Monday, 11th February 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

Overseas Premier League Games 'Could Generate £100m'

The 20 clubs in English soccer’s top-tier Premier League could each earn £5 million ($9.7 million) from extra fixtures held overseas if the controversial proposal gets the go-ahead. The clubs yesterday agreed to consider plans to stage an ‘international round’ of games in the 2010-11 season. These 10 matches would be in addition to the established 380-game season and count towards the final standings. Possible host cities include Los Angeles, New York, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore and Mumbai.

The television rights to these matches are likely to be sold separately from those held in England and help generate £100 million in extra income for the clubs. Under its present rights deals with pay-television operators BSkyB and Setanta, which run until 2011, the Premier League is earning £1.7 billion over three years, while the international rights are bringing in a further £625 million. The clubs have broadly welcomed the proposal for an annual round of overseas matches, which would appeal to international broadcasters and sponsors alike, but supporters groups see it as a misguided money-making exercise and there are concerns over fixture congestion in what is already a packed calendar.

The plan could yet be vetoed by international federations, which are guided by the principle that there has to be a home team for club matches. A senior source at Fifa, soccer’s world governing body, told Reuters: ‘The statutes of Fifa are quite clear, so from a first glance it would seem the Premier League will find it difficult t get their way. ‘If this was allowed, it could open a whole new can of worms which would certainly change the goalposts for the international aspects of the game.’

Details of the 'international round' have yet to be finalised although it is envisaged that cities would bid to host two games over a weekend in January. A draw would decide the line-up of matches, although the top five teams from the previous season are likely to be seeded to prevent them meeting each other. Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

Reactions to EPL’s International Round Plan:

Premier League Proposals Meet with Mixed Response
The UK secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham, said that the Premier League's plan to take English league games overseas raised serious issues about the “integrity of the game”. At a meeting on Thursday all 20 Premier League clubs agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games and to take the extra 10 games overseas. It is understood that the games would count as normal Premier League fixtures with three points for a win, although the top five teams are likely to be seeded so they do not play each other.

In a statement Burnham said: "English football is hugely popular around the world and I understand the Premier League's desire to take the game to new audiences but this proposal goes beyond the Premier League and careful consideration is needed before any decisions are made... Money and merchandising must not take priority over the interests of fans in this country. The Premier League brings great benefits to Britain, but it's success today is established upon local club support built up over generations. The game must never forget its roots".

The 10 overseas games could generate an estimated £240 million in extra revenue for the Premier League in terms of TV rights deals and the sale of match hosting rights to five overseas cities. The Football Association has given its provisional support to the plans. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, said: “it's an extra game, it's is not taking anybody's game away, and it includes all 20 clubs which is very important. All 20 clubs will benefit and there is a huge element of solidarity about it”. Sport Business, 8th Feb 2008

Scudamore Hails Premier League 'International Round' Plan
English football fans can look forward to watching an entire weekend of Barclays (sponsor) Premier League action if radical new proposals to take the game around the world are ultimately given the go ahead. The Premier League is planning the formation of an 'international round' of fixtures that will be worth millions in TV and sponsorship packages. The 20 Premier League clubs have unanimously agreed to further examine a proposal that would see 10 competitive fixtures hosted in five major cities worldwide over one weekend. The extra round would begin in January during the 2010-11 campaign and will be in addition to the traditional 38 home and away matches each of the 20 clubs currently play.

The proposal will take at least a year to finalise but Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore (pictured right) is already excited by the globalisation of the British game which could give armchair fans the chance to watch 10 league games back to back from Saturday morning to Sunday night. "It will create a great domestic weekend back here," said an enthused Scudamore. "If the cities are right and the kick-off times are right, you can envisage the idea of waking up on a Saturday morning and watching five Premier League matches back to back and again on a Sunday. That has never happened. We have never had a full fixture calendar in the UK broadcast live."

He added: "The concept at the moment is five cities where they would play a game on a Saturday and on a Sunday in that host city. There will be no club influence in terms of which host city they go to. It will be done by a draw. We are excited about it and the clubs are excited about it. We have been wrestling with how we might do something internationally for some time. An international round is a response to that ever globalising effect. It is going to be a year before we will be in a position to say with any certainly whether this will happen or not. There is the calendar issue, the commerciality issue, and the sanctioning issue."

