Friday, 29th February 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

White Is Total Sports Asia's New Vice President of Sales

Total Sports Asia, the international sports agency based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has appointed James White as vice president of sales, with responsibility for strengthening regional sponsorship sales and business development. White, who was previously with rival agency IMG for 10 years, has worked in both Indonesia and Singapore on sports including golf, badminton, rugby, soccer and basketball. Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008


DID YOU KNOW?

* Fishing is the biggest participant sports in the world.
* The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef.
* The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors.
* About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.


SPORTS SHORTS

* The company that brokered the US$1 billion broadcasting deal for the Indian Premier League (IPL) anticipate the new competition will have a "big impact" on the sport. DLA Piper's technology, media and commercial group facilitated the deal for the Sony Entertainment Television-World Sports Group consortium for the exclusive television rights. DLA's Nick Fitzpatrick, who was assisted by solicitors Patrick Mitchell and John Cloke, said: "This is a truly fascinating project and one with which we are proud to be involved. The IPL will have a big impact on world cricket and helping Sony Entertainment Television on this deal was particularly satisfying." Sports Media, 28th Feb, 2008

* China Central Television agreed partnerships with social networking site MySpace China and online-video site Tudou.com to run an interactive website for the Beijing Olympics. The CCTV Olympic Website will offer streaming video broadcasts of events, which can be viewed only in China, and Web profiles through which users can contact Olympic athletes. The site will go live on August 8 – the first day of the games – and be available through CCTV.com. Wang Wenbin, general manager of CCTV.com, said: “We want to make full use of the interactive characteristics of the Internet”. The theme of the website is 'My Olympics'. Sports Business, 28th Feb 2008

* News Corp-owned Indian pay-TV giant Star TV will add three Mandarin-language channels to the US-based GekTV IPTV platform on March 15. The three channels are Star Chinese Channel, Channel V Taiwan and Star Chinese Movies 2. The channels will launch on Tai Seng Entertainment-backed GekTV's Mandarin package. C21Media.net, 28th Feb 2008

* The Disney Channel is set to launch its first original, made-for-mobile series, a Singaporean version of successful international shortform format As the Bell Rings. The series will be available exclusively on Disney Mobile Xtra on StarHub mobile phones from March 7. As part of its mobile launch, all Singaporean mobile phone users will be able to sample the first episode of As the Bell Rings for free by texting a special code. After that, new episodes of the 10-14-skewing series will be made available to StarHub's Disney Mobile Xtra subscribers each week. C21Media.net, 28th Feb 2008

* The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced free coverage of its events via itTV now available on www.ittf.com. Live and archived material is now available on demand under the itTV menu button on the website. The development coincided with the start of the Evergrande World Table Tennis Championships in Guangzhou, China. Live action from the ongoing Championships and other ITTF-related programmes are available to offer a 24-hours-per-day service. During the current season, itTV will also provide matches from the ITTF Pro Tour. Table tennis already enjoys plenty of television exposure in China, but the sport is looking to increase its fan base in other territories around the world. Sports Media, 28th Feb 2008

* The Eredivisie, Dutch soccer’s top-tier league, said today that the launch of its own television channel remains a ‘serious option’ after announcing that it would unveil the results of its broadcast tender from next season onwards on March 10. Broadcasters in the Netherlands have been locked in talks with the league after two rounds of bidding failed to produce acceptable offers for the rights, and the league could yet opt to launch its own channel. Should the league opt to launch its own channel, then it will be eager to avoid the pitfalls encountered by Sport7, a sports channel which emerged in 1996 and secured the rights to the league only to collapse after just five months in existence. Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008

* Online broadcaster MediaZone has struck a deal with Globo TV Sports to distribute an extensive package of Brazilian football programming to the U.S., covering Internet and mobile. The deal will see the live transmission of the 82 games from Globo TV Sports’ Brazilian Magic Football 2008 package and 46 editions of the weekly program FootBrazil. This latest offering from Globo TV Sports is now available on MediaZone at www.mediazone.com/brasil. MediaZone specializes in professionally produced sports, international and entertainment video programming. The company has established exclusive partnerships with media brands such as AOL and NBC Sports, and is the official online broadcast partner for major events such as Wimbledon, Rugby World Cup 2007 and the Indy Racing League. Worldscreen, Sportcal,, 28th Feb 2008

