RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Uteca (Spanish commercial broadcasters) could take pubcasters TVE and Forta (association of regional pubcasters) to court if they bid to renew the TV rights to the Uefa Champions League. Uteca will sue for ‘unfair competition’ if the two pubcasters make an offer to Team Marketing. The two pubcasters are rumoured to bid close to €70 mil (US$96 mil) to renew their rights. TVE holds rights to first-choice Tuesday night match, paying €30 mil per year, while Forta pays €35 mil per year for first-choice Wednesday night match. A 2009 law limits TVE’s annual spend on sports rights to 10% of its yearly budget. In 2011, this will rise to €1.2 bil – meaning that the €65 mil spent on the Champions League and other rights, will fall well below the annual limit.
=> A domestic broadcast rights tender for Italy’s top-tier basketball league is set to be launched in Feb. Italian consultancy, StageUp, is advising the league on the rights sale. Top-tier Lega Societa' di Pallacanestro Serie A approved new guidelines for the sale of rights from 2011-12 onwards and the sales process will begin soon. Pay-TV, Sky Italia, presently holds rights in an exclusive deal, which also covers the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa tournaments and is thought to be worth around €3 million ($4.1 million).
=> Pan-European Eurosport has renewed its rights to tennis’ Australian Open until 2016. The new 5-year deal kicks in with the 2012 tournament and Eurosport will continue to bring multi-court coverage on traditional and live streaming platforms. Eurosport holds rights to three grand slams in total; the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. The deal was due to expire after 2011.
BROADCAST
=> More than 9 out of 10 TV viewers in Korea have signed up for premium cable or satellite channels. The Korea Communications Commission reported that 90.3% of households it surveyed had signed up for pay TV, while only 9.7% watch only free terrestrial channels compared to 17.6% in 2006. Majority of viewers paid for cable TV (78.2%), followed by IPTV (9.9%) and satellite TV (7.2%).
=> Six months before the planned switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in Japan, up to 2.5mil households among some 50mil households in Japan are not ready yet. Broadcasters, including NHK, will stop analogue broadcasting at noon on July 24. As the government plans to complete the transition on time, measures will be promoted to help prepare the market. Unprepared households decreased in 3 months from 7.5mil in September. Communications Minister Yoshihiro Katayama said that the Ministry has no intention of postponing the deadline (for completion).
DATA
=> Rising mobile penetration and proliferation of mobile broadband continues to boost wireless service revenue. ABI Research estimates global wireless service revenue at more than $159 bil for 3Q2010, with data services accounting for nearly a third. Revenue is estimated at about $100 bil for all of 2010, a 20% increase from 2009 and almost 3 times more than five years ago. ABI Research expects the rising mobile data usage and revenue trend to continue through 2011, coupled with more focus on mobile applications.
=> Independent analyst, Ovum, estimates global market for mobile broadband will grow rapidly, and by 2015 1bil people will use it as their only form of internet access. This group will account for 28% of mobile broadband users globally or 13% of global population by then. Asia-Pacific will lead the market, with users forecast to grow from 119.1mil this year, to 518.4mil by 2015. The main reason for the strength of the market in Asia-Pacific is a lack of fixed-line infrastructure in countries like China and India. However, broadband Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) services will continue to grow and is forecast to increase by 120% globally in the five years to 2015. Ovum also forecast FMC users in Asia-Pacific will increase from 259mil this year to 465mil by 2015.
EVENT
=> The 3rd Videocon All-India Open Tennis Championship will be hosted by Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana (JVPG) from 29 Jan to 6 Feb. This year’s prize purse has been increased to Rs10 lakh (Rs1 million) with the men’s singles winner standing to gain Rs1 lakh (Rs 100,000) and the women’s singles winner, Rs60,000. White goods major Videocon is continuing as title sponsor for the event. The event had received over 150 entries and the singles main draws for men and women will include 32 players. 20 of the top players will get a direct entry into the main draw, plus 8 qualifiers and 4 wild cards.
OTHER NEWS
=> Even after global governing body FIH warned players against the "unrecognised" Nimbus-Indian Hockey Federation World Series Hockey, a defiant IHF says the WSH would go ahead in Nov as planned with around 10 private franchises. IHF said the FIH action is interference in Indian hockey’s domestic matters. However, national players who have signed with the league are more circumspect, insisting that playing for India was first priority. The WSH was launched with fanfare last month but has since been hit by roadblocks with public sector employers deciding against players' participation in the cash-rich tournament. The Pakistan Hockey Federation joined the fray by warning its players to stay away from the "rebel" league.
=> Meanwhile, ESS has appealed to the High Court against the IHF dealing with Nimbus for a national hockey league, while still in contract with ESPN and Premier Hockey Development Pvt Ltd for the same concept. PHDPL, owned by ESS, had started the concept of a national hockey league, the Premier Hockey League, and had signed up FIH-recognised national hockey federation, IHF, for a contract valid till 2014. The IHF claims that more than 125 players have signed up for the so-called league, in which the organisers, IHF and Nimbus, have said that there will be a huge prize money bonanza.
=> Legally, hockey in India is in a hell hole, with the Indian sports ministry recognising the IHF, and the FIH recognising the HI as official bodies respectively. The Delhi High Court has also recognised IHF as the official body but the Supreme Court has asked HI to select the Indian national teams for men and women for international outings, and now the ministry itself is working with HI for development of coaching and hockey in the country. It is expected now that the FIH may soon intervene through a high level delegation to India to resolve the worst criris in any Indian sporting discipline.
=> The Asian Tennis Federation has claimed that the presence of China's Li Na in the Australian Open women's singles final will boost the continent's hopes of staging the sport's 'fifth major'. Li beat world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, to become the first player from China to reach a grand slam singles final. Talks had taken place to host a 'major' tennis tournament in Asia, with China, India, Qatar and Dubai all regarded as "interested parties." Aside from the four majors, China hosts Asia's two existing top-tier tennis tournaments (below the majors), the Shanghai Masters and the China Open in Beijing.
=> Uefa is confident of securing support from all 53 member associations for radical broadcast rights centralisation plans before the next Uefa executive committee meeting in March. Uefa’s proposals to centralise the rights for Euro and World Cup qualifying matches from 2014 onwards have been discussed for some time, but there remain issues with bigger national associations in existing individually-negotiated broadcast agreements that run beyond 2014 and the financial impact on the future sale of rights of associations’ properties not included in centralisation, such as domestic cup or international friendly matches.
=> IOC president, Jacques Rogge, says the movement cannot be naive about the menace of illegal betting and is concerned it could raise its ugly head at the Olympics. Rogge said the IOC had been monitoring the problem of unfair play, including illegal betting, for a few years and was organising a conclave on Mar 1 with governments and sporting bodies to formulate a programme to tackle the menace that has begun affecting several sports. The IOC has been tackling the issue since 2007 by adapting rules and regulations to sanction everybody, if need be.
=> Each member association will receive a one-off bonus payment of $300,000 from FIFA as part of the Financial Assistance Programme (FAP). For the six confederations, this bonus will amount to US$2.5 mil each. This decision by the FIFA Executive Committee has been made possible by the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, leading to very good financial result for the entire 2007-2010. The funds are prioritized for development of football and enabling member associations to take part in FIFA competitions. Last year, the FIFA Congress granted each member association a one-off FAP bonus payment of US$250,000 while each confederation received US$2.5 mil, thanks to the financial success of 2010.
Friday, 28th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> V8 Supercars Australia looks set to proceed with a sale of a controlling stake in the business ahead of crucial broadcast rights negotiations. V8 Supercars board will solicit offers for at least 50.1% of the business, which generated A$135 million in revenue last year. Possible buyers include private equity or sports agencies such as IMG and Octagon although the two latter are outside chances to show interest in owning the sport. Channel Seven paid over A$100m for the current 6-year deal (including production), expires in 2012. Ten Network is interested in bidding for the next broadcast rights, although Seven has first and last rights of negotiations.
BROADCAST
=> Australia's Channel Seven experienced a first-week drop in ratings for the Australian Open for the second year in a row. Viewers dropped by 14-17% compared to last year, which was 23-29% lower than 2009. The drop was attributed to increased competition from digital channels, one-day cricket matches and Oprah's Australian television special (which aired in the country last week). Early losses by Australian players did not help ratings. However, Channel Seven did top competitor Channel Nine on five out of seven nights with primetime tennis.
=> The Scottish Premier League will relook the idea of launching a TV channel. A similar plan fell by the wayside in 2002 after it failed to gain support from Celtic and Rangers. SPL has announced the selection of IMG Media to investigate the feasibility. The SPL considered its own pay-per-view channel in 2002 when Sky Sports withdrew from bidding of rights after clubs rejected the company's TV offer. A 2-year deal was eventually agreed with BBC Scotland, which currently owns broadcast rights on terrestrial TV and online. Irish-based pay-TV Setanta won rights in 2008 with a deal worth £125m over four years. Former SPL chief, Roger Mitchell, said that he thinks his successor is doing the right thing by re-examining the proposal.
NEW MEDIA
=> On the day when Yahoo! announced a second round of layoffs in six weeks, Google kicks off 2011 with over 500 hires in Asia Pacific. After cutting 700 employees last December, Yahoo! announced it will further lay off 1% of its global workforce, estimated at about 130 people. Google’ official blog post said 2011 will be "the biggest hiring year in company history", surpassing 2007 when it added 6,000 people to Google worldwide. In Japan and Asia Pacific, Google is planning to hire over 500 people. Google’s display advertising has been a main driver in 2010 and of its China business, with largest advertisers increasing spending by 75%. For Asia, Google would continue to act as an export gateway, allowing Asian businesses to connect with new international clients via export tools such as AdWords and AdSense.
DATA
=> International sports agency, Octagon, launched the 3rd version of ‘Passion Drivers’ research initiative, which, it claims, enables sponsorship clients to get a better understanding of consumers. Passion Drivers launched in 2005 as a tool to enable sponsors to get an insight into motivations of sports and music fans and has been expanded to cover 11 countries on 6 continents and over 30 sports. The second version enabled clients to conduct proprietary research to deduce how each of their consumer segments connects with their sports and Passion Drivers 3.0 goes even further by allowing fan and consumer data to be cross-referenced.
EVENT
=> The English Premier League announced that Proevents has been appointed as official event management partner of the 2011 Asia Trophy, a bi-annual pre-season soccer tournament held in Asia. The 5th edition of the tournament will be held in Hong Kong and sees Premier League champions Chelsea take on champions of the 2010/11 Hong Kong First Division League, alongside Aston Villa and Blackburn, in a knock-out tournament. The announcement is the second such contract which Proevents has secured. In August 2010 the consultancy was also named as the exclusive tour promoter for Chelsea's Asia Tour 2011.
=> The ICC has ruled out the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Eden Gardens in Kolkatta as venue for the India-England ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 match to be held on 27 Feb due to failure to complete stadia work within a specified time for the match. Kolkata will however host its remaining share of matches. The Mumbai Cricket Association received clearance for Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai along with 3 Sri Lanka venues – Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele – subject to minor finishing work to be completed within 14 days. It visited Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 24 January, while Kolkata was inspected on 25 January.
=> Qatar will host the Men's Handball World Championship in 2015, after winning a four-way bidding competition. It is a fist for the Middle East to be selected as host of an international handball tournament and comes off the back of Qatar winning the right to stage soccer's 2022 World Cup. The International Handball Federation met in Sweden and chose Qatar ahead of Norway, France and Poland to host the men's event. The IHF Council also confirmed Denmark as host of the Women's Handball World Championships in 2015. Sweden is presently staging this year's Men's Handball World Championship and Brazil will host the women's event later in the year. Spain and Serbia will be the respective host countries in 2013
=> Badminton Europe has been forced to extend the bidding deadline for its top clubs competition this year after no host was found. Member associations interested in holding the European Club Championships in June and July now have until February 15 to submit their bid to BE. The governing body was hoping to have made its decision already. BE said in a statement that it hopes to allocate the annual event to one of its members, "so that the tradition of crowning Europe's best club can continue." Last year's tournament, in which 21 teams competed, took place in Zwolle in the Netherlands.
=> Power Horse has become the title sponsor the World Team Cup, an ATP World Tour clay court tennis tournament in Düsseldorf. The Austrian energy drinks brand will be given brand exposure around the tournament venue, the Rochus club, and on the official website. The future of the 33-year-old event had earlier been in doubt due to financial difficulties. Power Horse is likely to be contributing around half of the organisers' US$1.85 million total financial commitment. The Power Horse World Team Cup will take place from 15th to 21st May, with Argentina defending their title against seven other national teams.
=> South Africa is putting in a bid for a grand prix in the hope of bringing a F1 race to Cape Town by 2013. The Cape Town Grand Prix Bid Company has a meeting with Bernie Ecclestone to discuss the feasibility of bringing a race to the city's Green Point coastline, with Table Mountain as a backdrop. However, Cape Town authorities cautioned that the costs of the project would be carefully evaluated after the city helped host the 2010 World Cup. The last South African GP was held at Kyalami in 1993 and F1 has not been present in Africa since. During World Cup 2010, Ecclestone said he would like the sport to return.
OTHER NEWS
=> Dua Kelinci has struck a deal with Real Madrid FC for a local partnership in Indonesia. The 2-year deal, brokered by Total Sports Asia, gives the Indonesian snack producer the right to create joint promotions and use the Real Madrid IP rights in all its brand advertising campaigns and BTL activations. The agreement marks the first sponsorship deal between Real Madrid and a Indonesian company. The Dua Kelinci brand becomes the official sponsor for Real Madrid in Indonesia, preceding nationwide promotional activities to strengthen both Dua Kelinci and Real Madrid brands.
=> Hyundai chairman, Chung Mong-gyu, is to be appointed head of the soccer K-League as officials attempt to address falling interest in the countrys top division. Chung will be formally elected to replace Kwak Chung-hwan who recently left the post. Chung also serves as owner of Busan IPark, one of the Leagues 16 teams. Kwak had been at the helm of the K-League since 2005, stepped down earlier this month stating that he bears responsibility for falling game attendance, TV ratings and decline in corporate support.
=> Delhi Commonwealth Games chief organiser Suresh Kalmadi has hit back at India's new sports minister, describing the decision to sack him as "illegal and arbitrary". Ajay Maken fired Kalmadi and organising committee (OC) secretary general Lalit Bhanot this week to ensure a fair investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the $6bn event held in October. Kalmadi said that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which he heads, had appointed him as OC chief in 2004 and that the sports ministry was not empowered to sack him.
=> German Football Leagues (DFL) member clubs have a record turnover for the 6th consecutive season, despite 1.Bundesliga making an overall loss for the first time since 2003. The figures outline that 36 member clubs generated combined revenues of €2.083 bil for the 2009/10 season, an increase of 21.5% over the past 3 years. The top two divisions recorded income growth in sponsorship, advertising, media and transfers. However, 1.Bundesliga made an overall loss of €78 mil with the League pointing out that just 3 clubs accounted for 93% of the deficit. 1.Bundesliga also achieved a new record for total equity of €534 mil, but liabilities rose to €644 mil. Total revenues for 2. Bundesliga ran to €313 mil, with losses of €25 mil.
=> Premier League chief, Richard Scudamore, has received a £3mil bonus for his work in negotiating a record-breaking set of TV contracts. The payment, which is sure to raise eyebrows, was included in the accounts package sent to the 20 teams in advance of next week's Premier League summit. The cash will be paid over 4 years, and is guaranteed even if Scudamore leaves during that period. Scudamore masterminded the £2bil-plus deals for domestic and overseas rights over the next three seasons, a 50% increase on the bonus Scudamore received for the previous round of TV contracts.
=> V8 Supercars Australia looks set to proceed with a sale of a controlling stake in the business ahead of crucial broadcast rights negotiations. V8 Supercars board will solicit offers for at least 50.1% of the business, which generated A$135 million in revenue last year. Possible buyers include private equity or sports agencies such as IMG and Octagon although the two latter are outside chances to show interest in owning the sport. Channel Seven paid over A$100m for the current 6-year deal (including production), expires in 2012. Ten Network is interested in bidding for the next broadcast rights, although Seven has first and last rights of negotiations.
