Tuesday, 15th January 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

Sony Wins Indian Premier League Rights in $1bn Deal

Indian broadcaster Sony Entertainment Television has today secured the television rights to the country’s new official Twenty20 cricket competition in a ten-year deal worth $1 billion. The first edition of the Indian Premier League, an eight-team competition backed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is due to commence in April.Singapore-based sports agency World Sport Group was involved in Japanese-backed SET’s successful of bid of $1.026 billion, which included $918 million for the television rights and $108 million for the promotion of the league.

SET and WSG outbid Network Solutions, a consortium led by Indian television network NDTV and pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports. ESS holds the global rights to International Cricket Council tournaments until 2015 in a deal worth $1.1 billion. Nimbus Communications, the Indian sports marketing and media company which owns the rights to India’s home international matches until 2010, declined to bid.

Zee Telefilms, another prominent Indian media company, was excluded from the process after its parent company, Essel Group, launched its own Twenty20 competition under the banner of the Indian Cricket League. Pan-Asian sports broadcaster Ten Sports, in which Zee has a stake, was also sidelined.

SET’s five-year, $200-million deal to show ICC events in southern Asia expired after last year’s World Cup in the West Indies and the broadcaster’s only significant cricket deal since has been the acquisition of rights to New Zealand’s home matches for the next four years. The IPL is now seeking owners for the eight franchise teams in the league, with companies being asked to pay upwards of $50 million for a ten-year licence.

It has been decreed that the franchises will receive 80% of the television revenue for the first two years, 70% in the third and fourth years, 60% from years five to ten and 50% beyond that. In addition, they will receive 60% of the sponsorship revenue in the first ten years and 50 per cent of the total in subsequent years.

The bids will be opened on January 24 and player auctions will be held early next month. Around 80 cricketers with international experience have signed up to take part in the inaugural competition, which will comprise 59 matches in 12 Indian cities over 44 days. The prize fund will total $3 million and the top two teams will qualify for an international Champions Twenty20 tournament, to take place in October.

Twenty20 cricket has been slow to develop in India, where the one-day format has held sway, but the process has been accelerated by the launch of the ICL, which held its first competition in November and December, and the national team's victory in last year's inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa. Sportcal, 14th Jan 2008


SPORTS SHORTS

* The BBC has launched two new weekly radio programmes to be aired in India. BBC Take One and BBC Fun And Games are broadcast by the BBC's key network partner in the country, Radio One 94.3 FM, bringing highlights from the worlds of sport and cinema. In the first edition of BBC Fun And Games, which was aired on Saturday, football superstar David Beckham was interviewed about his career and the future. Vineet Singh Hukmani, CEO of Radio One 94.3 FM, said: "This is the first ever global sports magazine of this kind and the first ever credible film magazine on FM in India." Sports Media, 14th Jan 2008

* Star India and Digital Entertainment Networks (Den) today announced a joint venture to create a platform for distributing television channels in India via all fixed networks including cable, DTH, IPTV, HITS and MMDS. The 50:50 joint venture will be headquartered in Mumbai. Under the agreement, the joint venture will be an exclusive distributor for Star India for all channels distributed domestically by Star India. It will also seek to expand its bouquet offerings by including other third party channels for distribution. IndianTelevision.com, 14th Jan 2008

* Discovery Networks Asia is gearing up to launch Discovery HD on PCCW's Now TV platform in Hong Kong, expanding its portfolio in the region to a total of seven channels. The new Hong Kong net will start up on January 31, extending the Discovery’s HD offering to 15 international markets including South Korea, Japan, Canada, Germany, Austria, Ireland, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Singapore. C21Media, 14th Jan 2008

* KongZhong Corporation and Infront, the exclusive commercial partner to the Chinese Basketball Association ("CBA"), jointly announced today a multi-year cooperation agreement and launched the official CBA mobile website. Under the agreement, KongZhong will operate the official CBA mobile website, which users can visit on their mobile phones by directly inputting CBA.Kong.net. The mobile website will broadcast live CBA games, and provide video clips of game highlights and related content for fans. KongZhong expects to generate mobile advertising revenues from the mobile website, as well as to increase the popularity of Kong.net. The cooperation agreement is for a term of three years, and the parties have an option to renew. Yahoo Finance, 14th Jan 2008

* Dutch cable company, Zesko Holding, is bidding for rights to the Dutch top-tier, Eredivisie, beginning with the 2008-09 season. Zesko has an annual sum of €100 million ($149 million) at its disposal to acquire live, recorded highlights and radio rights to the Eredivisie, according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The cable group was formed 12 months ago following the merger of cable networks Casema, @Home and Multikabel. It serves around half of Dutch homes and has 1.2 million broadband internet connections. Dutch telecom, Tele2, holds majority of live Eredivisie rights under the present deal, paying around €30.5 million-a-season and broadcasting matches via IPTV. Sportcal, 14th Jan 2008