* The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that the Ivory Coast will host the finals of a new national team tournament featuring players that are playing for clubs on the continent. Designed to sit alongside the African Cup of Nations, the inaugural African Championship of Nations will take place in 2009 from February 22 through to March 8. The decision to launch the new competition for players solely participating in their country's local league is aimed at raising the standard of the game on the continent. Expat players will not be eligible to play in the African Championship of Nations, which will be staged once every two years, alternating with the African Cup of Nations. Ivory Coast secured the Championship ahead of Egypt and Sudan, with the preliminary stages of the inaugural set to feature 30 countries. Sports Media, 28th Feb 2008

* UK-based iD Distribution has sold 100 hours of high-definition factual entertainment and documentary programming from VOOM HD’s catalogue since October 2007. The company deals in factual and light entertainment, reality, lifestyle, documentaries and current affairs HD programming. iD said it has had particular sales success with arts and lifestyle-themed series, with new programmes from VOOM HD Networks’ Gallery HD and Ultra HD channels, among others, sold into several territories. iD Distribution has previously sold over 1000 hours of VOOM HD programming internationally. iD Distribution deals in Russia, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines and South Africa. VOOM HD channels are distributed through satellite and cable operators. Rapid TV News, 28th Feb 2008

* Ten-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya wants to end his boxing career with a bang, scripting three fights in a farewell campaign this year. First up for De La Hoya is former IBF super featherweight champion Steve Forbes on May 3rd in Los Angeles. He plans to follow that with a September title rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. before a final fight in December. "This is my last year," De La Hoya, who has held titles in six weight classes, said. "I have a plan in my boxing career. I've studied fighters. I've studied the game of boxing. I want to retire at a perfect time, at the perfect age. And my body is asking me to retire." Yahoo! Sports, 29th Feb 2008


MORE NEWS

Asia/Rights: WICB, Ten Sports in New Cricket Distribution Deal

Taj TV’s Ten Sports has reached an agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to distribute television coverage of all cricket played in the West Indies between 2008 and 2012. Under the new deal, Ten Sports will air the cricket events on its channels in the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and South East Asia and will distribute the events worldwide, with the exception of the U.K. and Ireland, where Sky Sports has the rights, and in the Caribbean. The tours included in the agreement feature visits by India in 2009 and 2012, by Pakistan in 2011, England's tour to the West Indies in 2009, Australia's tour in 2012 and South Africa's tour in 2010.

In total, Ten Sports will broadcast 25 test matches, 50 one-day games and nine 20-20 games between 2008 and 2012 (a total of 184 days), including the upcoming 2008 tour by Australia to the West Indies, which was part of a previous agreement between the companies. Ten Sports currently holds the Middle East and Asian broadcast rights to five of the ten International Cricket Council (ICC) full-member boards and is now involved in the worldwide distribution of rights from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies. Worldscreen, Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008

China/ New Media: China to Reduce Telecom Fees

China's efforts to reduce telecommunication fees are paying off, and may ease consumers' complaints that the prices charged by the monopoly giants are too high. Despite a background of rising inflation in 2007, the telecommunication fees fell by 13.6% year-on-year, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) announced on at the 2008 annual meeting of telecommunication services.

The level of telecommunication fees will be further lowered by 53% in five years, said Jiang Yaoping, MII deputy Minister, without disclosing further details. Earlier this month, the ministry and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) jointly announced a price cut on mobile roaming service charges by between 54% and 73% depending on locality, after they held a public hearing on the issue.

The number of the country's telecommunication users has reached more than 900 million, including 366 million fixed lines and 547 million mobile users, said Jiang. telecomasia.net, 29th Feb 2008

Mid-East/General: IOC Pleads with Kuwait to End Government Interference

The International Olympic Committee has urged the Kuwait Olympic Committee to do its utmost to prevent government interference in Kuwaiti sport, warning that, in theory at least, the committee is risking suspension unless the situation improves. The Arab Times newspaper had reported that Kuwait could face exclusion from the Beijing Olympics. In its second warning, the IOC requested a firm commitment from Kuwaiti authorities by March 31 that the situation will be addressed, failing which the matter will be reported to the IOC executive board in April in Beijing.