BROADCAST
=> Australia's Channel Seven experienced a first-week drop in ratings for the Australian Open for the second year in a row. Viewers dropped by 14-17% compared to last year, which was 23-29% lower than 2009. The drop was attributed to increased competition from digital channels, one-day cricket matches and Oprah's Australian television special (which aired in the country last week). Early losses by Australian players did not help ratings. However, Channel Seven did top competitor Channel Nine on five out of seven nights with primetime tennis.
=> The Scottish Premier League will relook the idea of launching a TV channel. A similar plan fell by the wayside in 2002 after it failed to gain support from Celtic and Rangers. SPL has announced the selection of IMG Media to investigate the feasibility. The SPL considered its own pay-per-view channel in 2002 when Sky Sports withdrew from bidding of rights after clubs rejected the company's TV offer. A 2-year deal was eventually agreed with BBC Scotland, which currently owns broadcast rights on terrestrial TV and online. Irish-based pay-TV Setanta won rights in 2008 with a deal worth £125m over four years. Former SPL chief, Roger Mitchell, said that he thinks his successor is doing the right thing by re-examining the proposal.
NEW MEDIA
=> On the day when Yahoo! announced a second round of layoffs in six weeks, Google kicks off 2011 with over 500 hires in Asia Pacific. After cutting 700 employees last December, Yahoo! announced it will further lay off 1% of its global workforce, estimated at about 130 people. Google’ official blog post said 2011 will be "the biggest hiring year in company history", surpassing 2007 when it added 6,000 people to Google worldwide. In Japan and Asia Pacific, Google is planning to hire over 500 people. Google’s display advertising has been a main driver in 2010 and of its China business, with largest advertisers increasing spending by 75%. For Asia, Google would continue to act as an export gateway, allowing Asian businesses to connect with new international clients via export tools such as AdWords and AdSense.
DATA
=> International sports agency, Octagon, launched the 3rd version of ‘Passion Drivers’ research initiative, which, it claims, enables sponsorship clients to get a better understanding of consumers. Passion Drivers launched in 2005 as a tool to enable sponsors to get an insight into motivations of sports and music fans and has been expanded to cover 11 countries on 6 continents and over 30 sports. The second version enabled clients to conduct proprietary research to deduce how each of their consumer segments connects with their sports and Passion Drivers 3.0 goes even further by allowing fan and consumer data to be cross-referenced.
EVENT
=> The English Premier League announced that Proevents has been appointed as official event management partner of the 2011 Asia Trophy, a bi-annual pre-season soccer tournament held in Asia. The 5th edition of the tournament will be held in Hong Kong and sees Premier League champions Chelsea take on champions of the 2010/11 Hong Kong First Division League, alongside Aston Villa and Blackburn, in a knock-out tournament. The announcement is the second such contract which Proevents has secured. In August 2010 the consultancy was also named as the exclusive tour promoter for Chelsea's Asia Tour 2011.
=> The ICC has ruled out the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Eden Gardens in Kolkatta as venue for the India-England ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 match to be held on 27 Feb due to failure to complete stadia work within a specified time for the match. Kolkata will however host its remaining share of matches. The Mumbai Cricket Association received clearance for Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai along with 3 Sri Lanka venues – Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele – subject to minor finishing work to be completed within 14 days. It visited Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 24 January, while Kolkata was inspected on 25 January.
=> Qatar will host the Men's Handball World Championship in 2015, after winning a four-way bidding competition. It is a fist for the Middle East to be selected as host of an international handball tournament and comes off the back of Qatar winning the right to stage soccer's 2022 World Cup. The International Handball Federation met in Sweden and chose Qatar ahead of Norway, France and Poland to host the men's event. The IHF Council also confirmed Denmark as host of the Women's Handball World Championships in 2015. Sweden is presently staging this year's Men's Handball World Championship and Brazil will host the women's event later in the year. Spain and Serbia will be the respective host countries in 2013
=> Badminton Europe has been forced to extend the bidding deadline for its top clubs competition this year after no host was found. Member associations interested in holding the European Club Championships in June and July now have until February 15 to submit their bid to BE. The governing body was hoping to have made its decision already. BE said in a statement that it hopes to allocate the annual event to one of its members, "so that the tradition of crowning Europe's best club can continue." Last year's tournament, in which 21 teams competed, took place in Zwolle in the Netherlands.
=> Power Horse has become the title sponsor the World Team Cup, an ATP World Tour clay court tennis tournament in Düsseldorf. The Austrian energy drinks brand will be given brand exposure around the tournament venue, the Rochus club, and on the official website. The future of the 33-year-old event had earlier been in doubt due to financial difficulties. Power Horse is likely to be contributing around half of the organisers' US$1.85 million total financial commitment. The Power Horse World Team Cup will take place from 15th to 21st May, with Argentina defending their title against seven other national teams.
=> South Africa is putting in a bid for a grand prix in the hope of bringing a F1 race to Cape Town by 2013. The Cape Town Grand Prix Bid Company has a meeting with Bernie Ecclestone to discuss the feasibility of bringing a race to the city's Green Point coastline, with Table Mountain as a backdrop. However, Cape Town authorities cautioned that the costs of the project would be carefully evaluated after the city helped host the 2010 World Cup. The last South African GP was held at Kyalami in 1993 and F1 has not been present in Africa since. During World Cup 2010, Ecclestone said he would like the sport to return.
OTHER NEWS
=> Dua Kelinci has struck a deal with Real Madrid FC for a local partnership in Indonesia. The 2-year deal, brokered by Total Sports Asia, gives the Indonesian snack producer the right to create joint promotions and use the Real Madrid IP rights in all its brand advertising campaigns and BTL activations. The agreement marks the first sponsorship deal between Real Madrid and a Indonesian company. The Dua Kelinci brand becomes the official sponsor for Real Madrid in Indonesia, preceding nationwide promotional activities to strengthen both Dua Kelinci and Real Madrid brands.
=> Hyundai chairman, Chung Mong-gyu, is to be appointed head of the soccer K-League as officials attempt to address falling interest in the countrys top division. Chung will be formally elected to replace Kwak Chung-hwan who recently left the post. Chung also serves as owner of Busan IPark, one of the Leagues 16 teams. Kwak had been at the helm of the K-League since 2005, stepped down earlier this month stating that he bears responsibility for falling game attendance, TV ratings and decline in corporate support.
=> Delhi Commonwealth Games chief organiser Suresh Kalmadi has hit back at India's new sports minister, describing the decision to sack him as "illegal and arbitrary". Ajay Maken fired Kalmadi and organising committee (OC) secretary general Lalit Bhanot this week to ensure a fair investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the $6bn event held in October. Kalmadi said that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which he heads, had appointed him as OC chief in 2004 and that the sports ministry was not empowered to sack him.
=> German Football Leagues (DFL) member clubs have a record turnover for the 6th consecutive season, despite 1.Bundesliga making an overall loss for the first time since 2003. The figures outline that 36 member clubs generated combined revenues of €2.083 bil for the 2009/10 season, an increase of 21.5% over the past 3 years. The top two divisions recorded income growth in sponsorship, advertising, media and transfers. However, 1.Bundesliga made an overall loss of €78 mil with the League pointing out that just 3 clubs accounted for 93% of the deficit. 1.Bundesliga also achieved a new record for total equity of €534 mil, but liabilities rose to €644 mil. Total revenues for 2. Bundesliga ran to €313 mil, with losses of €25 mil.
=> Premier League chief, Richard Scudamore, has received a £3mil bonus for his work in negotiating a record-breaking set of TV contracts. The payment, which is sure to raise eyebrows, was included in the accounts package sent to the 20 teams in advance of next week's Premier League summit. The cash will be paid over 4 years, and is guaranteed even if Scudamore leaves during that period. Scudamore masterminded the £2bil-plus deals for domestic and overseas rights over the next three seasons, a 50% increase on the bonus Scudamore received for the previous round of TV contracts.
Thursday, 27th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Al Jazeera had acquired broadcast rights to the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022, a deal estimated to be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars”. The broadcaster will air games across MENA, including those held in Qatar, which hosts the tournament in 2022. The deal includes cable TV, satellite, terrestrial, mobile and broadband rights. "For both tournaments, I'd benchmark it at US$350 million (Dh1.28 billion)," says one sports marketing observer. Another said that the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar could have boosted broadcast rights value by 20 to 25%. AJS reportedly paid $1bn in 2009 for the rights of sports content broadcast by ART, which included World Cups of last year and 2014. The AJS deal is the first broadcast-rights deal to be struck by FIFA since announcing the 2018 and 2022 tournaments hosts in Russia and Qatar respectively.
BROADCAST
=> Geo Super has been confirmed as the exclusive cable broadcaster in Pakistan for the Cricket World Cup following a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court. Geo Super went to court after the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority withdrew a license it had issued to Geo’s holding company, Independent Music Group, apparently under government pressure, raising prospect that Geo Super could be forced to share coverage with other broadcasters in Pakistan and lose money as a result. The Supreme Court ruled that PEMRA had acted unlawfully and without jurisdiction and directed it to implement the original notification.
=> France Télévisions has bought rights to athletics’ IAAF World Championships in 2011 and 2013 in a deal negotiated by IEC in Sports. IEC and France Télévisions have been in talks for over a year and a the deal means athletics’ flagship event will remain on public-service TV in France. The broadcaster has shown the championships since 1983. IEC had been in talks with two free-to-air broadcasters in France regarding the rights, but viewed France Télévisions as the preferred partner, given its audience reach. Since acquiring the IAAF distribution rights in Europe and Africa at the end of 2009, IEC agreed deals in France with Direct 8 for the 2010 World Indoor C’ships and with Ma Chaîne Sport for the 2010 IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup. France Télévisions will broadcast the 2009 World Championships from Berlin as part of their earlier EBU deal.
=> Meanwhile, CAfrica Sports, US-based company delivering programming to a network of terrestrials in sub-Saharan Africa, has signed a deal to cover athletics’ Samsung Diamond League in 2011. The agreement was struck with IMG Media, which distributes the rights on behalf of the IAAF. As many as 300 million consumers in 20 countries will be able to watch the 14 Diamond League meets this year in Qatar in May. CAfrica Sports has begun its coverage of the Diamond League by airing a 30-week series of highlight shows featuring the best moments of the inaugural 2010 season. CAfrica Sports recently signed a multi-year partnership with North American basketball’s NBA to televise games and original programming across Africa.
CONTENT
=> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has expanded presence in Japan new content distribution deals with Japanese ISP, NTT Plala and Softbank subsidiary, TV Bank. NTT Plala will provide Japanese UFC fans with access to on-demand services, including past UFC pay-per-view events and other UFC programming, while TV Bank will serve as UFC's primary online content distributor, enabling users to access video clips on the internet and via mobile devices.
NEW MEDIA
=> Singapore’s MediaCorp will introduce new interactive services later this year, aiming to change consumers TV habits and access Internet-enabled devices such as PCs, tablets and mobile phones. The service will be free except for premium content which will require subscription. Those who subscribe to premium content will be able to enjoy perks such as tuning in to MediaCorp's radio stations. TV news programmes may come with maps to aid viewers' understanding of the story being presented. Viewers can also access social network applications such as Facebook and store videos or photographs in a "personal locker".
DATA
=> Forecasts indicate that global IPTV subscribers will grow from 44 mil in 2010 to 111.5 mil in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26%. The global service revenue is $17.8 bil in 2010 and is forecast to grow to $47.9 bil in 2014, a compound growth rate of 28%. By 2014, Europe and North America will generate a larger share of the global revenue, due to very low ARPUs in China and India, which are the fastest growing in Asia. Growth is driven by proliferation of triple-play services, improved DSL/fiber broadband capacity, accelerated install time, continued improvement in the quality of service and experience, and additional premium HD content, says Multimedia Research Group (MRG).
OTHER NEWS
=> Lagardère, has raised its operating profit outlook for 2010, expecting its operating profit of core media business for 2010 to be unchanged or down by 5% on 2009, an improvement on the March 2010 prediction that operating profit would decline by around 10% year-on-year and the later forecast of a 5% decline on 2009. Revenues from Lagardère Unlimited, the sports division, were down by 22% last year to €396 million ($541.7 million) and operating profit down 50 per cent to €28 million in figures described by Lagardère as "a more muted performance in 2010 than in 2009." Lagardère is confident of growth potential for its sports division, which includes Sportfive, World Sport Group, IEC in Sports, Upsolut, PR Event and BEST agencies.
=> The FIH has threatened to ban from its competitions any players and national hockey associations that take part in a new proposed league without its permission. World Series Hockey, the brainchild of Nimbus Sport, controversially teamed up with unrecognized Indian Hockey Federation to launch the league. World Series Hockey threatens to compete with plans for a professional Indian league that the FIH has been developing with Hockey India, which the FIH describes as “the only body governing hockey in India.” FIH has said it does not recognise the WSH and any player and any national association participating in the WSH may render that player and NA ineligible to participate in any FIH tournament, including Olympic qualifying tournaments and the Olympic Games.
=> Al Jazeera had acquired broadcast rights to the FIFA World Cups of 2018 and 2022, a deal estimated to be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars”. The broadcaster will air games across MENA, including those held in Qatar, which hosts the tournament in 2022. The deal includes cable TV, satellite, terrestrial, mobile and broadband rights. "For both tournaments, I'd benchmark it at US$350 million (Dh1.28 billion)," says one sports marketing observer. Another said that the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar could have boosted broadcast rights value by 20 to 25%. AJS reportedly paid $1bn in 2009 for the rights of sports content broadcast by ART, which included World Cups of last year and 2014. The AJS deal is the first broadcast-rights deal to be struck by FIFA since announcing the 2018 and 2022 tournaments hosts in Russia and Qatar respectively.
BROADCAST
=> Geo Super has been confirmed as the exclusive cable broadcaster in Pakistan for the Cricket World Cup following a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court. Geo Super went to court after the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority withdrew a license it had issued to Geo’s holding company, Independent Music Group, apparently under government pressure, raising prospect that Geo Super could be forced to share coverage with other broadcasters in Pakistan and lose money as a result. The Supreme Court ruled that PEMRA had acted unlawfully and without jurisdiction and directed it to implement the original notification.
=> France Télévisions has bought rights to athletics’ IAAF World Championships in 2011 and 2013 in a deal negotiated by IEC in Sports. IEC and France Télévisions have been in talks for over a year and a the deal means athletics’ flagship event will remain on public-service TV in France. The broadcaster has shown the championships since 1983. IEC had been in talks with two free-to-air broadcasters in France regarding the rights, but viewed France Télévisions as the preferred partner, given its audience reach. Since acquiring the IAAF distribution rights in Europe and Africa at the end of 2009, IEC agreed deals in France with Direct 8 for the 2010 World Indoor C’ships and with Ma Chaîne Sport for the 2010 IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup. France Télévisions will broadcast the 2009 World Championships from Berlin as part of their earlier EBU deal.
=> Meanwhile, CAfrica Sports, US-based company delivering programming to a network of terrestrials in sub-Saharan Africa, has signed a deal to cover athletics’ Samsung Diamond League in 2011. The agreement was struck with IMG Media, which distributes the rights on behalf of the IAAF. As many as 300 million consumers in 20 countries will be able to watch the 14 Diamond League meets this year in Qatar in May. CAfrica Sports has begun its coverage of the Diamond League by airing a 30-week series of highlight shows featuring the best moments of the inaugural 2010 season. CAfrica Sports recently signed a multi-year partnership with North American basketball’s NBA to televise games and original programming across Africa.
CONTENT
=> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has expanded presence in Japan new content distribution deals with Japanese ISP, NTT Plala and Softbank subsidiary, TV Bank. NTT Plala will provide Japanese UFC fans with access to on-demand services, including past UFC pay-per-view events and other UFC programming, while TV Bank will serve as UFC's primary online content distributor, enabling users to access video clips on the internet and via mobile devices.
NEW MEDIA
=> Singapore’s MediaCorp will introduce new interactive services later this year, aiming to change consumers TV habits and access Internet-enabled devices such as PCs, tablets and mobile phones. The service will be free except for premium content which will require subscription. Those who subscribe to premium content will be able to enjoy perks such as tuning in to MediaCorp's radio stations. TV news programmes may come with maps to aid viewers' understanding of the story being presented. Viewers can also access social network applications such as Facebook and store videos or photographs in a "personal locker".