* German public-service broadcaster, ARD, has warned it is not interested in highlights from German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga after 8pm as the league considers awarding more exclusivity to pay-television. At present, it is estimated that each Sportschau show costs licence-fee payers under €0.30 ($0.45), equivalent to around €100 million a year, and ARD is not willing to accept a significant increase. The German Football League, generates around €420 million a year from domestic broadcast rights currently, but is looking for a significant increase from 2009-10 and believes it can achieve this by offering more exclusivity to pay-television. ARD is paying between €85 million and €100 million per year for its highlights rights package until the end of next season. Sportcal, 14th Jan 2008


MORE NEWS

Singapore/New Media: MediaCorp, M1 plan mid-year DVB-H

Singaporean free-to-air broadcaster MediaCorp will start a commercial DVB-H mobile TV trial in the middle of the year, subject to regulatory approval. The broadcaster has linked with mobile provider M1 for the trial, with an invitation to tender issued to technology vendors already. The tenders will be for both infrastructure and devices to be included in the trial service. MediaCorp said the collaboration with M1 was an extension of other efforts between the two. M1 has already offered its 3G customers Asia's first 3G mobile drama series as well as celebrity and entertainment programmes made in collaboration with MediaCorp studios.

Neil Montefiore, CEO of M1 said: "With the DVBH promise of good audio-visual quality and interesting content from MediaCorp, the premier broadcaster in Singapore and the region, as well as other leading broadcasters, we will deliver a compelling mobile TV experience for our customers. It is this combination of the right technology and content providers that will create a viable mobile TV service."

M1 has some one million mobile subscribers to its mobile networks, which range from second-geneartion to 3G and 3.5G high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). A DVB-H platform would add yet another offering to the operator's portfolio. MediaCorp CEO Lucas Chow added that DVB-H offered "untapped opportunities for new broadcast services and interactve programme content."

The new service will also have to wait for regulatory approval. Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) recently extended its public consultation on its proposed regulatory framework for mobile TV by two weeks, with comments now invited before noon on January 18. Under the proposals, operators (both mobile TV and 3G) must obtain broadcast licenses before transmitting TV over networks. The MDA is putting four 10-year multiplex licenses, each supporting around 20 channels, out to tender. No standard will be mandated. Rapid TV News, 14th Jan 2008

China: League forms NBA China to handle business interests in China

The NBA formed NBA China on Monday, strengthening its business interests in the region and perhaps paving the way for a bolstered professional league in the country.
The new entity arrives seven months before the summer Olympics in Beijing, when basketball will be one of the showcase events. American players such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade are well known in China, and the Chinese team has NBA all-star Yao Ming and rookie Yi Jianlian.

Five partners will invest US$253 million to acquire 11 per cent of the company, which will handle everything from merchandising and marketing to television and other media, in preferred equity. They are ESPN, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Merchants Investments.

The NBA enjoys great popularity in China, where it became the first American sports league to play games in 2004. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic played exhibition games in Shanghai and Macau before this season. Slam Sports, CentralDaily.com, Yahoo!Malaysia, 14th Jan 2008


Elsewhere/General: NBC Set for Record Olympic TV Advertising Sales

NBC, the General Electric-owned US television network that holds rights to broadcast the Olympic Games, has sold ‘a little over two-thirds’ of its advertising slots for this year's Beijing games. The broadcaster is estimated to have raised between $750 million and $800 million, well on the way to its target of between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion. A total of $1.1 billion would represent a new record for Olympic television advertising sales. Prime time slots are worth 10 per cent more than at the last games in Athens in 2004, with the value having risen to $750,000 for each 30-second spot.

Seth Winter, senior vice-president of NBC Sports and Olympics sales and marketing, told Adweek.com that he had just concluded a multimillion dollar deal with AT&T, the telecommunications giant. He added that Samsung, the Korean electronics corporation which is a TOP sponsor of the International Olympic Committee, is also expected to sign up soon. Other companies to have bought advertising space include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, Visa, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and Hilton hotels.

Meanwhile, NBC has finalised a deal with software corporation Microsoft, which will see NBCOlympics.com 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. Television coverage will be spread across the main NBC channel, cable networks USA, CNBC and MSNBC and Spanish-language network Telemundo. Sportcal, 14th Jan 2008

Elsewhere/General: German Broadcaster Reveals Advertising Prices for Olympics

ARD, the German public-service broadcaster, is to charge between €8,700 ($12,952) and €43,050 for a 30-second advertising slot during the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. The cheapest spot on offer is in the morning at around 11am, while the most expensive is at 4pm. The sales are being handled by ARD Werbung Sales & Services, the broadcaster’s advertising subsidiary. During the last summer Olympics in Athens in 2004, ARD enjoyed an average audience of 12.33 million viewers and market share of 27%.

ARD and ZDF, its fellow public-service broadcaster, will offer live coverage from Beijing from 12.45am to 5.30pm each day and a highlights show at 7.45pm. ARD Werbung Sales & Services revealed this month that advertisements during soccer’s European Championships this summer would cost between €18,000 and €120,750. By comparison, the cost of a 30-second spot on ARD during ski jumping’s recent Four Hills Tournament ranged from €4,500 to €18,600.