The live broadcast rights in the UK are currently split between Sky and Setanta, but the deals will expire in 2010 a few months before the proposed international round. "The clubs believe the time has come for this," Scudamore added. "The League can never stand still. We are either moving forward or backward. But standing still does not work in any environment. This proposal has captured the imagination of the 20 clubs. I would refute this is a commercially driven exercise, but it is a way of taking the Premier League forward. We will be promoting the clubs first then the league and thirdly, Britain. It is a success story a lot of people around the world envy. Can you imagine the build-up to that weekend when you could watch 10 live games starting on a Saturday morning and ending on a Sunday night?" Football Insider, 8th Feb 2008


SPORTS SHORTS

* After a decade on The CW and its precursor, UPN, World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) franchise WWE SmackDown is leaving the network, as the two companies have concluded their partnership. The program will continue to air on The CW until the conclusion of the 2007-2008 broadcast season, with WWE currently in negotiations with other networks. WWE said in a statement: “We are grateful to Les Moonves, Dawn Ostroff and their entire organization for bringing WWE SmackDown to millions of viewers for so many years.” Worldscreen, 8th Feb 2008

* Badminton’s Europe Cup will be held in Moscow, Russia this year, continental governing body Badminton Europe has announced. The annual competition for top clubs in Europe is scheduled to take place on June 11 to 15. Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* UEFA has reached an agreement with StarHub to give the largest Pay-TV operator in Singapore exclusive broadcast rights to games at Euro 2008. StarHub, which will transmit full coverage of the tournament through a dedicated Euro 2008 channel, will supplement live coverage of all 31 matches with additional programmes and extensive reporting from the host countries for 15 hours a day across the tournament. StarHub mobile platform will further cater for fans with near live clips, post-match highlights and other services, achieving the broadest offer ever made available to the football community in Singapore for the UEFA European Football Championship. Sports Media, Sport Business, Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* Indian sports channel Neo Sports Plus acquired the TV rights for three major tennis tournaments: The Davis Cup, The Federation Cup and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Under its deal with the International Tennis Federation, Neo Sports Plus will broadcast India's away matches and select other World Group matches of the Fed Cup and the Davis Cup in the Indian sub-continent from 2008 to 2011. The channel will also present one hour highlight programmes after each round of the competitions. The channel also acquired the exclusive rights for all tier one and tier two events of the 2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in a deal brokered by sports rights agency IMG. Sport Business, Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* George Soros, the investor and financial speculator surprised the Indian sub-Continent’s media watchers by picking up 3% in Reliance Entertainment for US$100 million from owner Anil Ambani. Reliance Entertainment has a number of new media ventures including mobile entertainment service Jump Mobile and gambling portal Zapak, as well as a TV and film production business. The company also plans a bouquet of TV channels for later in the year, focusing on news, movies and entertainment. No doubt they will be launching on sister company Reliance Communications’ DTH platform, Bluemagic, that is scheduled to soft launch this week, as well as its IPTV platform. Rapid TV News, 8th Feb 2008

* The English Premier League has started an international development project in India. Premier Skills was launched in Delhi by ex-Premier League players Warren Barton and Robbie Earle and will endeavour to encourage young talent. The Premier League will work in partnership with the British Council to improve soccer and English-speaking skills. Similar projects are up and running in the Egyptian cities of Cairo and Alexandria and a fourth project will be launched in the Indian city of Kolkata in March. Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League said: ‘It is clear to us that there is a growing interest in football – and the Premier League – in India.’ Sportcal, 6th Feb 2008

* Broadcast sales of the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament to countries outside of Europe will beat all previous revenue and exposure records for the event, according to Stefan Felsing, executive vice-president of Sportfive. The rights agency, which also looks after selling the competition within Europe, was handed the responsibility of closing deals in various markets beyond the host continent by UEFA. In all, for the previous edition of the competition in Portugal in 2004, the total revenue generated by the sale of media rights (television, radio and new media) worldwide was €552.6 million (US$812.5 million), according to UEFA. However, the 2008 competition is apparently set to top those figures on all counts. Football Insider, 6th Feb 2008

* Canal Plus and Orange will share the broadcast rights to Ligue 1 Orange football in France from 2008-12. The Ligue de Football Professionel (LFP) will receive around €668 million from the two companies, representing a slight increase on the €660 million currently received by the LFP for rights to Ligue 1 across a range of platforms. Details of the revenue split are yet to be disclosed, but Canal Plus is set to screen matches on Sunday nights and also via pay-per-view, while Orange will screen live games on Saturday nights, as well as having rights to video on demand and mobile phone broadcasts. Sports Media, Rapid TV News, Sport Business, Sportcal, Sportcal, 7th Feb 2008