DATA
=> Forecasts indicate that global IPTV subscribers will grow from 44 mil in 2010 to 111.5 mil in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26%. The global service revenue is $17.8 bil in 2010 and is forecast to grow to $47.9 bil in 2014, a compound growth rate of 28%. By 2014, Europe and North America will generate a larger share of the global revenue, due to very low ARPUs in China and India, which are the fastest growing in Asia. Growth is driven by proliferation of triple-play services, improved DSL/fiber broadband capacity, accelerated install time, continued improvement in the quality of service and experience, and additional premium HD content, says Multimedia Research Group (MRG).
OTHER NEWS
=> Lagardère, has raised its operating profit outlook for 2010, expecting its operating profit of core media business for 2010 to be unchanged or down by 5% on 2009, an improvement on the March 2010 prediction that operating profit would decline by around 10% year-on-year and the later forecast of a 5% decline on 2009. Revenues from Lagardère Unlimited, the sports division, were down by 22% last year to €396 million ($541.7 million) and operating profit down 50 per cent to €28 million in figures described by Lagardère as "a more muted performance in 2010 than in 2009." Lagardère is confident of growth potential for its sports division, which includes Sportfive, World Sport Group, IEC in Sports, Upsolut, PR Event and BEST agencies.
=> The FIH has threatened to ban from its competitions any players and national hockey associations that take part in a new proposed league without its permission. World Series Hockey, the brainchild of Nimbus Sport, controversially teamed up with unrecognized Indian Hockey Federation to launch the league. World Series Hockey threatens to compete with plans for a professional Indian league that the FIH has been developing with Hockey India, which the FIH describes as “the only body governing hockey in India.” FIH has said it does not recognise the WSH and any player and any national association participating in the WSH may render that player and NA ineligible to participate in any FIH tournament, including Olympic qualifying tournaments and the Olympic Games.
Wednesday, 26th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> The German DFB is to sell broadcast rights to its national cup competition separately from national team rights for the first time from 2012 onwards. Proposals by Uefa to centralise broadcast rights for European Championships and World Cup qualifying matches from late 2014 onwards are being discussed with the 53 member associations, and, although no agreement has yet been reached. German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, have a current contract for Germany’s home games and matches from the DFB Pokal in a deal worth €80 million ($108.9 million) per season. In addition to ARD and ZDF, pay-TV Sky Deutschland, pays an average of €18 million per season for rights to all 63 DFB Pokal matches per season from 2008-09 to 2011-12.
=> Negotiations for a new 5-year TV rights deal for Australian Football League are reported to be progressing swiftly, with hopes that a new deal could be signed before the 2011 season starts on March 24. The total value of the new deal, from 2012 to 2016, is expected to near A$1 billion ($1 billion), compared to the present deal worth A$780 million. The existing deal with networks Seven and Ten and with Foxtel expires after the forthcoming season. Nine Network is also reported to be interested in acquiring a share of the rights in the new deal. Seven and Ten presently show two live matches each per round and Foxtel shows a further four under a sub-licensing deal worth A$315.5 million.
BROADCAST
=> Team owners in the Philippine Basketball Association met for the first time in more than a decade on Tuesday, agreeing among other things to keep the TV showing of the games in a free channel. The owners gave league commissioner Chito Salud specific instructions on where they want the PBA to go, and reiterated that the games should still be aired on a VHF channel to ensure the widest viewership possible. Television rights owner, Solar Sports, had informed the PBA of its intension to cease covering the games, starting with the Commissioner’s Cup but the league will hold Solar to air the games on Channel 9, a government-owned station where Solar TV owns the entire primetime slot.
=> There won't be any 3D broadcasts of the upcoming Super Bowl. Fox Sports, owner of exclusive rights to the Super Bowlsaid that at current levels of adoption, there is no business model that makes sense for producing a show as complex as the Super Bowl in 3D. The Super Bowl was one of the first huge television events to be available in HD. To date, the Super Bowl season remains one of the biggest times for new HDTV purchases. But it looks like 3D isn't getting the early adoption treatment. Other sports that have gotten 3D treatment include baseball (MLB All-Star game), tennis (US Open), and golf (The Masters).
EVENT
=> None of India’s top shuttlers will take part in the officially mandatory All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament, starting 1 Feb. Prize money for the Badminton Association of India-recommended tournament is Rs 500,000, but not enough to draw Jwala Gutta, Saina Nehwal, Chetan Anand or V Diju. The BAI rules clearly say that for a player to get national ranking, they have to play in the BAI-endorsed events, especially in the ranking tourney. Clarifications were sought from the secretary general, Dr Vijai Sinha and a few of the secretaries of the BAI. But none of them were willing to face the questions.
=> LG Mobile is to spend Rs400 mil (US$9 million) on its 'LG Mobile Army' campaign to leverage association with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 as the 'official mobile partner'. With the campaign, LG plans to involve 500,000 participants by recruiting 2,500 cadets from 38 cities. For all 49 matches, the LG Mobile Army squad will select 50 fans who will cheer for cricket live at the stadiums. This ‘Mobile Army’ will be selected through auditions in which the cricket fan has to showcase his/her love for the game through a ‘cricket celebration dance’, slogans/chants and for the LG Smartphone buyers there is a special wild card entry.
OTHER NEWS
=> Mohamed bin Hammam called for Sepp Blatter to be replaced as president of FIFA, but refused to confirm whether he would run for the role himself. The Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation has recently dropped heavy hints that he is preparing to perform a u-turn on his earlier pledge that he would not challenge Blatter. The 74-year-old FIFA chief is up for re-election for a fourth four-year term at the helm in June, no other candidates have entered the running. A bid from Bin Hammam looks increasingly likely and he said that Blatter, who joined FIFA in 1975 as technical director, should not be handed another term.
=> Yingli Solar has become the first Chinese sponsor of FC Bayern Munich. The firm, which was also a sponsor of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, will be a partner of the four-time European champions until the end of June 2014. The club will use the deal to help create green initiatives, including the implementation of solar technology at their Allianz Arena home, and to reach out to their fanbase in China, where there are seven Bayern Munich supporters' clubs. According to reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the deal is worth an annual single-digit million euro fee.
=> The German DFB is to sell broadcast rights to its national cup competition separately from national team rights for the first time from 2012 onwards. Proposals by Uefa to centralise broadcast rights for European Championships and World Cup qualifying matches from late 2014 onwards are being discussed with the 53 member associations, and, although no agreement has yet been reached. German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, have a current contract for Germany’s home games and matches from the DFB Pokal in a deal worth €80 million ($108.9 million) per season. In addition to ARD and ZDF, pay-TV Sky Deutschland, pays an average of €18 million per season for rights to all 63 DFB Pokal matches per season from 2008-09 to 2011-12.
=> Negotiations for a new 5-year TV rights deal for Australian Football League are reported to be progressing swiftly, with hopes that a new deal could be signed before the 2011 season starts on March 24. The total value of the new deal, from 2012 to 2016, is expected to near A$1 billion ($1 billion), compared to the present deal worth A$780 million. The existing deal with networks Seven and Ten and with Foxtel expires after the forthcoming season. Nine Network is also reported to be interested in acquiring a share of the rights in the new deal. Seven and Ten presently show two live matches each per round and Foxtel shows a further four under a sub-licensing deal worth A$315.5 million.
BROADCAST
=> Team owners in the Philippine Basketball Association met for the first time in more than a decade on Tuesday, agreeing among other things to keep the TV showing of the games in a free channel. The owners gave league commissioner Chito Salud specific instructions on where they want the PBA to go, and reiterated that the games should still be aired on a VHF channel to ensure the widest viewership possible. Television rights owner, Solar Sports, had informed the PBA of its intension to cease covering the games, starting with the Commissioner’s Cup but the league will hold Solar to air the games on Channel 9, a government-owned station where Solar TV owns the entire primetime slot.
=> There won't be any 3D broadcasts of the upcoming Super Bowl. Fox Sports, owner of exclusive rights to the Super Bowlsaid that at current levels of adoption, there is no business model that makes sense for producing a show as complex as the Super Bowl in 3D. The Super Bowl was one of the first huge television events to be available in HD. To date, the Super Bowl season remains one of the biggest times for new HDTV purchases. But it looks like 3D isn't getting the early adoption treatment. Other sports that have gotten 3D treatment include baseball (MLB All-Star game), tennis (US Open), and golf (The Masters).
EVENT
=> None of India’s top shuttlers will take part in the officially mandatory All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament, starting 1 Feb. Prize money for the Badminton Association of India-recommended tournament is Rs 500,000, but not enough to draw Jwala Gutta, Saina Nehwal, Chetan Anand or V Diju. The BAI rules clearly say that for a player to get national ranking, they have to play in the BAI-endorsed events, especially in the ranking tourney. Clarifications were sought from the secretary general, Dr Vijai Sinha and a few of the secretaries of the BAI. But none of them were willing to face the questions.
=> LG Mobile is to spend Rs400 mil (US$9 million) on its 'LG Mobile Army' campaign to leverage association with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 as the 'official mobile partner'. With the campaign, LG plans to involve 500,000 participants by recruiting 2,500 cadets from 38 cities. For all 49 matches, the LG Mobile Army squad will select 50 fans who will cheer for cricket live at the stadiums. This ‘Mobile Army’ will be selected through auditions in which the cricket fan has to showcase his/her love for the game through a ‘cricket celebration dance’, slogans/chants and for the LG Smartphone buyers there is a special wild card entry.
OTHER NEWS
=> Mohamed bin Hammam called for Sepp Blatter to be replaced as president of FIFA, but refused to confirm whether he would run for the role himself. The Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation has recently dropped heavy hints that he is preparing to perform a u-turn on his earlier pledge that he would not challenge Blatter. The 74-year-old FIFA chief is up for re-election for a fourth four-year term at the helm in June, no other candidates have entered the running. A bid from Bin Hammam looks increasingly likely and he said that Blatter, who joined FIFA in 1975 as technical director, should not be handed another term.
=> Yingli Solar has become the first Chinese sponsor of FC Bayern Munich. The firm, which was also a sponsor of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, will be a partner of the four-time European champions until the end of June 2014. The club will use the deal to help create green initiatives, including the implementation of solar technology at their Allianz Arena home, and to reach out to their fanbase in China, where there are seven Bayern Munich supporters' clubs. According to reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the deal is worth an annual single-digit million euro fee.
Tuesday, 25th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> (Excerpt) Russia’s NTV Plus is close to a US$60 mil deal with the Russian Football Union under which it would obtain broadcast rights to all Russian Premier League games in the 2011-2012 season. Whether any Premier League matches will be free-to-view remains unanswered. Russian Football Union officials maintain that selling TV rights is vital for the country’s leading football clubs, which would receive their share of the pie. If football is broadcast for free, clubs’ incomes are going to be insignificant.”
=> US University of Oklahoma is hoping to launch its own channel this autumn, after talks with Learfield Sports, which holds the university’s multimedia rights, and broadcasters including Fox Sports Net, Cox Cable and ESPN. The university signed a 10-year, $75-million extension of its rights deal with Learfield in Sep 2007. The university claims to have broadcasting infrastructure already in place. The new 24-hour channel will include live and recorded coverage of Olympic sports with the possibility of showing men’s and women’s basketball matches and perhaps occasional American football matches.
BROADCAST
=> Competition among India’s DTH satellite TV operators have resulted in lower subscription costs for cable TV connection in 22 Indian cities. A nationwide decline is seen in average fees levied by cable operators. Pay-TV in India is still dominated by cable TV, with 73% of pay TV homes subscribing to analogue cable services and 2% to digital cable services. There are currently 40,000 local / last mile cable operators (LCOs) in India and between 4 and 6 thousand multi-system operators (MSOs). Only 7 to 10 of the latter are large corporate-backed bodies.
=> US pay-TV, Showtime, will air Manny Pacquiao's defence of his WBO welterweight title against Shane Mosley at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, May 7. Pacquiao and Mosley have never fought with Showtime's involvement, with their major bouts having been aired on a PPV on HBO. Top Rank chairman, Bob Arum, said he hoped national network CBS, Showtime's parent, will become involved in the build-up to the fight. CBS reaches 115 million people while HBO only reaches 30 million. Arum is reportedly also angered at HBO's decision not to air the first title defence of Top Rank’s Miguel Cotto on March 12.
=> F1's global TV audience increased from 520 mil to 527 mil viewers in 2010 with growth in 9 out of the 11 largest markets. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel secured the championship in the thrilling final race of the season, which helped boost viewing across the globe. The 2011 season will see Formula One racing televised in “native” high definition (HD) for the first time, with all of FOM’s broadcast partners offered HD coverage of all sessions. The 2011 F1 World Championship will begin in Bahrain on March 13.
CONTENT
=> MP & Silva has unveiled its inaugural ‘Fight Code’ European kickboxing series, with the opening event to take place in Turin. The new series, launched by MPS and Taipan SrL, will begin in the Italian city on Jan 29, before the next events in Nitra, Slovakia on Feb 5, in Milan on Mar 12 and in Budapest on Apr 30. The 2011 series will feature 10 events and a minimum of 60 fights across two new weight categories: Rhinos (under105kg) and Dragons (under 72.5kg). Each of the 10 events will feature a series of prestige fights, with local stars from the host countries taking on fighters from around the world. MPS will handle high-definition broadcast production, event management and worldwide broadcast rights distribution.
NEW MEDIA
=> On the first birthday of Wi-Tribe, Philippines’ first 4G Wi-Max service provider, has been marked by renewed interest in service expansion from its Qatari telco shareholder, Qtel. Wi-Tribe 4G has attracted 50,000 subscribers to its wireless broadband service but Qtel sees room for growth, given broadband penetration as of 2010 stood at just 17% of a population of about 94 mil. The launch of Wi-Tribe in the Philippines follows similar Wi-Tribe branded WiMax ventures by Qtel and Saudi Arabia’s A A Tukri Group (Atco) in Jordan and Pakistan.
=> The BBC has committed not to use iPlayer as an on demand aggregator or launch its own social network as part of commitments issued to scale back online operations. BBC Online’s service licence budget be reduced by £34m from £137m today to £103m by 2013/14, a move means the loss of up to 360 jobs over the next 2 years. This will be achieved by reducing top-level domains run under BBC Online while a new unified strategy will run 10 distinctive products, including ones dedicated to Sports & iPlayer.
OTHER NEWS
=> With Nielsen Malaysia tracking pay-TV ad spend for the first time, 2010 saw the category command a 20% share of the Adex pie, taking more than RM1.9 bil in ad dollars. Free-to-air and pay-TV advertising put together totaled RM4.8 bil. FTA TV still outpaces pay-TV with a 30% share. Nielsen showed spending across all media jumped to RM7.66 bil in December 2010 compared to 2009's RM6,61 bil. This excludes advertising via Astro's pay-TV platform with newspapers still commanding 40.5% of the Adex and FTA TV close behind at RM2.9 bil. Top-3 advertisers for 2010 (exc. pay-TV ad-spend) are Celcom, DiGi and Maxis totaling RM330 mil.
=> Controversial president of the Indian Olympic Association, Suresh Kalmadi, was sacked as head of the organising committee for last autumn’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, amid alleged corruption in the preparations for and staging of the games. Lalit Bhanot, Kalmadi's deputy, was also sacked by Ajay Maken, India’s new sports minister. Maken said he decided to fire the pair to ensure a fair investigation into the corruption allegations. In November, Kalmadi was sacked from his position in the governing Congress party over the allegations.
=> The World Taekwondo Federation is seeking to retain 'core' status in the Olympic Games. Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the 1988 and 1992 games and became a full medal sport at Sydney 2000 and has been in the Olympic programme since. Although taekwondo is confirmed on the list for the next two Olympics as one of 26 IOC 'core' sports [there will be 28 sports in Rio 2016 with rugby sevens and golf], its place could come under threat for 2020. At its general assembly in 2013, the IOC will vote to drop the number of core sports to 25, with up to 3 additional sports added to the programme for each games.
