising on screen during events at this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. The IOC told Sportcal.com that it was ‘not true’ that NBC, its main broadcasting partner, will be able to use up to one-fifth of the screen to show advertisements, but clarified that there are different rules for the internet. It was responding to a recent report by US magazine TelevisionWeek, which claimed that the IOC had agreed to allot NBC and other commercial broadcasters 20 per cent of the screen for still-frame and limited-motion advertising messages.
The IOC does not allow advertising at Olympic venues, even by official sponsors, and this ban extends to the television coverage of events. There is more leeway for internet rights holders, which are permitted to use around one-sixth of each website page for advertising purposes, although restrictions apply. These will be the first Olympics to feature comprehensive online video coverage and the IOC is eager to encourage the medium without exposing internet viewers to a stream of commercial messages. It said: ‘On the internet, the rights holders are allowed 15% of the screen for advertising, but not the actual video screen.
NBC will still have ample opportunity to capitalise on its Olympic coverage through lucrative advertising breaks and is estimated to have raised between $750 million and $800 million from the sale of spots, well on the way to its target of at least $1.1 billion. High-profile advertisers already signed up include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, Visa, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and Hilton Hotels.
Over the 17 days of coverage, NBC has pledged to air 3,600 hours of coverage on its various platforms, and, despite the unfavourable time difference with China, a significant proportion will be live action. The network has already taken steps to maximise audiences for key events by negotiating with the IOC to have the swimming finals held in the morning rather than the evening in Beijing. Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal and the Olympics, said: ‘The average night for us will be 75% live, and that’s unheard of for an Olympics in the Far East. By delivering the best events for US audiences live, it’s the ultimate knockout for the Olympics audience base, and advertisers are responding to that.’
Prime time slots are said to be worth 10 per cent more than at the last games in Athens in 2004. In all, NBC plans to offer 212 hours of Olympic coverage per day, three times as much as four years ago. The television coverage will be spread across the main NBC channel, cable networks USA, CNBC and MSNBC and Spanish-language network Telemundo. NBC has also concluded a deal with software corporation Microsoft, which will involve NBCOlympics.com being designated as the official US online home of the Beijing games. Internet viewers will have access to more than 3,000 hours of live and on-demand content and NBC and Microsoft will share online advertising revenue. Sportcal, 30th Jan 2008
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