* The International Skating Union is reported to have secured a US broadcaster for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles. National network NBC has agreed to replace cable sports broadcaster ESPN as the American home of the championships. It is understood that NBC will not be covering the foreign Grand Prix events that are included in ESPN’s existing contract. ESPN’s four-year deal worth $5 million-a-year expires after next month’s world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. By comparison, the previous deal with national network ABC, which ended in 2004, was worth $22 million-a-year. Sportcal, 6th Feb 2008

* German broadcasters ARD und ZDF are set to extend their broadcast rights deal with the German ski federation, until 2011. ARD and ZDF had signed a one-year deal reported to be worth between €7.5 million ($10.9 million) and €9 million in November, with the option of an extension. The DSV, besieged by financial difficulties, was said to have been looking for a four-year agreement worth around €15 million a year. The current one-year deal was significantly delayed after Infront Sports and Media signed a €15-million-a-year deal until 2011 for the distribution of domestic and international broadcast rights with the DSV, but was unable to implement it because of a complaint by network and previous rights holder, RTL. Sportcal, 7th Feb 2008

* Kentaro is half-way through a five-year deal to distribute the rights for Swedish soccer’s top-tier Allsvenskan in the face of a damages claim worth SKr100 million ($15.4 million) from Canal Plus, the Swedish pay-television broadcaster. The claim relates to a controversial agreement between Kentaro and TV4, enabling TV4 to air an extra 36 matches a season, in addition to 14 matches a season that had been agreed before Canal Plus agreed a deal with Canal Plus for the remaining matches. Canal Plus, which believes that its exclusivity over the majority of the matches is being infringed, has also asked the court to issue an interim injunction to prevent TV4 from showing any of the 36 matches until a ruling on the case is made. Kentaro is understood to be paying SKr275 million a year for all Swedish soccer rights, including the Allsvenskan, from 2006 to 2010, and from the beginning of the deal there have been allegations that the agency was struggling to re-finance it. Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* Czech Television could acquire the rights for Euro 2008 European Championships from Prima TV, the commercial broadcaster that acquired the rights early last year, CT’s sports editor. However, Prima TV has rejected the claim. Prima outbid CT, which showed the 2004 European Championships and the 2006 World Cup, for the rights and said at the time of its acquisition that it planned to show all 31 matches live. It was reported last month that Prima offered Kcs100 million ($4.6 million) for the rights, compared to CT’s bid of Kcs60 million. The media rights for Euro 2008 are being sold in Europe on a territory-by-territory basis by Sportfive. Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins has defended a controversial new 5-year broadcast rights deal with SuperSport. Pat de Silva and Cheeky Watson, co-chairpersons of the Eastern Province Rugby Union, have raised concerns about the agreement, and contacted Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile to request an investigation. Western Province officials have also filed a letter of objection, and have raised questions about why the deal was agreed so early. SA Rugby has sold blanket broadcast rights to all Currie Cup and incoming tours from 2011-15 to the pay-TV platform for a reported fee of US$95 million. Sports Media, 6th Feb 2008

* ASO, organiser of cycling’s Tour de France, is understood to be close to acquiring the Vuelta a Espana, another of the sport’s three annual ‘Grand Tours,’ from Unipublic, in a move that is likely to revive fears of a breakaway from the UCI, the sport’s world governing body. ASO and Unipublic, the sports events group owned by broadcaster Antena 3, are reported to have held conversations over a period of several weeks about a possible sale. Sportcal, 8th Feb 2008

* Kentaro plans to remain focused on its core sports of football and boxing for the foreseeable future, according to the company's CEO Philippe Grothe. Since being established in 2003, Kentaro has grown into one of the leading players in the sports rights industry, and the group currently represents the worldwide media rights for a host of international matches, tournaments, tours and national federations in football. Kentaro also has a key role in boxing, with the company exclusively marketing the international TV rights of leading European boxing promoter Sauerland, and Grothe does not foresee a move into other sports for the time being. Sports Media, 7th Feb 2008

* The 2008 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships (ITC) will be broadcast online by B2 Networks. The 16th version of the annual tournament, which runs from February 11-17 and includes James Blake, Mardy Fish and Vince Spadea, will be available through www.b2tv.com or through the tournament's website at www.yellowtennisball.com. "Our broadcasting partnership with B2 Networks provides another opportunity for the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships to be seen by a worldwide audience," stated Mark Baron, Delray Beach ITC tournament director. "This cutting-edge technology will enable anyone, anywhere to 'buy a ticket' to our feature matches." Sports Media, 6th Feb 2008