=> Manchester United has again denied that it is the subject of a takeover approach from Qatar Holding LLC after reported talks about a £1.5bil deal. The Glazer family bought Manchester United in 2005 for £790 million. Qatar Holding has assets of around £40 billion. In June, Sheikh Abdullah al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, completed a buy-out of Spanish top-flight club Malaga, while in December the Qatar Foundation, the charity wing of the ruling family, agreed a €150 million deal to become FC Barcelona’s first paying shirt sponsor.
=> (Excerpt) Russia’s NTV Plus is close to a US$60 mil deal with the Russian Football Union under which it would obtain broadcast rights to all Russian Premier League games in the 2011-2012 season. Whether any Premier League matches will be free-to-view remains unanswered. Russian Football Union officials maintain that selling TV rights is vital for the country’s leading football clubs, which would receive their share of the pie. If football is broadcast for free, clubs’ incomes are going to be insignificant.”
=> US University of Oklahoma is hoping to launch its own channel this autumn, after talks with Learfield Sports, which holds the university’s multimedia rights, and broadcasters including Fox Sports Net, Cox Cable and ESPN. The university signed a 10-year, $75-million extension of its rights deal with Learfield in Sep 2007. The university claims to have broadcasting infrastructure already in place. The new 24-hour channel will include live and recorded coverage of Olympic sports with the possibility of showing men’s and women’s basketball matches and perhaps occasional American football matches.
BROADCAST
=> Competition among India’s DTH satellite TV operators have resulted in lower subscription costs for cable TV connection in 22 Indian cities. A nationwide decline is seen in average fees levied by cable operators. Pay-TV in India is still dominated by cable TV, with 73% of pay TV homes subscribing to analogue cable services and 2% to digital cable services. There are currently 40,000 local / last mile cable operators (LCOs) in India and between 4 and 6 thousand multi-system operators (MSOs). Only 7 to 10 of the latter are large corporate-backed bodies.
=> US pay-TV, Showtime, will air Manny Pacquiao's defence of his WBO welterweight title against Shane Mosley at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, May 7. Pacquiao and Mosley have never fought with Showtime's involvement, with their major bouts having been aired on a PPV on HBO. Top Rank chairman, Bob Arum, said he hoped national network CBS, Showtime's parent, will become involved in the build-up to the fight. CBS reaches 115 million people while HBO only reaches 30 million. Arum is reportedly also angered at HBO's decision not to air the first title defence of Top Rank’s Miguel Cotto on March 12.
=> F1's global TV audience increased from 520 mil to 527 mil viewers in 2010 with growth in 9 out of the 11 largest markets. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel secured the championship in the thrilling final race of the season, which helped boost viewing across the globe. The 2011 season will see Formula One racing televised in “native” high definition (HD) for the first time, with all of FOM’s broadcast partners offered HD coverage of all sessions. The 2011 F1 World Championship will begin in Bahrain on March 13.
CONTENT
=> MP & Silva has unveiled its inaugural ‘Fight Code’ European kickboxing series, with the opening event to take place in Turin. The new series, launched by MPS and Taipan SrL, will begin in the Italian city on Jan 29, before the next events in Nitra, Slovakia on Feb 5, in Milan on Mar 12 and in Budapest on Apr 30. The 2011 series will feature 10 events and a minimum of 60 fights across two new weight categories: Rhinos (under105kg) and Dragons (under 72.5kg). Each of the 10 events will feature a series of prestige fights, with local stars from the host countries taking on fighters from around the world. MPS will handle high-definition broadcast production, event management and worldwide broadcast rights distribution.
NEW MEDIA
=> On the first birthday of Wi-Tribe, Philippines’ first 4G Wi-Max service provider, has been marked by renewed interest in service expansion from its Qatari telco shareholder, Qtel. Wi-Tribe 4G has attracted 50,000 subscribers to its wireless broadband service but Qtel sees room for growth, given broadband penetration as of 2010 stood at just 17% of a population of about 94 mil. The launch of Wi-Tribe in the Philippines follows similar Wi-Tribe branded WiMax ventures by Qtel and Saudi Arabia’s A A Tukri Group (Atco) in Jordan and Pakistan.
=> The BBC has committed not to use iPlayer as an on demand aggregator or launch its own social network as part of commitments issued to scale back online operations. BBC Online’s service licence budget be reduced by £34m from £137m today to £103m by 2013/14, a move means the loss of up to 360 jobs over the next 2 years. This will be achieved by reducing top-level domains run under BBC Online while a new unified strategy will run 10 distinctive products, including ones dedicated to Sports & iPlayer.
OTHER NEWS
=> With Nielsen Malaysia tracking pay-TV ad spend for the first time, 2010 saw the category command a 20% share of the Adex pie, taking more than RM1.9 bil in ad dollars. Free-to-air and pay-TV advertising put together totaled RM4.8 bil. FTA TV still outpaces pay-TV with a 30% share. Nielsen showed spending across all media jumped to RM7.66 bil in December 2010 compared to 2009's RM6,61 bil. This excludes advertising via Astro's pay-TV platform with newspapers still commanding 40.5% of the Adex and FTA TV close behind at RM2.9 bil. Top-3 advertisers for 2010 (exc. pay-TV ad-spend) are Celcom, DiGi and Maxis totaling RM330 mil.
=> Controversial president of the Indian Olympic Association, Suresh Kalmadi, was sacked as head of the organising committee for last autumn’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, amid alleged corruption in the preparations for and staging of the games. Lalit Bhanot, Kalmadi's deputy, was also sacked by Ajay Maken, India’s new sports minister. Maken said he decided to fire the pair to ensure a fair investigation into the corruption allegations. In November, Kalmadi was sacked from his position in the governing Congress party over the allegations.
=> The World Taekwondo Federation is seeking to retain 'core' status in the Olympic Games. Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the 1988 and 1992 games and became a full medal sport at Sydney 2000 and has been in the Olympic programme since. Although taekwondo is confirmed on the list for the next two Olympics as one of 26 IOC 'core' sports [there will be 28 sports in Rio 2016 with rugby sevens and golf], its place could come under threat for 2020. At its general assembly in 2013, the IOC will vote to drop the number of core sports to 25, with up to 3 additional sports added to the programme for each games.
=> Manchester United has again denied that it is the subject of a takeover approach from Qatar Holding LLC after reported talks about a £1.5bil deal. The Glazer family bought Manchester United in 2005 for £790 million. Qatar Holding has assets of around £40 billion. In June, Sheikh Abdullah al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, completed a buy-out of Spanish top-flight club Malaga, while in December the Qatar Foundation, the charity wing of the ruling family, agreed a €150 million deal to become FC Barcelona’s first paying shirt sponsor.
Monday, 24th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Euroleague Basketball has finalised a TV rights deal with the China Sports Programs Network ensuring coverage throughout the country. The 4-year deal came into effect ahead of last night’s Top 16 clash between Regal FC Barcelona and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, which had the largest potential audience of any game in European club basketball history. CSPN is available to 245 million households in six provinces on terrestrial television and 800 million on satellite platforms across China. CSPN has committed to show 5 Euroleague games per week, at least two of which will be shown live, and all games will be simulcast by Chinese mobile phone operator CBC.
=> (Excerpt) The ability of the English Premier League to squeeze vast sums of money out of its product is unrivalled in world sport. The league netted £1.4bn TV rights package in March 2010, providing clubs with an average annual income of £23m until 2013. Games are broadcast in 211 countries by 98 broadcast partners ensuring a potential audience of over 1bil for their multifarious commercial partners.
=> The South Africa Football Association (Safa) are demanding Rand 1 mil (US$141 mil) from the SABC for the right to broadcast Bafana Bafana matches for the next five years. The current deal with the public broadcaster is worth a measly Rand 150 mil and ends on March 31. Safa currently pays the SABC R700 000 worth of production costs for every match Bafana plays. After being pipped by SuperSport to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) rights in 2007, SABC are frontrunners for exclusive rights to Bafana Bafana matches. SuperSport paid Rand 1.6 bil for the PSL rights in 2007.
=> The Ugandan Super League, the top soccer league in Uganda, has signed a domestic broadcast rights deal with Smart TV, the new subscription broadcaster operated by Next Generation Broadcasting. The deal is reported to be worth US$2 mil over 4 years for exclusive rights. 33% of the fee would be spent on TV production of at least two live matches per week plus highlights. Smart TV is willing to negotiate with local broadcasters about sub-licensing rights. Smart TV is set to go live next month.
=> Chile’s state broadcaster, TVN, has won exclusive terrestrial TV highlights to the top two soccer leagues, the Campeonato Nacional Petrobras. Valid for two years, rights kick off with the season’s 2011 Apertura. The deal is thought to be worth US$4 mil per season. Highlight rights were previously with commercial broadcaster Mega, paying US$2 million per year. The TVN deal means that the league will earn close to US$10 mil per season from domestic TV rights. The league receives a base fee of around US$5.4 mil from soccer broadcaster Canal del Fútbol for control of exclusive TV rights and shares revenues above a set threshold with the Chilean Football Federation. In 2011, CdF indicated a share at least $30mil for the 32 first and second division clubs.
BROADCAST
=> ESPN Star Sports has got a Rs 6 billion terror and weather insurance cover for the coming ICC Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from 19 February to 2 April. State-owned General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) is providing the cover which is three times that of the 2010 Commonwealth Games which had an insurance cover of Rs 2 billion. The cover would compensate for any loss in advertising revenue from cancellation due to adverse weather conditions and terror attacks.
=> The Indian cricket team’s 3 back-to-back series victories over Australia, South Africa and New Zealand at home has taken official broadcaster Neo Cricket to the top among the Indian sports channel. As per Tam's annual half hour cumulative ratings, Neo Cricket got 1.8 mil ratings. Following Neo Cricket was Ten Sports with rating of 1.3 mil, while ESPN and Star Sports were at fourth and sixth position with a rating of 643,000 and 130,000 respectively. DD Sports had a rating of 157,000, ahead of Star Cricket and Ten Cricket among others at fifth position. Zee Group’s newly launched cricket channel, Ten Cricket, stood at the 114,000 ratings. Clearly, cricket channels lead the pack with Only DD Sports and ESPN making it to the top five.
=> Television New Zealand is working with Facebook to deliver New Zealand's first "social television" experience. The partnership will integrate online social networking with broadcast content for TVNZ's new channel U. TVNZ launches U, a new commercial free-to-air digital channel, on Mar 13. It features reality and factual entertainment programming, targeted at Kiwis aged 15-24. It will be a commercial operation and will replace the current advert-free TVNZ6. TVNZ's Head of Digital Media and Channels, Eric Kearley said: "It's the first true technology-driven integration of online social media with television in New Zealand."
=> One round remains in the 2010-2011 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, a series enjoying record TV audiences. The 8th and final round of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will take place in Hoogerheide (NED) on Jan 23rd. According to TV analysis company, IFM, the first 3 rounds of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup drew a cumulated worldwide audience of 17.21 million, of which 1.56 million watched one of the seven live broadcasts. Six countries broadcast the race: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In total, more than 83 hours of racing were broadcast during the first three rounds.
=> Spain’s top-tier basketball league, Liga ACB, is to broadcast in sub-Saharan Africa after a deal was agreed between Setanta Africa. The deal covers 50 sub-Saharan Africa countries and includes coverage of one live game per week. Setanta has acquired the rights for the rest of the 2010-11 season with the option of further seasons. The Spanish league will now have strong exposure across Africa with the Setanta Africa deal adding to an agreement with Al Jazeera, the pay-television broadcaster in North Africa and the Middle East.
CONTENT
=> IMG announced that Colin Montgomerie, former world #2 and the captain of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team last year, has been appointed an ‘ambassador’ for Golfing World, the daily golf programming block offered by its IMG Media subsidiary. The daily golf magazine show will be produced 5 days per week, 48 weeks in a year and distributed to 300 mil homes, supported by a digital video player, online and mobile assets, social networking and sponsored in-flight programming. The video player is syndicated across premium golf, sports and newspaper websites, providing professional golf tour highlights. IMG has also developed a new website, www.golfingworld.tv and is set to launch mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and android platforms.
NEW MEDIA
=> According to BuzzCity's latest Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q4, Malaysia achieved a 218% increase in mobile ad revenue compared to 2009, garnering overall growth of 103% in 2010. Compiled between Oct and Dec 2010, data revealed a quarter-on-quarter rise of 12% in mobile advertising worldwide. In Q4 of 2010, India, Indonesia, United States, South Africa, and Kenya emerged as the top five mobile advertising countries. India delivered over 4 bil ads to local audiences and outpaced Indonesia to secure top spot. The index tracks activity across BuzzCity's network including over 2,500 publishers across the globe and findings measure advertiser demand for mobile internet advertising.
=> Japan's switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting is prompting computer manufacturers to come up with new devices that stream digital TV. Fujitsu announced 22 additions to its FMV series of computers that are "designed to meet modern lifestyles", including a number that will replace the TV set. Its Esprimo desktops are equipped with tuners for terrestrial digital TV broadcasts, some able to simultaneously tune in two digital programmes transmitted over terrestrial broadcast, broadcast satellite or 110-deg communications satellite. The new computers will hit shelves in Japan on 20 Jan.
EVENT
=> Red Bull will be getting the Flying Bulls, which is considered the world's best aerobatic flying unit, for the first time in India. The team would be performing in India at the Aero India 2011 in Bangalore, held from 9th to 13th of Feb 2011. The aerobatic team, headed by businesswoman Radka Machova and comprising of 4 pilots, will perform in all 5 days at the Aero India. Initiated in 2001, the team has won FAI’s Nippon Grand Prix, making it officially the leading aerobatics team in the world. Based in the Czech Republic, they have flown in Europe,the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.
OTHER NEWS
=> An AIBA commission has met to discuss all aspects of the sport of amateur boxing, from the rules to officials and the athletes themselves. Key decisions of the commission was proposed implementation of revised scoring system to make boxing events more interesting; removal of 1-second window and the running score will no longer be displayed during the bout. This according to Aiba will discourage passive defense in the closing seconds of a bout by coaches. The result will be a more exciting boxing match for fans, who will see the judges' scores at the end of each round.
=> Sky Sports presenters, Andy Gray and Richard Keys, have apologized after mocking lineswoman during Liverpool match at Wolves. The pair thought their observations on Sian Massey and her understanding of the offside rule during the match at Molineux were being made in private, but their microphones were still on. A transcript and tape of the conversation was leaked to the media. Keys and Gray made their remarks after Massey refused to penalise Raul Meireles for being offside before he set up Liverpool’s first goal. Replays showed that she was right to allow Fernando Torres’s goal in the 36th minute.
=> Euroleague Basketball has finalised a TV rights deal with the China Sports Programs Network ensuring coverage throughout the country. The 4-year deal came into effect ahead of last night’s Top 16 clash between Regal FC Barcelona and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, which had the largest potential audience of any game in European club basketball history. CSPN is available to 245 million households in six provinces on terrestrial television and 800 million on satellite platforms across China. CSPN has committed to show 5 Euroleague games per week, at least two of which will be shown live, and all games will be simulcast by Chinese mobile phone operator CBC.
=> (Excerpt) The ability of the English Premier League to squeeze vast sums of money out of its product is unrivalled in world sport. The league netted £1.4bn TV rights package in March 2010, providing clubs with an average annual income of £23m until 2013. Games are broadcast in 211 countries by 98 broadcast partners ensuring a potential audience of over 1bil for their multifarious commercial partners.
=> The South Africa Football Association (Safa) are demanding Rand 1 mil (US$141 mil) from the SABC for the right to broadcast Bafana Bafana matches for the next five years. The current deal with the public broadcaster is worth a measly Rand 150 mil and ends on March 31. Safa currently pays the SABC R700 000 worth of production costs for every match Bafana plays. After being pipped by SuperSport to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) rights in 2007, SABC are frontrunners for exclusive rights to Bafana Bafana matches. SuperSport paid Rand 1.6 bil for the PSL rights in 2007.
=> The Ugandan Super League, the top soccer league in Uganda, has signed a domestic broadcast rights deal with Smart TV, the new subscription broadcaster operated by Next Generation Broadcasting. The deal is reported to be worth US$2 mil over 4 years for exclusive rights. 33% of the fee would be spent on TV production of at least two live matches per week plus highlights. Smart TV is willing to negotiate with local broadcasters about sub-licensing rights. Smart TV is set to go live next month.