KOC president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah is known to be unhappy about the sports ministry’s meddling in the affairs of the Olympic body. In a letter sent in November 2007 to KOC, the IOC already expressed its ‘deepest concern regarding the situation of the Kuwait Olympic Committee and of the Olympic and sports movement in Kuwait.’ Meanwhile, Fifa has threatened to cancel the membership of Kuwait Football Association unless government interference is stopped by March 14. Kuwait elected 15 members to its board of directors, despite Fifa stipulating there should be 14.

Sheikh Ahmad is also president of the Asian Handball Federation and has been at the centre of a recent dispute over the Asian qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is set to resolve the dispute after the AHF disagreed with the International Handball Federation over replaying the qualifiers. Kuwait and Kazakhstan initially secured the continent's Olympic berths for their respective men's and women's teams at the original Asian qualifying tournament organised by the AHF. But the IHF ruled that the tournament, held in Japan last September, should be replayed, after identifying 38 questionable refereeing decisions in a game in which Kuwait surprisingly beat South Korea 28-20. Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008

Global/General: Perform Launches First Multi-Platform Daily

Global digital sport and entertainment company Perform has launched the world's first multi-platform daily sports bulletin. OmniSport.tv , which will be available in multiple formats for daily distribution across scheduled TV channels, broadband TV services, mobile TV, video-on-demand (VOD) and MP4, will be "optimised to suit the specific requirements of each medium," according to the company. For television, the bulletin will be 26 minutes long with a full graphics package and English commentary, while the mobile TV package will be 20 minutes in length. The Internet and mobile VOD services will include up to 10 clips of one or two minutes per day. A five-minute version will also be available in video and audio-only formats for MP4 players and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

OmniSport.tv will feature daily news, interviews and action from major international sports, focusing on football, tennis, golf, motorsport and Olympic sports. Perform is the new name for Premium TV and Inform Group, which merged in September 2007, bringing together Premium TV's technical background and Inform's portfolio of digital rights. The merged company has offices in the UK, Singapore, Australia and Italy. Sports Media, Sport Business, Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008

Elsewhere/General: ASO Fails to Blink as Teams Opt for Paris-Nice without UCI

Cycling’s top professional road cycling teams have voted to take part in the early-season Paris-Nice race at the end of next week, in a new blow to the UCI, the sport’s world governing body, which had called for a boycott of the race in its long-running power struggle with race organiser ASO. The UCI issued a statement earlier this week deploring a decision of the FFC, the French cycling federation, to agree to ASO’s demand to organise Paris-Nice ‘under the exclusive jurisdiction of French law,’ warning that the move was 'utterly irregular and will have far-reaching consequences for all parties involved.' But AIGCP, the teams’ international association, said in a statement that it had reached the decision to compete in defiance of the UCI ‘purely in the interests of the riders and the team sponsors.’

The move fuels fears that the Tour de France, the sport’s flagship race which is also organised by ASO, could take place without the UCI’s sanction. It represents another apparent step towards a complete breakaway by ASO and its races from the authority and influence of the international governing body.

With the FFC’s help, ASO has appointed the AFLD, France’s national anti-doping agency, to take charge of doping control at the race, apparently negating a major plank of the UCI’s threat earlier this week to withdraw its services from the race. The UCI had warned that a range of the UCI’s facilities and services such as race commissaires, dope testing and the award of classification and points could be withdrawn from the race. The UCI believed that ASO and the teams would blink first in the stand-off, when faced with the consequences of a race without the UCI's sanction.

ASO is understood to be in talks to strengthen its position by taking a 50-per-cent stake in the Vuelta a Espana, another of the sport’s three annual ‘Grand Tours.’ The dispute has its origins in the launch of the UCI ProTour in 2005, which brought together the existing UCI World Cup events and other major one-day and stage races under one umbrella. It was conceived to increase cycling’s marketability to broadcasters and sponsors by ensuring that leading teams and riders compete against each other on a regular basis.

However, the ProTour has since the start had an uneasy relationship with the organisers of the sport’s powerful Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana – which are wary of losing their independence. This year's Paris-Nice is scheduled for March 9 to 16. Sportcal, 28th Feb 2008