* Moscow will provide coverage of the 2010 Youth Olympics to all participating countries, if it is awarded the staging of the games, according to the head of Russian sport channel RTR-Sport. Vassily Kiknadze said: ‘We guarantee that, even if the games were to start tomorrow, we are fully prepared to offer the world audience a high quality broadcast.’ Moscow faces competition from Singapore to host the games, and it is understood that today is the last day for IOC members to submit their postal votes to decide who will host the inaugural event. It is believed that voters have had exactly two weeks to cast their votes. The winner will be announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge on February 21. Sportcal, 7th Feb 2008

* Football Federation Australia (FFA) expects football to emerge unscathed from the current Federal Government spending cuts. Minister for Finance Lindsay Tanner announced intentions to withdraw A$243 million of "irresponsible spending" for the current financial year as part of a wider scheme to cut $643 million from spending over the next four years. The Australian Rugby League has already lost $10 million pledged by former Prime Minister John Howard to establish a hall of fame, and the Australian Rugby Union has had its $25 million Queensland-based national rugby academy abandoned. Elsewhere, fishing lost $3 million earmarked for a hall of fame, and racing has had the government's $5 million contribution to a water-saving strategy at Flemington withdrawn. Football Insider, 7th Feb 2008

* British Airways (BA) has become the latest sponsor to back the London 2012 Olympic Games. The airline earlier supported the city's bid to host the Games, has paid around £40 million for marketing rights and will fly British athletes to this year's Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. BA is London 2012's fourth major commercial partner alongside Lloyds TSB, which paid £80 million, and energy firm EDF, paying £50 million. Adidas' £100 million sponsorship investment is over five years and includes a large marketing drive, but is thought to be worth around £70 million to London's 2012 organising committee. Sports Media, Sport Business, 6th Feb 2008


ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS

Murdoch’s ‘Shattered’ Chinese Adventures Exposed
Chris Forrester is the Editor in chief and writes for Rapid TV News, 8th Feb 2008

Since 1993, when Rupert Murdoch bought Star TV, he has been knocking on China’s door. Now a book from a key Murdoch lieutenant (who first introduced Wendi Deng to Murdoch) says the efforts were “blundered” and “wasted money”. The book (“Rupert’s Adventures in China”* or “How Murdoch lost a fortune but gained a wife”) is an absolute page-turner. Its author, Bruce Dover, served Rupert Murdoch as head of business development and later VP (China) from 1992-1999, and “delivers a rollocking insider’s account” of the deals and schemes of his boss’s attempts to gain a foothold in China.

Dover has page after page of closely observed information and a little gossip to make the read all the more compelling. Here’s his comments on Ms Wen-di Deng: “The degree to which she has been a great help is arguable. While she brought to the partnership an insight into the cultural and often complex nuances of doing business there, she had no head for the politics of the country's opaque and evolving political structure. She had no business connections in China. She teamed up with the new stepson [James Murdoch] to initiate and advocate Chinese internet investments nearly all of which were later written off as total losses."

The downhill slide started with Murdoch delivering a speech at London’s Banqueting House to help celebrate BSkyB’s multichannel launch on September 1 1993. His comment “that satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels” was taken very badly by the very Chinese he was attempting to court. Within four weeks the Chinese had banned satellite dishes throughout the nation. "Many of [those] who had been provided with all-expenses-paid trips to the UK to see the BSkyB [pay-TV] platform in operation loved the Murdoch concept and set about implementing it. They just excluded Murdoch from his own plan," writes Dover, having “been incandescent with rage” following the speech.

Murdoch, in 1997, tried to reverse this mess and wrote a personal letter to China's top officials firmly apologising for any "misunderstanding" caused by his 1993 speech.

“It is, I hope, a balanced perspective, written without malice or venom that both humanizes Murdoch the man, but also demonstrates that as a businessman, he is absolutely pragmatic and doggedly determined to achieve his goals. Normally what Murdoch wants, Murdoch gets – for example The Wall Street Journal. But in China, it seems he met his match – well at least up to now. One, should never of course, dismiss Murdoch – he is rarely, if ever, totally defeated,” Dover adds, shrewdly.