=> Chile’s state broadcaster, TVN, has won exclusive terrestrial TV highlights to the top two soccer leagues, the Campeonato Nacional Petrobras. Valid for two years, rights kick off with the season’s 2011 Apertura. The deal is thought to be worth US$4 mil per season. Highlight rights were previously with commercial broadcaster Mega, paying US$2 million per year. The TVN deal means that the league will earn close to US$10 mil per season from domestic TV rights. The league receives a base fee of around US$5.4 mil from soccer broadcaster Canal del Fútbol for control of exclusive TV rights and shares revenues above a set threshold with the Chilean Football Federation. In 2011, CdF indicated a share at least $30mil for the 32 first and second division clubs.
BROADCAST
=> ESPN Star Sports has got a Rs 6 billion terror and weather insurance cover for the coming ICC Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from 19 February to 2 April. State-owned General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) is providing the cover which is three times that of the 2010 Commonwealth Games which had an insurance cover of Rs 2 billion. The cover would compensate for any loss in advertising revenue from cancellation due to adverse weather conditions and terror attacks.
=> The Indian cricket team’s 3 back-to-back series victories over Australia, South Africa and New Zealand at home has taken official broadcaster Neo Cricket to the top among the Indian sports channel. As per Tam's annual half hour cumulative ratings, Neo Cricket got 1.8 mil ratings. Following Neo Cricket was Ten Sports with rating of 1.3 mil, while ESPN and Star Sports were at fourth and sixth position with a rating of 643,000 and 130,000 respectively. DD Sports had a rating of 157,000, ahead of Star Cricket and Ten Cricket among others at fifth position. Zee Group’s newly launched cricket channel, Ten Cricket, stood at the 114,000 ratings. Clearly, cricket channels lead the pack with Only DD Sports and ESPN making it to the top five.
=> Television New Zealand is working with Facebook to deliver New Zealand's first "social television" experience. The partnership will integrate online social networking with broadcast content for TVNZ's new channel U. TVNZ launches U, a new commercial free-to-air digital channel, on Mar 13. It features reality and factual entertainment programming, targeted at Kiwis aged 15-24. It will be a commercial operation and will replace the current advert-free TVNZ6. TVNZ's Head of Digital Media and Channels, Eric Kearley said: "It's the first true technology-driven integration of online social media with television in New Zealand."
=> One round remains in the 2010-2011 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, a series enjoying record TV audiences. The 8th and final round of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will take place in Hoogerheide (NED) on Jan 23rd. According to TV analysis company, IFM, the first 3 rounds of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup drew a cumulated worldwide audience of 17.21 million, of which 1.56 million watched one of the seven live broadcasts. Six countries broadcast the race: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In total, more than 83 hours of racing were broadcast during the first three rounds.
=> Spain’s top-tier basketball league, Liga ACB, is to broadcast in sub-Saharan Africa after a deal was agreed between Setanta Africa. The deal covers 50 sub-Saharan Africa countries and includes coverage of one live game per week. Setanta has acquired the rights for the rest of the 2010-11 season with the option of further seasons. The Spanish league will now have strong exposure across Africa with the Setanta Africa deal adding to an agreement with Al Jazeera, the pay-television broadcaster in North Africa and the Middle East.
CONTENT
=> IMG announced that Colin Montgomerie, former world #2 and the captain of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team last year, has been appointed an ‘ambassador’ for Golfing World, the daily golf programming block offered by its IMG Media subsidiary. The daily golf magazine show will be produced 5 days per week, 48 weeks in a year and distributed to 300 mil homes, supported by a digital video player, online and mobile assets, social networking and sponsored in-flight programming. The video player is syndicated across premium golf, sports and newspaper websites, providing professional golf tour highlights. IMG has also developed a new website, www.golfingworld.tv and is set to launch mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and android platforms.
NEW MEDIA
=> According to BuzzCity's latest Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q4, Malaysia achieved a 218% increase in mobile ad revenue compared to 2009, garnering overall growth of 103% in 2010. Compiled between Oct and Dec 2010, data revealed a quarter-on-quarter rise of 12% in mobile advertising worldwide. In Q4 of 2010, India, Indonesia, United States, South Africa, and Kenya emerged as the top five mobile advertising countries. India delivered over 4 bil ads to local audiences and outpaced Indonesia to secure top spot. The index tracks activity across BuzzCity's network including over 2,500 publishers across the globe and findings measure advertiser demand for mobile internet advertising.
=> Japan's switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting is prompting computer manufacturers to come up with new devices that stream digital TV. Fujitsu announced 22 additions to its FMV series of computers that are "designed to meet modern lifestyles", including a number that will replace the TV set. Its Esprimo desktops are equipped with tuners for terrestrial digital TV broadcasts, some able to simultaneously tune in two digital programmes transmitted over terrestrial broadcast, broadcast satellite or 110-deg communications satellite. The new computers will hit shelves in Japan on 20 Jan.
EVENT
=> Red Bull will be getting the Flying Bulls, which is considered the world's best aerobatic flying unit, for the first time in India. The team would be performing in India at the Aero India 2011 in Bangalore, held from 9th to 13th of Feb 2011. The aerobatic team, headed by businesswoman Radka Machova and comprising of 4 pilots, will perform in all 5 days at the Aero India. Initiated in 2001, the team has won FAI’s Nippon Grand Prix, making it officially the leading aerobatics team in the world. Based in the Czech Republic, they have flown in Europe,the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.
OTHER NEWS
=> An AIBA commission has met to discuss all aspects of the sport of amateur boxing, from the rules to officials and the athletes themselves. Key decisions of the commission was proposed implementation of revised scoring system to make boxing events more interesting; removal of 1-second window and the running score will no longer be displayed during the bout. This according to Aiba will discourage passive defense in the closing seconds of a bout by coaches. The result will be a more exciting boxing match for fans, who will see the judges' scores at the end of each round.
=> Sky Sports presenters, Andy Gray and Richard Keys, have apologized after mocking lineswoman during Liverpool match at Wolves. The pair thought their observations on Sian Massey and her understanding of the offside rule during the match at Molineux were being made in private, but their microphones were still on. A transcript and tape of the conversation was leaked to the media. Keys and Gray made their remarks after Massey refused to penalise Raul Meireles for being offside before he set up Liverpool’s first goal. Replays showed that she was right to allow Fernando Torres’s goal in the 36th minute.
Friday, 21st January 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> IEC in Sports has been reappointed as exclusive worldwide representatives for broadcast media rights of the ATP Gerry Weber Open (ATP World Tour 250), until 2014. Played in June, the grass court event in Halle, Germany is used by many of the top players as a warm-up to Wimbledon. The event, which has prize money of €750,000 ($1mil), has been part of IEC's tennis portfolio for more than 10 years. Last year, IEC secured contracts to sell the worldwide broadcast rights to 250 series tournaments in Brazil, Stuttgart and Vienna. However, it lost the rights to two 250 series events in Croatia and Chile to MP & Silva.
Champions League Rights - Spain
=> Team Marketing could struggle to increase free-to-air rights fees in Spain for the Champions League from 2012/13 to 2014/15 because of a new broadcasting law governing state television. The law effectively prohibits state television from using taxpayer money to ‘outbid’ commercial broadcasters for television rights of ‘great commercial value. Pubcaster, TVE, presently holds rights to the Tuesday night Champions League first-choice rights, paying €30 million ($40.5 million) per season, while consortium of regionals, Forta, holds first-pick rights on Wednesday nights for €35 million per year.
=> Meanwhile, TVE is expected to report a budget deficit of €66 million for 2010 – close to the amount it spends on its top sports rights contracts, including the Champions League (€30mil) and MotoGP (€20mil). Forta cost the taxpayer €1.86bil in 2010, and its debts for the year total €1.48bil.
=> Commercial broadcasters, La Sexta and Cuatro, both part of the Prisa media group, are both understood to be preparing bids for the Spanish free-to-air rights of the Champions League. La Sexta is not expected to move into profit until next year, and it already holds right for the weekly free-to-air Spanish Liga match, for which it pays over €150mil per season. The channel had aggressively pursued sports rights in the past, snatching F1 away from Telecinco €40mil per year bid.
=> Two-way pay-television auction Mediapro confirmed that it would seek to renew its existing deal for the Champions League pay-TV rights which it is thought to pay close to €50mil per season. The matches are aired on its pay channel, Gol TV, which has over 1.5mil subscribers, only 18 months after launching in August 2009. Prisa TV is also expected to bid for the pay-television rights package. In addition to free-to-air channel Cuatro, Prisa TV also operates a series of premium channels showing sport, including Canal Plus and soccer channel Canal Plus Liga.
NEW MEDIA
=> ESPNcricinfo.com has been revamped ahead of the Cricket World Cup in February after the cricket-dedicated website enjoyed record growth. ESPNcricinfo.com will offer ball-by-ball updates, scores and text commentary as well as recaps and player profiles from every match. The Ashes series between England and Australia and the recent Test series between South Africa and India - the top two-ranked Test sides globally - ESPNcricinfo.com collectively broke the 20m unique user barrier in December. The site is also launching a mobile application for the World Cup.
=> Eurosport has sealed a deal to provide 3D sports video content for Nintendo’s new 3DS gaming console. The two-year, pan-European partnership represents the latest move by Eurosport into 3D, with the broadcaster having been one of the most prominent supporters of 3D development over the past 18 months. As part of the agreement, Eurosport will also extensively promote Nintendo 3DS across Europe on its multimedia communication platforms through TV, Internet and mobile broadcasts.
EVENTS
=> The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and Infront Sports & Media will once again commit to strengthening the unique profile of FIM Superbike World Championship (SBK). The Championship is broadcast in 175 countries and in 2010, TV audiences increased 33% compared to the previous year. With over 3,000 broadcast hours, it reached a cumulative audience of 498mil viewers. Following a website re-launch in 2009 and a comprehensive new media strategy, online interaction with fans has also risen. As a result of these developments, sponsors benefit from a much enhanced visibility and brand exposure - even beyond the actual races.
DATA
=> Research from Companiesandmarkets.com is predicting steady growth for 3D over the next 4 years. In its 3D TV Market & Future Forecast Worldwide (2010-14) report, the analyst expects the 3D TV market to be worth more than $100bil at the end of 2014, driven by worldwide 3D TV unit sales growing at a CAGR of 79.12%. Key drivers of worldwide 3D TV market include multiple initiatives taken by governments, 3D content broadcasters and 3D TV manufacturers.
=> Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) prediction expects 40mil new pay-TV viewers to tune in for the first time over 2011 and that more than 140bil more hours of content will be watched globally. Enhanced viewing will drive a 20% increase in pay-TV revenues with a commensurate $10bil rise in global ad revenue to $191bil. This is the fifth consecutive year of growth, from $174 billion in 2007 to $191 billion in 2011, contrasting sharply with newspapers’ decline in ad revenue from $126bil to $93bil over the same period. The forecast of 6% increase in 2012 would take TV ad revenue beyond the $200bil mark: more than twice as much as for newspapers.
OTHER NEWS
=> Equipment company, Apacs, has announced a 2-year sponsorship extension with Malaysian shuttlers, Gan Teik Chai and Tan Bin Shen. The initial sponsorship deal signed with Apacs came after the two athletes withdrew as elite shuttlers of the Malaysian national team in the 2008 set-up of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM). 2009 saw the duo crowned champions of the Australian Open Grand Prix and runners up of the Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold. Teik Chai and Bin Shen currently play for Malaysian badminton club KLRC.
=> The US Federal Communications Commission has approved the planned merger of Comcast Corporation and NBCUniversal. Disney will not be pleased with the FCC's decision since its own ESPN channel will again get more real competition, not seen since CNN Sports Illustrated folded in May 2002. FOX Sports does program local regional cable sports networks but really has never been an outright competitor to ESPN. Comcast owns sport channel, Versus, the Golf Channel, some Major League Baseball and a raft of regional sports networks around the USA. NBC has the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Notre Dame Football, and the 2012 Olympics.
=> CBS Sports and Turner Sports unveiled the talent roster for their joint coverage of the NCAA Division I, which tips off in March. Turner’s truTV will carry the first four games of the tourney. In accordance with the terms of the $10.8 billion deal hashed out in April 2010, CBS and Turner will share the rights to televise March Madness through 2025. All opening-round through Sweet 16 games will be shown in their entirety on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, marking the first time fans will be able to watch every game on their tourney brackets. Games carried by CBS and the three cable networks will feature uniform logos, titles and musical treatments, which should go a long way toward ensuring a consistent, seamless presentation.
=> Legendary Dutch midfielder, Ruud Gullit, has been made manager of a team in the Russian republic of Chechnya and has left football experts and Caucasus watchers stunned. Analysts found it hard to understand why Gullit, would move to Russian Premier League club Terek Grozny, which finished 12th in Russia's 16-team top division last season. His boss there will be Ramzan Kadyrov, the former rebel fighter, now the Kremlin-backed president of Chechnya. Gullit declined to comment when contacted by CNN, but interviews with two Moscow sports newspapers published him admitting knowing little about Terek Grozny. Gullit said he did not expect to spend much time in the city.
=> IEC in Sports has been reappointed as exclusive worldwide representatives for broadcast media rights of the ATP Gerry Weber Open (ATP World Tour 250), until 2014. Played in June, the grass court event in Halle, Germany is used by many of the top players as a warm-up to Wimbledon. The event, which has prize money of €750,000 ($1mil), has been part of IEC's tennis portfolio for more than 10 years. Last year, IEC secured contracts to sell the worldwide broadcast rights to 250 series tournaments in Brazil, Stuttgart and Vienna. However, it lost the rights to two 250 series events in Croatia and Chile to MP & Silva.
Champions League Rights - Spain
=> Team Marketing could struggle to increase free-to-air rights fees in Spain for the Champions League from 2012/13 to 2014/15 because of a new broadcasting law governing state television. The law effectively prohibits state television from using taxpayer money to ‘outbid’ commercial broadcasters for television rights of ‘great commercial value. Pubcaster, TVE, presently holds rights to the Tuesday night Champions League first-choice rights, paying €30 million ($40.5 million) per season, while consortium of regionals, Forta, holds first-pick rights on Wednesday nights for €35 million per year.
=> Meanwhile, TVE is expected to report a budget deficit of €66 million for 2010 – close to the amount it spends on its top sports rights contracts, including the Champions League (€30mil) and MotoGP (€20mil). Forta cost the taxpayer €1.86bil in 2010, and its debts for the year total €1.48bil.
=> Commercial broadcasters, La Sexta and Cuatro, both part of the Prisa media group, are both understood to be preparing bids for the Spanish free-to-air rights of the Champions League. La Sexta is not expected to move into profit until next year, and it already holds right for the weekly free-to-air Spanish Liga match, for which it pays over €150mil per season. The channel had aggressively pursued sports rights in the past, snatching F1 away from Telecinco €40mil per year bid.
=> Two-way pay-television auction Mediapro confirmed that it would seek to renew its existing deal for the Champions League pay-TV rights which it is thought to pay close to €50mil per season. The matches are aired on its pay channel, Gol TV, which has over 1.5mil subscribers, only 18 months after launching in August 2009. Prisa TV is also expected to bid for the pay-television rights package. In addition to free-to-air channel Cuatro, Prisa TV also operates a series of premium channels showing sport, including Canal Plus and soccer channel Canal Plus Liga.
NEW MEDIA
=> ESPNcricinfo.com has been revamped ahead of the Cricket World Cup in February after the cricket-dedicated website enjoyed record growth. ESPNcricinfo.com will offer ball-by-ball updates, scores and text commentary as well as recaps and player profiles from every match. The Ashes series between England and Australia and the recent Test series between South Africa and India - the top two-ranked Test sides globally - ESPNcricinfo.com collectively broke the 20m unique user barrier in December. The site is also launching a mobile application for the World Cup.
=> Eurosport has sealed a deal to provide 3D sports video content for Nintendo’s new 3DS gaming console. The two-year, pan-European partnership represents the latest move by Eurosport into 3D, with the broadcaster having been one of the most prominent supporters of 3D development over the past 18 months. As part of the agreement, Eurosport will also extensively promote Nintendo 3DS across Europe on its multimedia communication platforms through TV, Internet and mobile broadcasts.
EVENTS
=> The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and Infront Sports & Media will once again commit to strengthening the unique profile of FIM Superbike World Championship (SBK). The Championship is broadcast in 175 countries and in 2010, TV audiences increased 33% compared to the previous year. With over 3,000 broadcast hours, it reached a cumulative audience of 498mil viewers. Following a website re-launch in 2009 and a comprehensive new media strategy, online interaction with fans has also risen. As a result of these developments, sponsors benefit from a much enhanced visibility and brand exposure - even beyond the actual races.
DATA
=> Research from Companiesandmarkets.com is predicting steady growth for 3D over the next 4 years. In its 3D TV Market & Future Forecast Worldwide (2010-14) report, the analyst expects the 3D TV market to be worth more than $100bil at the end of 2014, driven by worldwide 3D TV unit sales growing at a CAGR of 79.12%. Key drivers of worldwide 3D TV market include multiple initiatives taken by governments, 3D content broadcasters and 3D TV manufacturers.
=> Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) prediction expects 40mil new pay-TV viewers to tune in for the first time over 2011 and that more than 140bil more hours of content will be watched globally. Enhanced viewing will drive a 20% increase in pay-TV revenues with a commensurate $10bil rise in global ad revenue to $191bil. This is the fifth consecutive year of growth, from $174 billion in 2007 to $191 billion in 2011, contrasting sharply with newspapers’ decline in ad revenue from $126bil to $93bil over the same period. The forecast of 6% increase in 2012 would take TV ad revenue beyond the $200bil mark: more than twice as much as for newspapers.
OTHER NEWS
=> Equipment company, Apacs, has announced a 2-year sponsorship extension with Malaysian shuttlers, Gan Teik Chai and Tan Bin Shen. The initial sponsorship deal signed with Apacs came after the two athletes withdrew as elite shuttlers of the Malaysian national team in the 2008 set-up of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM). 2009 saw the duo crowned champions of the Australian Open Grand Prix and runners up of the Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold. Teik Chai and Bin Shen currently play for Malaysian badminton club KLRC.
=> The US Federal Communications Commission has approved the planned merger of Comcast Corporation and NBCUniversal. Disney will not be pleased with the FCC's decision since its own ESPN channel will again get more real competition, not seen since CNN Sports Illustrated folded in May 2002. FOX Sports does program local regional cable sports networks but really has never been an outright competitor to ESPN. Comcast owns sport channel, Versus, the Golf Channel, some Major League Baseball and a raft of regional sports networks around the USA. NBC has the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Notre Dame Football, and the 2012 Olympics.
=> CBS Sports and Turner Sports unveiled the talent roster for their joint coverage of the NCAA Division I, which tips off in March. Turner’s truTV will carry the first four games of the tourney. In accordance with the terms of the $10.8 billion deal hashed out in April 2010, CBS and Turner will share the rights to televise March Madness through 2025. All opening-round through Sweet 16 games will be shown in their entirety on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, marking the first time fans will be able to watch every game on their tourney brackets. Games carried by CBS and the three cable networks will feature uniform logos, titles and musical treatments, which should go a long way toward ensuring a consistent, seamless presentation.
=> Legendary Dutch midfielder, Ruud Gullit, has been made manager of a team in the Russian republic of Chechnya and has left football experts and Caucasus watchers stunned. Analysts found it hard to understand why Gullit, would move to Russian Premier League club Terek Grozny, which finished 12th in Russia's 16-team top division last season. His boss there will be Ramzan Kadyrov, the former rebel fighter, now the Kremlin-backed president of Chechnya. Gullit declined to comment when contacted by CNN, but interviews with two Moscow sports newspapers published him admitting knowing little about Terek Grozny. Gullit said he did not expect to spend much time in the city.
Thursday, 20th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE
=> The University of Texas and sports programming giant ESPN have struck a deal that will create a 24-hour TV network. The network will include more than just sports. ESPN will pay the university $300 million over the next 20 years in exchange for the rights to provide programming for the cable network. In addition to sports, the network will air some academic and cultural programming - like musical performances - that originate on the UT campus.
BROADCAST
=> GlobeCast has signed a series of deals for broadcast distribution in 2011, the largest of which is with Total Sports Asia (TSA), rightsholder of the BWF Super Series and ITTF Pro-Tour Table Tennis. GlobeCast has been appointed as official satellite service provider for these events and will provide satellite and fiber delivery from the first 4 events for Total Sports Asia: the ITTF Slovenia Open and England Open and two Superseries events in Kuala Lumpur and Seoul in January. GlobeCast is also involved in the AFC Asian Cup Finals from 7-29 January in Doha, Qatar.
=> State-owned, China Radio International (CRI), has launched a new media broadcasting network – China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN) will be based on CRI Online, the multilingual website run by CRI, and will be a convergence of a website, online broadcaster, network television and mobile service terminal. Featuring 61 languages, it will cater to audiences all over the world. CRI has also launched the Global Broadcasting Media Group (GMG), which will function as the investing and operating platform for CIBN.
=> San Jose-base research firm, MRG, confirmed that IPTV continues to flourish with subscriber and revenue numbers exceeding expectation for the third year: predictions of global IPTV subs to further grow from 44m at the end of 2010 to 111.5m in 2014. Service revenue forecast for global IPTV market in 2010 is $17.8b and is forecasted to grow by an impressive CAGR of 28% to $47.9b by 2014. Europe and North America are cited as likely to generate a larger share of the global revenue, due to very low ARPUs in Asia.
EVENT
=> With the first club in India to host the International Invitation Snooker Tournament 2011, the Cricket Club of India (CCI) plans to revive and get recognition for snooker as a professional sport of India. Prize purse is sponsored by CCI, in partnership with Ballantine and is worth Rs.500,000. Twenty-four players will be competing in the tournament with legends such as Jimmy White, Stephen Lee, Alfie Burden, Reanne Evans, Geet Sethi, Yasin Merchant, Aditya Mehta amongst others.
=> The European Senior Tour will visit China for the first time this year, after the ISPS Handa Senior World Championship was added to the 2011 schedule. The new event, co sanctioned by the European Senior Tour and the Chinese Golf Association, will be played on the World Cup Course, Mission Hills, Shenzhen between March 11 and 13 and have a prize fund of $350,000. The tournament's title sponsor is the International Sports Promotion Society, which encourages golf among disability groups.
=> Bankers, HSBC, expanded its partnership with the Asian Rugby Football Union by signing a 3-year deal to sponsor the Asian Sevens Series, the region's top sevens tournament. The bank has also renewed its sponsorship of the HSBC Asian Five Nations, Asia's premier 15-a-side rugby competition, until 2013. The HSBC Asian Sevens Series consists of 4 events, including 2 ranking tournaments, in Shanghai and Borneo. Rankings are used to determine invitations to tournaments in the HSBC Sevens World Series and potentially, multi-sport events such as the Asian Games and Olympic Games. Rugby sevens has been added to the programme for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
=> 5 nations are in the running to host the Handball World Championships in 2015, after South Korea withdrew its bid. The Korea Handball Federation did not give a reason for the late withdrawal, which leaves France, Poland, Qatar, Norway and Denmark as potential hosts. The International Handball Federation said the five candidates will present their bids for both tournaments in a meeting in Malmo, Sweden on Jan 27, with the winner chosen by the council soon after. Qatar is hoping to stage the competition, traditionally a Europe-based sport, in the Middle East for the first time.
=> CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean) has called for FIFA to award the region an extra place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Qualifying format for the WC2006 awarded CONCACAF 3 places while a fourth was promoted through a play-off against a team from Oceania and WC2010 tournament, the play-off was against a team from South America. FIFA has not yet announced the qualifying format for the 2014 tournament.
OTHER NEWS
=> While hearing World Sports Group's appeal over dismissal of its plea by the Bombay High Court over the termination of media rights agreement by the Board of Control for Cricket India in last year, court has suggested that the two parties sort out their differences amicably. The BCCI had terminated the deal with WSG on grounds of improper conduct, alleging that the facilitation fee of Rs4.25b WSG sought from Multi-Screen Media (MSM) for relinquishing broadcast rights for the Indian sub-continent belonged to BCCI. WSG argued MSMS did not complain that fraud had been committed on them, thus nullifying BCCI’s claim.
=> Further to the Nimbus-Sri Lanka Cricket story last Friday, it has been claimed the SLC could have earned up to $15m from the sale of the SL-India series rights in 2009 although the deal with Nimbus was closed days before the event started. The deal came about when SLC was in dispute with Ten Sports over a renewal of its long-term rights deal. Ten Sports was seeking compensation of $300 million after SLC cancelled a deal covering Sri Lanka’s home matches between 2009 and 2012 on grounds that it was agreed without proper process. However, the dispute was resolved within days of the Nimbus deal being agreed and Ten Sports and SLC signed a new four-year contract, worth around $65 million, which runs until 2013. Nimbus retains coveted rights to India’s home matches and domestic cricket in a 4-year, Rs20b deal which runs until March 2014.
=> National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell has called for “commitment” from warring parties as prospect of a lockout in sport’s richest league looms. NFL owners and players are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to replace the current agreement, which expires Mar 4. But with the prospect of a lockout next season looking very likely, relations between the League and the NFL Players' Association were strained further when the union filed a collusion claim against NFL owners.
=> The Lotus naming dispute is set for a London High Court date next week. Both sides have refused to give any ground, despite Group Lotus chief Dany Bahar saying that he felt the issue could be solved without going to court and Team Lotus chief Riad Asmat retorting that they hadn’t heard anything from Group. Several issues to be resolved include Group Lotus' early termination of a 5-year naming license with Team Lotus and claims that Group Lotus has been using the original Colin Chapman-owned Team Lotus' history in its promotional material. Asmat said Team Lotus is pushing ahead with its 2011 strategy and has no plans for a further rebranding.
=> The University of Texas and sports programming giant ESPN have struck a deal that will create a 24-hour TV network. The network will include more than just sports. ESPN will pay the university $300 million over the next 20 years in exchange for the rights to provide programming for the cable network. In addition to sports, the network will air some academic and cultural programming - like musical performances - that originate on the UT campus.
BROADCAST
=> GlobeCast has signed a series of deals for broadcast distribution in 2011, the largest of which is with Total Sports Asia (TSA), rightsholder of the BWF Super Series and ITTF Pro-Tour Table Tennis. GlobeCast has been appointed as official satellite service provider for these events and will provide satellite and fiber delivery from the first 4 events for Total Sports Asia: the ITTF Slovenia Open and England Open and two Superseries events in Kuala Lumpur and Seoul in January. GlobeCast is also involved in the AFC Asian Cup Finals from 7-29 January in Doha, Qatar.
=> State-owned, China Radio International (CRI), has launched a new media broadcasting network – China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN) will be based on CRI Online, the multilingual website run by CRI, and will be a convergence of a website, online broadcaster, network television and mobile service terminal. Featuring 61 languages, it will cater to audiences all over the world. CRI has also launched the Global Broadcasting Media Group (GMG), which will function as the investing and operating platform for CIBN.
=> San Jose-base research firm, MRG, confirmed that IPTV continues to flourish with subscriber and revenue numbers exceeding expectation for the third year: predictions of global IPTV subs to further grow from 44m at the end of 2010 to 111.5m in 2014. Service revenue forecast for global IPTV market in 2010 is $17.8b and is forecasted to grow by an impressive CAGR of 28% to $47.9b by 2014. Europe and North America are cited as likely to generate a larger share of the global revenue, due to very low ARPUs in Asia.
EVENT
=> With the first club in India to host the International Invitation Snooker Tournament 2011, the Cricket Club of India (CCI) plans to revive and get recognition for snooker as a professional sport of India. Prize purse is sponsored by CCI, in partnership with Ballantine and is worth Rs.500,000. Twenty-four players will be competing in the tournament with legends such as Jimmy White, Stephen Lee, Alfie Burden, Reanne Evans, Geet Sethi, Yasin Merchant, Aditya Mehta amongst others.
=> The European Senior Tour will visit China for the first time this year, after the ISPS Handa Senior World Championship was added to the 2011 schedule. The new event, co sanctioned by the European Senior Tour and the Chinese Golf Association, will be played on the World Cup Course, Mission Hills, Shenzhen between March 11 and 13 and have a prize fund of $350,000. The tournament's title sponsor is the International Sports Promotion Society, which encourages golf among disability groups.
=> Bankers, HSBC, expanded its partnership with the Asian Rugby Football Union by signing a 3-year deal to sponsor the Asian Sevens Series, the region's top sevens tournament. The bank has also renewed its sponsorship of the HSBC Asian Five Nations, Asia's premier 15-a-side rugby competition, until 2013. The HSBC Asian Sevens Series consists of 4 events, including 2 ranking tournaments, in Shanghai and Borneo. Rankings are used to determine invitations to tournaments in the HSBC Sevens World Series and potentially, multi-sport events such as the Asian Games and Olympic Games. Rugby sevens has been added to the programme for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
=> 5 nations are in the running to host the Handball World Championships in 2015, after South Korea withdrew its bid. The Korea Handball Federation did not give a reason for the late withdrawal, which leaves France, Poland, Qatar, Norway and Denmark as potential hosts. The International Handball Federation said the five candidates will present their bids for both tournaments in a meeting in Malmo, Sweden on Jan 27, with the winner chosen by the council soon after. Qatar is hoping to stage the competition, traditionally a Europe-based sport, in the Middle East for the first time.
=> CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean) has called for FIFA to award the region an extra place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Qualifying format for the WC2006 awarded CONCACAF 3 places while a fourth was promoted through a play-off against a team from Oceania and WC2010 tournament, the play-off was against a team from South America. FIFA has not yet announced the qualifying format for the 2014 tournament.
OTHER NEWS
=> While hearing World Sports Group's appeal over dismissal of its plea by the Bombay High Court over the termination of media rights agreement by the Board of Control for Cricket India in last year, court has suggested that the two parties sort out their differences amicably. The BCCI had terminated the deal with WSG on grounds of improper conduct, alleging that the facilitation fee of Rs4.25b WSG sought from Multi-Screen Media (MSM) for relinquishing broadcast rights for the Indian sub-continent belonged to BCCI. WSG argued MSMS did not complain that fraud had been committed on them, thus nullifying BCCI’s claim.
=> Further to the Nimbus-Sri Lanka Cricket story last Friday, it has been claimed the SLC could have earned up to $15m from the sale of the SL-India series rights in 2009 although the deal with Nimbus was closed days before the event started. The deal came about when SLC was in dispute with Ten Sports over a renewal of its long-term rights deal. Ten Sports was seeking compensation of $300 million after SLC cancelled a deal covering Sri Lanka’s home matches between 2009 and 2012 on grounds that it was agreed without proper process. However, the dispute was resolved within days of the Nimbus deal being agreed and Ten Sports and SLC signed a new four-year contract, worth around $65 million, which runs until 2013. Nimbus retains coveted rights to India’s home matches and domestic cricket in a 4-year, Rs20b deal which runs until March 2014.
=> National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell has called for “commitment” from warring parties as prospect of a lockout in sport’s richest league looms. NFL owners and players are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to replace the current agreement, which expires Mar 4. But with the prospect of a lockout next season looking very likely, relations between the League and the NFL Players' Association were strained further when the union filed a collusion claim against NFL owners.
=> The Lotus naming dispute is set for a London High Court date next week. Both sides have refused to give any ground, despite Group Lotus chief Dany Bahar saying that he felt the issue could be solved without going to court and Team Lotus chief Riad Asmat retorting that they hadn’t heard anything from Group. Several issues to be resolved include Group Lotus' early termination of a 5-year naming license with Team Lotus and claims that Group Lotus has been using the original Colin Chapman-owned Team Lotus' history in its promotional material. Asmat said Team Lotus is pushing ahead with its 2011 strategy and has no plans for a further rebranding.
Wednesday, 19th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE
=> The shocking announcement that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup will see FIFA eyeing a considerable increase in revenue. The fact that 82% of the world’s time zones would receive Qatar 2022 during prime time, potentially pushing audiences past the 3 billion mark. Analysis firm, Grant Thornton, claims that football pay TV rights in the region will leap 30%, to US$ 550m but rival firm, Value Partners, think that estimate is conservative, which measures the industry of premium sports TV rights in the region at around US$ 450m in 2010 and by 2014, would have grown 12% to US$ 725m.
=> The Philippine Basketball Association may take over TV production of all games and creating blocks of programming that it would offer to broadcasters. The move came after its TV partner, Solar Entertainment, said that it would not renew its 160-million-pesos ($3.6-million) -per-year rights deal, which expires at the end of the 2010-11 season. Solar currently shows coverage of PBA matches on a slight delay on its Basketball TV cable and satellite channel. Rival ABS-CBN is not likely to agree to a sub-licence any of its basketball content that Solar is keen on unless Solar gives up its option to renew on the PBA contract. ABS-CBN is still smarting from the loss of PBA rights in 2008, when Solar bid 480 million pesos for three seasons over their 350 million pesos. Last year, Solar asked PBA to reduce its annual 160-million-pesos rights fee by 25%.
=> Fox TV Networks, which owns local TV rights to Dodgers games, had reportedly “advanced” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt money to cover the team's operating expenses. Fox’s loan to McCourt is about maintaining control of Dodgers TV rights. The Dodgers deal with Fox runs through to 2013 is reported worth $35-$39 million annually in the final three years of their current agreement.
=> Sportfive has asked for submission of offers for selected broadcast rights in Switzerland and Liechtenstein for the 2014 winter Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games. Broadcast rights are presently held by Swiss pubcaster, SRG SSR, as part of a deal with EBU up to the 2012 Olympics. Sportfive is selling rights for 2014 and 2016 in all territories in Europe (exc. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) after agreeing a deal worth €250 million ($334.7 million) with the International Olympic Committee to end the body’s long-standing relationship with the EBU.
BROADCAST
=> The Australian Open 2011 looks poised for a great viewership year, building on last year's 40 million viewers in Asia. In Malaysia alone, 32% of 15 to 24-year-old men with cable television tuned into the event, a growth of 39% over 2009. This year, Malaysian tennis fans can watch coverage of the Australian Open 2011 on ESPN Player and choose from a more than 260 LIVE games from seven courts over 14 days of competition. The Open's inaugural high-definition broadcast will be available on ESPN HD as well.
CONTENT
=> Rhiti Sports has been picked as Endemol India’s partner for production of new sports-based format shows. A five year joint venture has been agreed between Endemol’s media arm, Inspired Entertainment, and the sports marketing agency which has Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni on its books. The alliance is expected to generate revenues of at least INR 250 crore in five years. Endemol, producer of Big Boss and its international counterpart Big Brother, runs 80 companies in 26 countries and makes a total of 40,000 hours of TV content a year.
NEW MEDIA
=> Portuguese pay-TV, Meo, has launched an interactive service featuring football highlights from the top-flight Liga Zon Sagres. Widget Desporto shows goals, highlights and interviews on each match day, plus information on Uefa Champions League and Europa League. Meo is the commercial name of the pay-television services operated by telecoms firm Portugal Telecom and is the second biggest pay-television operator in the country, with over 770,000 subscribers to its triple-play offer of pay-television, telephony and internet services. It was launched in April 2008.
EVENT
=> The Mahindra NBA Challenge has expanded in to the adult league in season 2. Conducted in partnership with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), 38 teams of men and women, ages 19 and over will receive basketball training over the course of 6 weeks culminating with a weekend-long celebration of basketball with activities from 24-26. With a 25% hike in participation, the program expanded to 4 divisions as compared to the two previously.
OTHER NEWS
=> The Bombay High Court has extended the stay on issuing an ITT for global broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League. The rights under dispute for territories excluding the Indian subcontinent rights, which are held by MSM Sony. The stay was extended after World Sport Group (WSG) had challenged the dismissal of its plea against BCCI's decision to terminate their contract. WSG was given telecast rights of all IPL matches by BCCI in Jan 2008 and WSG's claim that a deal it has with MSM are independent of each other. The HC division bench has asked WSG to clarify whether the two contracts were independent of each other.
=> India’s MS Gill & Jaipal Reddy, Sports and Urban Development minister respectively, are likely to be dismissed from Cabinet for the mismanagement of sports and the shambolic oversight of irregularities in the Commonwealth Games infrastructure. Gill had taken certain positions vis-à-vis the autonomy of the National Sports Federations which go against the Olympic Charter and IOC has said that if this continues, it would be forced to issue a ban on India participating in international sports.
=> Spanish agency, Mediapro has won a battle for control of club soccer rights after reaching a landmark agreement in insolvency proceedings of a subsidiary that holds the media rights to domestic Liga matches. Mediaproducción SL, holds media rights to 40 of the 42 first and second division Liga clubs, will exit bankruptcy protection in the next few months after all its creditors but one approved its proposed settlement agreement. Mediaproducción was put into administration, delaying the payment of a €106-million court-imposed fine to Sogecable for another bitter rights battle. The strategy was seen as a "brilliant tactical move".
=> The European Commission called on sports bodies to establish mechanisms for the collective sale of media rights, in a radical departure from the trend of a few years ago when it appeared to be encouraging the individual sale of rights. The commission acknowledged that collective selling of media rights “inherently restricts competition but argued that collective selling “is a good example of financial solidarity and redistribution mechanisms within sports” whereby grassroots sport can be supported financially by elite sport through the redistribution of media revenues.
=> The shocking announcement that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup will see FIFA eyeing a considerable increase in revenue. The fact that 82% of the world’s time zones would receive Qatar 2022 during prime time, potentially pushing audiences past the 3 billion mark. Analysis firm, Grant Thornton, claims that football pay TV rights in the region will leap 30%, to US$ 550m but rival firm, Value Partners, think that estimate is conservative, which measures the industry of premium sports TV rights in the region at around US$ 450m in 2010 and by 2014, would have grown 12% to US$ 725m.
=> The Philippine Basketball Association may take over TV production of all games and creating blocks of programming that it would offer to broadcasters. The move came after its TV partner, Solar Entertainment, said that it would not renew its 160-million-pesos ($3.6-million) -per-year rights deal, which expires at the end of the 2010-11 season. Solar currently shows coverage of PBA matches on a slight delay on its Basketball TV cable and satellite channel. Rival ABS-CBN is not likely to agree to a sub-licence any of its basketball content that Solar is keen on unless Solar gives up its option to renew on the PBA contract. ABS-CBN is still smarting from the loss of PBA rights in 2008, when Solar bid 480 million pesos for three seasons over their 350 million pesos. Last year, Solar asked PBA to reduce its annual 160-million-pesos rights fee by 25%.
=> Fox TV Networks, which owns local TV rights to Dodgers games, had reportedly “advanced” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt money to cover the team's operating expenses. Fox’s loan to McCourt is about maintaining control of Dodgers TV rights. The Dodgers deal with Fox runs through to 2013 is reported worth $35-$39 million annually in the final three years of their current agreement.
=> Sportfive has asked for submission of offers for selected broadcast rights in Switzerland and Liechtenstein for the 2014 winter Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games. Broadcast rights are presently held by Swiss pubcaster, SRG SSR, as part of a deal with EBU up to the 2012 Olympics. Sportfive is selling rights for 2014 and 2016 in all territories in Europe (exc. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) after agreeing a deal worth €250 million ($334.7 million) with the International Olympic Committee to end the body’s long-standing relationship with the EBU.
BROADCAST
=> The Australian Open 2011 looks poised for a great viewership year, building on last year's 40 million viewers in Asia. In Malaysia alone, 32% of 15 to 24-year-old men with cable television tuned into the event, a growth of 39% over 2009. This year, Malaysian tennis fans can watch coverage of the Australian Open 2011 on ESPN Player and choose from a more than 260 LIVE games from seven courts over 14 days of competition. The Open's inaugural high-definition broadcast will be available on ESPN HD as well.
CONTENT
=> Rhiti Sports has been picked as Endemol India’s partner for production of new sports-based format shows. A five year joint venture has been agreed between Endemol’s media arm, Inspired Entertainment, and the sports marketing agency which has Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni on its books. The alliance is expected to generate revenues of at least INR 250 crore in five years. Endemol, producer of Big Boss and its international counterpart Big Brother, runs 80 companies in 26 countries and makes a total of 40,000 hours of TV content a year.
NEW MEDIA
=> Portuguese pay-TV, Meo, has launched an interactive service featuring football highlights from the top-flight Liga Zon Sagres. Widget Desporto shows goals, highlights and interviews on each match day, plus information on Uefa Champions League and Europa League. Meo is the commercial name of the pay-television services operated by telecoms firm Portugal Telecom and is the second biggest pay-television operator in the country, with over 770,000 subscribers to its triple-play offer of pay-television, telephony and internet services. It was launched in April 2008.
EVENT
=> The Mahindra NBA Challenge has expanded in to the adult league in season 2. Conducted in partnership with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), 38 teams of men and women, ages 19 and over will receive basketball training over the course of 6 weeks culminating with a weekend-long celebration of basketball with activities from 24-26. With a 25% hike in participation, the program expanded to 4 divisions as compared to the two previously.
OTHER NEWS
=> The Bombay High Court has extended the stay on issuing an ITT for global broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League. The rights under dispute for territories excluding the Indian subcontinent rights, which are held by MSM Sony. The stay was extended after World Sport Group (WSG) had challenged the dismissal of its plea against BCCI's decision to terminate their contract. WSG was given telecast rights of all IPL matches by BCCI in Jan 2008 and WSG's claim that a deal it has with MSM are independent of each other. The HC division bench has asked WSG to clarify whether the two contracts were independent of each other.
=> India’s MS Gill & Jaipal Reddy, Sports and Urban Development minister respectively, are likely to be dismissed from Cabinet for the mismanagement of sports and the shambolic oversight of irregularities in the Commonwealth Games infrastructure. Gill had taken certain positions vis-à-vis the autonomy of the National Sports Federations which go against the Olympic Charter and IOC has said that if this continues, it would be forced to issue a ban on India participating in international sports.
=> Spanish agency, Mediapro has won a battle for control of club soccer rights after reaching a landmark agreement in insolvency proceedings of a subsidiary that holds the media rights to domestic Liga matches. Mediaproducción SL, holds media rights to 40 of the 42 first and second division Liga clubs, will exit bankruptcy protection in the next few months after all its creditors but one approved its proposed settlement agreement. Mediaproducción was put into administration, delaying the payment of a €106-million court-imposed fine to Sogecable for another bitter rights battle. The strategy was seen as a "brilliant tactical move".
=> The European Commission called on sports bodies to establish mechanisms for the collective sale of media rights, in a radical departure from the trend of a few years ago when it appeared to be encouraging the individual sale of rights. The commission acknowledged that collective selling of media rights “inherently restricts competition but argued that collective selling “is a good example of financial solidarity and redistribution mechanisms within sports” whereby grassroots sport can be supported financially by elite sport through the redistribution of media revenues.
Tuesday, 18th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE
=> US national network, CBS, has extended its contract to broadcast the US Open Tennis Championship until the end-2014 in a deal with the United States Tennis Association that is reported to represent a slight increase on the present deal, which expires after this year’s event and is worth between $20 and $25 million a year. The new 3-year deal maintains the present schedule. CBS is understood to be paying less for the rights than the $33.7 million that it paid in 2004, and the $30 million a season it paid for the next four seasons. ESPN and the Tennis Channel also have deals to show the US Open on cable through to the end of the 2014 event.
=> Vietnam’s DTH broadcaster, K+, is trying to quell the anger of football fans about premium content charges of its football coverage. K+, which launched in Jan 2010, has already been forced to share Barclays Premier League (BPL) rights with local stations after it reportedly paid US$10 million for three years’ exclusivity. Vietnam entered the current BPL football season with an unusual share agreement that gave K+ exclusive media rights to Sunday BPL matches, and shared the rest of the matches across other pay- and free-TV platforms on a non-exclusive basis.
=> Vietnamese cable operator, Audio Vision Global has sub-licensed rights to the top-tier V-League for the new season. State-owned, VTV, and its subsidiary cablecaster, Vietnam Cable Television, have sub-licensed rights from AVG before the 2011 season begins this week. VTV will show 20 matches while VCTV will show 38 games. AVG recently agreed a 20-year TV rights deal for the V-League with the Vietnam Football Federation beginning with the 2011 season and is worth a reported VND6 billion in the first year, with the fee rising each season thereafter.
=> In Spain, pay-TV, Canal+’s sister company Sogecable, the rights-buying arm formerly owned by media group Prisa, but now controlled by commercial broadcaster Telecinco, holds Canary Island club, Tenerife’s media rights in a three-year contract running from 2009-10. It pays €3 million per season for the club’s rights, which would rise to €14 million if the club is promoted. Meanwhile, Spanish regional public-service broadcasters, grouped under the Forta organisation, have spent a combined €35 million per season for the rights to a weekly Uefa Champions League match.
BROADCAST
=> Thailand’s cable and satellite households rose to over 10 million at the end of 2010. The new Thailand in View 2011 report by Casbaa puts the kingdom at almost 50% pay-TV penetration and number of cable/satellite households level with terrestrial homes. Experts say that Thailand will be antenna-free in 3 to 5 years. Cable and satellite households are almost four times the 2.67 million reported by Nielsen in 2007, and follows three years of huge growth to 9.33 million in the middle of 2010. Between 2007 and 2010, cable and satellite TV viewership grew averagely 52% per year.
=> JV between host broadcasting company HBS and IMG, International Games Broadcast Services, has said plans are well advanced for the Asian Winter Games, which begin in Kazakhstan later this month. IGBS, first formed to host broadcast the Asian Games in Doha in 2006, signed an agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia last year to facilitate television coverage of the games, which will take place in Astana and Almaty. Host broadcast of the games will cover all 11 sports, the opening and closing ceremonies, with between 13 and 32 high definition cameras covering every event across all 10 venues.
NEW MEDIA
=> Malaysia enters 2011 on the global map of mobile games users, according to mobile media company, BuzzCity. Malaysia now ranks 12th globally in terms of mobile games traffic, with 97,000 unique users downloading 67,000 games in November 2010. Top phones favoured by Malaysian gamers are Nokia with 74.14% of the market and SonyEricsson with 31.19%. However, average download was low at 0.74 games per user (compared to the global average of 3.75 games/user), although Malaysian users view more pages than others (8 pgs vs 5 pgs per user globally), as they are usually browsing for more relevant content to download.
EVENT
=> The final of squash’s ATCO PSA World Series Finals had to be abandoned at the weekend when the inflatable structure in which it was to be held at the Queen’s Club in London became unsafe. However the Professional Squash Association pledged to restage the event as soon as possible. Alex Gough, the PSA’s chief executive, said: “The PSA is committed to delivering a fantastic finale to what has been a world class event. We look forward to announcing the date as soon as possible.” It is understood there were fears that there were structural deficiencies which sparked safety concerns.
=> ASEAN (Assoc. of Southeast Asian Nations) held preliminary discussions over a joint bid to host soccer's Fifa World Cup in 2030. The proposed bid is seen as a means to "use sport to create an Asean identity." Asean was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, and over the years has been expanded to include Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam. China is also seen as an attractive option for Fifa, soccer's world governing body, as one of the few so-far unconquered soccer territories.
=> Cycling’s Le Tour de Langkawi (LTDL) has announced Proton will return as official car provider for the 2011 edition. The Malaysian automaker will provide official cars for use during the event. Proton will also present the coveted blue jersey, which will be awarded to the best sprinter of the race. Established in 1996, Asia’s largest annual stage race, will cover a total distance of 1315.4 km. Venezuelan rider José Rujano is defending champion. The 2011 event takes place from 21st Jan to 1st Feb.
=> US national network, CBS, has extended its contract to broadcast the US Open Tennis Championship until the end-2014 in a deal with the United States Tennis Association that is reported to represent a slight increase on the present deal, which expires after this year’s event and is worth between $20 and $25 million a year. The new 3-year deal maintains the present schedule. CBS is understood to be paying less for the rights than the $33.7 million that it paid in 2004, and the $30 million a season it paid for the next four seasons. ESPN and the Tennis Channel also have deals to show the US Open on cable through to the end of the 2014 event.
=> Vietnam’s DTH broadcaster, K+, is trying to quell the anger of football fans about premium content charges of its football coverage. K+, which launched in Jan 2010, has already been forced to share Barclays Premier League (BPL) rights with local stations after it reportedly paid US$10 million for three years’ exclusivity. Vietnam entered the current BPL football season with an unusual share agreement that gave K+ exclusive media rights to Sunday BPL matches, and shared the rest of the matches across other pay- and free-TV platforms on a non-exclusive basis.
=> Vietnamese cable operator, Audio Vision Global has sub-licensed rights to the top-tier V-League for the new season. State-owned, VTV, and its subsidiary cablecaster, Vietnam Cable Television, have sub-licensed rights from AVG before the 2011 season begins this week. VTV will show 20 matches while VCTV will show 38 games. AVG recently agreed a 20-year TV rights deal for the V-League with the Vietnam Football Federation beginning with the 2011 season and is worth a reported VND6 billion in the first year, with the fee rising each season thereafter.
=> In Spain, pay-TV, Canal+’s sister company Sogecable, the rights-buying arm formerly owned by media group Prisa, but now controlled by commercial broadcaster Telecinco, holds Canary Island club, Tenerife’s media rights in a three-year contract running from 2009-10. It pays €3 million per season for the club’s rights, which would rise to €14 million if the club is promoted. Meanwhile, Spanish regional public-service broadcasters, grouped under the Forta organisation, have spent a combined €35 million per season for the rights to a weekly Uefa Champions League match.
BROADCAST
=> Thailand’s cable and satellite households rose to over 10 million at the end of 2010. The new Thailand in View 2011 report by Casbaa puts the kingdom at almost 50% pay-TV penetration and number of cable/satellite households level with terrestrial homes. Experts say that Thailand will be antenna-free in 3 to 5 years. Cable and satellite households are almost four times the 2.67 million reported by Nielsen in 2007, and follows three years of huge growth to 9.33 million in the middle of 2010. Between 2007 and 2010, cable and satellite TV viewership grew averagely 52% per year.
=> JV between host broadcasting company HBS and IMG, International Games Broadcast Services, has said plans are well advanced for the Asian Winter Games, which begin in Kazakhstan later this month. IGBS, first formed to host broadcast the Asian Games in Doha in 2006, signed an agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia last year to facilitate television coverage of the games, which will take place in Astana and Almaty. Host broadcast of the games will cover all 11 sports, the opening and closing ceremonies, with between 13 and 32 high definition cameras covering every event across all 10 venues.
NEW MEDIA
=> Malaysia enters 2011 on the global map of mobile games users, according to mobile media company, BuzzCity. Malaysia now ranks 12th globally in terms of mobile games traffic, with 97,000 unique users downloading 67,000 games in November 2010. Top phones favoured by Malaysian gamers are Nokia with 74.14% of the market and SonyEricsson with 31.19%. However, average download was low at 0.74 games per user (compared to the global average of 3.75 games/user), although Malaysian users view more pages than others (8 pgs vs 5 pgs per user globally), as they are usually browsing for more relevant content to download.
EVENT
=> The final of squash’s ATCO PSA World Series Finals had to be abandoned at the weekend when the inflatable structure in which it was to be held at the Queen’s Club in London became unsafe. However the Professional Squash Association pledged to restage the event as soon as possible. Alex Gough, the PSA’s chief executive, said: “The PSA is committed to delivering a fantastic finale to what has been a world class event. We look forward to announcing the date as soon as possible.” It is understood there were fears that there were structural deficiencies which sparked safety concerns.
=> ASEAN (Assoc. of Southeast Asian Nations) held preliminary discussions over a joint bid to host soccer's Fifa World Cup in 2030. The proposed bid is seen as a means to "use sport to create an Asean identity." Asean was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, and over the years has been expanded to include Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam. China is also seen as an attractive option for Fifa, soccer's world governing body, as one of the few so-far unconquered soccer territories.
=> Cycling’s Le Tour de Langkawi (LTDL) has announced Proton will return as official car provider for the 2011 edition. The Malaysian automaker will provide official cars for use during the event. Proton will also present the coveted blue jersey, which will be awarded to the best sprinter of the race. Established in 1996, Asia’s largest annual stage race, will cover a total distance of 1315.4 km. Venezuelan rider José Rujano is defending champion. The 2011 event takes place from 21st Jan to 1st Feb.
Monday, 17th January 2011
RIGHTS FEE
=> IEC in Sports has ended negotiations with German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, over rights to the IAAF World Athletics Series, including the 2011 event in Daegu, South Korea. ARD and ZDF were willing to offer a maximum of €6 million (US$8 million) for the IAAF World Athletics Series from 2011-13, including the Moscow event in 2013, well below IEC’s asking price of around €15 million. In comparison, ARD and ZDF paid over €20 million for the previous IAAF rights package that included the 2007 and 2009 World Championships.
=> Belgium’s Flemish pubcaster, VRT, said it will not renew its highlights rights for the top-tier Jupiler Pro League when its deal expires at the end of this season because of government directive to cut costs. Telecom, Belgacom, paid €45.7 million ($61.3 million) a year for the League rights from 2008-09 to 2010-11, and sub-licensed highlights rights to VRT and French-language pubcaster, RTBF, for €8 million a season. Flemish-language commercial broadcaster, VT4, has expressed interest in the League rights from 2011-12 onwards.
BROADCAST
=> Singapore authorities have concluded there is not enough evidence for formal action against pay TV retailers who have signed last-minute exclusive deals before new rules requiring telcos to share exclusive content kicked in last year. In April, Singapore's rival pay-TV operators, SingTel and StarHub, were asked to provide authorities with relevant information on whether long-term exclusive contracts were signed before the implementation of the cross-carriage agreement. Under the new law, pay TV providers with broadcast rights to any programme must cross-carry each other's content. This means consumers no longer need multiple set-top boxes to watch what they want. The rule applies to any contract signed or renewed from 12 March last year.
EVENT
=> Powerboat P1 Management, has presented a new boat which will feature in its revamped P1 SuperStock National Championships in 2011. The boats will compete in P1 Superstock National Championships in the UK, USA and Norway this year as PP1 pushes ahead with plans for offshore national, continental and world championships based on the format. The promoter has been working with Endemol Sport to devise TV concepts for various series around the world with plans to launch new championships in Asia and the Middle East in early 2012 and continental championships at the end of that year, with a world championship earmarked for 2014 at the earliest.
=> International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has asked FIFA to hold talks with the governing body before making any decision on whether to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the winter. FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted for the first time over the weekend that he “expects” the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be staged in the winter due to concerns over the stifling heat in the summer months for players. However, Rogge is concerned about the impact of such a move on the Winter Olympics that year, which are likely to take place in January and February.
=> Meanwhile, divisions within FIFA are beginning to emerge over the timing of the 2022 World Cup to be played in Qatar. Qatari, Mohammed Bin Hammam, who is FIFA executive committee member and president of the Asian Football Confederation, has ruled out moving the competition from summer to winter or sharing matches around the Gulf region, as has been proposed. Sepp Blatter said last week that he expects the 2022 World Cup to be held in January or the end of the year, rather than the traditional months of June and July, in a bid to combat summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius in the Middle East country.
OTHER NEWS
=> With money coming in from two contending sponsors for cycling events, the Cycling Federation of India is now free to pursue its plans of spreading the cycling passion across the country. Sports Management company, ID Sports, and sports broadcasting company, Sport 18, are vying with each other for the financial control of the sport, CFI has made it known to both its pay and use the events, six on all, both national and international, over the next one year. Leveraging its clout, ID Sports has bagged most of the international cycling events in the country from the UCI, and the tussle is on for bagging the national events.
=> The row over tenure and age of sports leaders in India could result in a ban on Indian teams competing in Olympic and other sporting events, warned the International Olympic Committee. The IOC had believed that it reached an agreement with the Indian government last year where it would respect the autonomy of the Indian Olympic Association and the national federations which it governs. However, the government has continued to press for the restrictions.
=> The FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 will feature a record 512 women’s matches played, more than half of which were qualifiers for the World Cup this summer. The men’s teams of 185 of FIFA’s 208 member associations played at least one international 'A' match, while 141 women’s teams also made at least one appearance – another new record. Kuwait played the most men’s matches last year (23), while China PR were the most active women’s team (22). The average number of matches per team in the men’s game (8.7) was much lower than in the previous year, while in the women’s game it had gone up slightly (7.3). The men's record number of games is 1,065 matches in 2008 and the same year saw the previous women's record of 364 games. In 2009, the women played 304 matches and the men 850.
DATA HEAD
Pay-TV Revenues Boosts 2010 World TV Market
After stagnation in 2009, the world TV market rebounded in 2010 with a sustained annual growth of 7.1%. Idate’s “World TV Markets” report measured global market reaching € 289.2 billion compared with 2009. Idate points out that until 2008, advertising revenue generated 47% of the sector's total, compared to 44% for paid TV and 9.4% for public funding. But in 2009, the financial crisis made the situation reverse.
The global TV market’s growth was due a rise in pay-TV revenue (+8.4%), with ad revenue rising at a slower rate (+5.8%). In 2010, paid television accounted for 48% and 43% for advertising. Public financing did rise by 6.9% in 2010 but still accounts for less than 10% of the global television market’s income. In the years to come, Idate predicts this trend will become more pronounced and estimates that paid television should generate more than 49% of revenue of the worldwide television market by 2014 with global revenues reaching €355 billon.
Geographical breakdown shows the US remains the largest TV market in the world with a turnover of €103 billion in 2010, rising 4.5% in a year after posting a slight dip (-0.7%) in 2009. The North American region’s share of the global market inched back to 37% in 2010 compared to 38% in 2009. Europe comes as the second largest regional market, with a turnover of €84.4 billion in 2010, a rise of 6.6% compared to 2009. The United Kingdom, Germany and France are the heavyweights in the region and together represent more than half (56%) of the region's revenue. Europe’s share of the global market stagnated at 29%.
Asia/Pacific recorded a great growth in its TV market of 9.1% in 2010, while its share of the global market rose by 0.4 points to 22.3%. Heavyweights are Japan (+ 3.9 %), India (+13,3 %) and China (+12,2%). Latin America displayed a good level of growth in its TV market, with an increase of 12.8%. The smallest regional market, Africa/Middle East displayed the greatest growth in its TV market, with an increase of 16.9% compared to 2009. Its share of the global market is increasing to 3.6% in 2010, compared to 3.3% in 2009.
=> IEC in Sports has ended negotiations with German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, over rights to the IAAF World Athletics Series, including the 2011 event in Daegu, South Korea. ARD and ZDF were willing to offer a maximum of €6 million (US$8 million) for the IAAF World Athletics Series from 2011-13, including the Moscow event in 2013, well below IEC’s asking price of around €15 million. In comparison, ARD and ZDF paid over €20 million for the previous IAAF rights package that included the 2007 and 2009 World Championships.
=> Belgium’s Flemish pubcaster, VRT, said it will not renew its highlights rights for the top-tier Jupiler Pro League when its deal expires at the end of this season because of government directive to cut costs. Telecom, Belgacom, paid €45.7 million ($61.3 million) a year for the League rights from 2008-09 to 2010-11, and sub-licensed highlights rights to VRT and French-language pubcaster, RTBF, for €8 million a season. Flemish-language commercial broadcaster, VT4, has expressed interest in the League rights from 2011-12 onwards.
BROADCAST
=> Singapore authorities have concluded there is not enough evidence for formal action against pay TV retailers who have signed last-minute exclusive deals before new rules requiring telcos to share exclusive content kicked in last year. In April, Singapore's rival pay-TV operators, SingTel and StarHub, were asked to provide authorities with relevant information on whether long-term exclusive contracts were signed before the implementation of the cross-carriage agreement. Under the new law, pay TV providers with broadcast rights to any programme must cross-carry each other's content. This means consumers no longer need multiple set-top boxes to watch what they want. The rule applies to any contract signed or renewed from 12 March last year.
EVENT
=> Powerboat P1 Management, has presented a new boat which will feature in its revamped P1 SuperStock National Championships in 2011. The boats will compete in P1 Superstock National Championships in the UK, USA and Norway this year as PP1 pushes ahead with plans for offshore national, continental and world championships based on the format. The promoter has been working with Endemol Sport to devise TV concepts for various series around the world with plans to launch new championships in Asia and the Middle East in early 2012 and continental championships at the end of that year, with a world championship earmarked for 2014 at the earliest.
=> International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has asked FIFA to hold talks with the governing body before making any decision on whether to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the winter. FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted for the first time over the weekend that he “expects” the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be staged in the winter due to concerns over the stifling heat in the summer months for players. However, Rogge is concerned about the impact of such a move on the Winter Olympics that year, which are likely to take place in January and February.
=> Meanwhile, divisions within FIFA are beginning to emerge over the timing of the 2022 World Cup to be played in Qatar. Qatari, Mohammed Bin Hammam, who is FIFA executive committee member and president of the Asian Football Confederation, has ruled out moving the competition from summer to winter or sharing matches around the Gulf region, as has been proposed. Sepp Blatter said last week that he expects the 2022 World Cup to be held in January or the end of the year, rather than the traditional months of June and July, in a bid to combat summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius in the Middle East country.
OTHER NEWS
=> With money coming in from two contending sponsors for cycling events, the Cycling Federation of India is now free to pursue its plans of spreading the cycling passion across the country. Sports Management company, ID Sports, and sports broadcasting company, Sport 18, are vying with each other for the financial control of the sport, CFI has made it known to both its pay and use the events, six on all, both national and international, over the next one year. Leveraging its clout, ID Sports has bagged most of the international cycling events in the country from the UCI, and the tussle is on for bagging the national events.
=> The row over tenure and age of sports leaders in India could result in a ban on Indian teams competing in Olympic and other sporting events, warned the International Olympic Committee. The IOC had believed that it reached an agreement with the Indian government last year where it would respect the autonomy of the Indian Olympic Association and the national federations which it governs. However, the government has continued to press for the restrictions.
=> The FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 will feature a record 512 women’s matches played, more than half of which were qualifiers for the World Cup this summer. The men’s teams of 185 of FIFA’s 208 member associations played at least one international 'A' match, while 141 women’s teams also made at least one appearance – another new record. Kuwait played the most men’s matches last year (23), while China PR were the most active women’s team (22). The average number of matches per team in the men’s game (8.7) was much lower than in the previous year, while in the women’s game it had gone up slightly (7.3). The men's record number of games is 1,065 matches in 2008 and the same year saw the previous women's record of 364 games. In 2009, the women played 304 matches and the men 850.
DATA HEAD
Pay-TV Revenues Boosts 2010 World TV Market
After stagnation in 2009, the world TV market rebounded in 2010 with a sustained annual growth of 7.1%. Idate’s “World TV Markets” report measured global market reaching € 289.2 billion compared with 2009. Idate points out that until 2008, advertising revenue generated 47% of the sector's total, compared to 44% for paid TV and 9.4% for public funding. But in 2009, the financial crisis made the situation reverse.
The global TV market’s growth was due a rise in pay-TV revenue (+8.4%), with ad revenue rising at a slower rate (+5.8%). In 2010, paid television accounted for 48% and 43% for advertising. Public financing did rise by 6.9% in 2010 but still accounts for less than 10% of the global television market’s income. In the years to come, Idate predicts this trend will become more pronounced and estimates that paid television should generate more than 49% of revenue of the worldwide television market by 2014 with global revenues reaching €355 billon.
Geographical breakdown shows the US remains the largest TV market in the world with a turnover of €103 billion in 2010, rising 4.5% in a year after posting a slight dip (-0.7%) in 2009. The North American region’s share of the global market inched back to 37% in 2010 compared to 38% in 2009. Europe comes as the second largest regional market, with a turnover of €84.4 billion in 2010, a rise of 6.6% compared to 2009. The United Kingdom, Germany and France are the heavyweights in the region and together represent more than half (56%) of the region's revenue. Europe’s share of the global market stagnated at 29%.
Asia/Pacific recorded a great growth in its TV market of 9.1% in 2010, while its share of the global market rose by 0.4 points to 22.3%. Heavyweights are Japan (+ 3.9 %), India (+13,3 %) and China (+12,2%). Latin America displayed a good level of growth in its TV market, with an increase of 12.8%. The smallest regional market, Africa/Middle East displayed the greatest growth in its TV market, with an increase of 16.9% compared to 2009. Its share of the global market is increasing to 3.6% in 2010, compared to 3.3% in 2009.